Alternate source of fuel '' bio-diesel'' tallow based / vegetable based

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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DECLARATION

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTii

DECLARATIONiii

CHAPTER #1: INTRODUCTION5

Background of the Study5

Objective of the Study6

Research Questions7

Significance of the Study7

CHAPTER # 2: LITERATURE REVIEW9

Research on Vegetable Oil Fuels9

Alternative Sources10

Vegetable Oil as Fuel11

Engine Performance12

Performance of Crude Vegetable Oils13

Performance of Vegetable Oil Blends15

Structural Composition and its Significance17

Combustion reaction pathways18

Role of acetylene in soot formation18

Fuel and oxidizer supply19

Performance of Preheated Vegetable Oils19

Summary20

REFERENCES22

CHAPTER #1: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

In recent years bio-diesels have attracted a considerable interest for a various number of reasons such as renewability and reduced emissions. However the history of their usage goes back by nearly a hundred years. Rudolph Diesel used peanut oil to power his prototype diesel engine in 1893 and envisioned that "the use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today, but such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal-tar products of the present time". Over the years, however, petroleum-based fuels captured the market as they were readily available and much cheaper to produce. The oil crisis of the 1970s provided a turnaround of sorts by forcing policy-makers to look at alternative fuels, the most prominent among which are ethanol (which is typically blended with gasoline) and bio-diesel.

Bio-diesel is a fuel derived from vegetable oil or animal fats and is composed of mono-alkyl esters of long chain fatty acids. It can be used, as a pure fuel or as a blend with petro-diesel, in compression ignition (diesel) engines without major modifications and can be transported and sold using the existing infrastructure.

Apart from being renewable, bio-diesels are advantageous because they have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions considerably. "Over the life cycle from growing oilseeds or rendering animal waste to its manufacture and use pure bio-diesel produces 64 to 92 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions compared with petroleum diesel depending on what oil or fat is used to make".

In the past, oxygenated additives such as alcohols, ethers and carbonates have been shown to reduce soot, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions from diesel engines. Bio-diesels are oxygenated compounds. Engine combustion studies have shown that the addition of 20% biodiesel to standard diesel fuel can reduce particulate (smoke) emissions by 10%, hydrocarbon emissions by 21% and CO emissions by 11%, while NOx emissions increased by 2% and fuel consumption increased by 1-2%. Curran et al. carried out chemical kinetic modelling studies of diesel blended with oxygenated fuels, which indicated that blends containing 20% bio-diesel reduces the formation of soot precursors by ...