Experimental investigations on biodiesel fuelled CI engine with nano fuel additive

Abstract

The main aim of the present work is to investigate the effect of nano fuel additives (say copper nanoparticles) on Calophyllum inophyllum biodiesel which is a non-edible feedstock in direct injection CI engine. The extracted Calophyllum inophyllum oil was not directly used into diesel engine because of its high FFA (Free Fatty Acid) 18% and high viscosity 38 cSt (centistokes). So, two-stage esterification (acid and alkaline esterification) was adopted here to reduce the FFA and viscosity. The FFA and viscosity after second stage was 1.12% and 4.21cSt respectively. The ester obtained after two stages was called Calophyllum inophyllum biodiesel which could be used as fuel for CI engine which had The properties of biodiesel were measured as per ASTM D6751 standards and their values were nearly the same to that of diesel. Electrochemical method was used for synthesising copper nanoparticles at lower cost and at faster rate under normal ambient conditions. The morphology and size of Cu nanoparticles thus synthesised by electrochemical method was mainly influenced by their process parameters includes electrode distance, concentration of copper sulphate (CuSO4) and electrode potential difference. Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize these process parameters. After going through the results of analysis of variance (ANOVA), mathematical equation was formed and optimized parameters for synthesising Cu nanoparticles were determined. The results endorsed the average size of nanoparticle as 20 nm and nanoparticles obtained were copper at the optimum condition and were hexagonal in shape. newline