April 16, 2009
School of Engineering, Bangalore
Three faculty members from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Bangalore recently participated in the National Conference on Trends and Developments in Renewable Energy Sources organized at Hosur in Karnataka. Their research paper titled Comparison of Performance and Emissions from Diesel Fuel and its Blends in C.I. Engines won the best paper award. Several bio-diesel blends were evaluated such as those with oils like soyabean, sunflower, honne, esterified cotton seed, esterified karanji and cotton seed. The oils were blended with diesel up to 30% by mass. Tests were conducted on a computerized C.I. Engine.
“We all know that the increasing industrialization and motorization of the world has caused a steep rise in the demand for petroleum products,” stated Vinod Kotebavi, who led the study. Together with his colleagues, Phanibhushana and Ravi Kumar, Mr. Kotebavi found that an engine could run smoothly without any modification with 30% of vegetable oil and bio-diesel blends. “The performance and fuel consumption was nearly the same,” he added. There are limited reserves of petroleum-based fuels; in addition, their combustion in vehicular engines is a major source of environmental pollution.
The team also made another important finding. “With blends of higher percentages of soyabean oil, sunflower oil, esterified karanji oil and esterified cottonseed oil with the exception of honne oil, the smoke density was recorded to be less when compared with pure diesel,” shared Mr. Ravi Kumar.
The alternate fuels proposed are not only abundant but also the environmental pollution caused by them is less,” said Mr. Phanibhushana. The conference was sponsored by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India and conducted on February 26th and 27th, 2009.
Paper Details
Vinod Kotebavi, Ravi Kumar V, Phanibhushana M V, Comparison of Performance and Emissions from Diesel Fuel and its Blends in CI Engine, TDRES-09, ACE College, Hosur, February 26-27, 2009.
