Studies on dual fuelling of ci engine using jack fruit seed biodiesel and acetylene gas with ceria nano additive

Abstract

India s primary energy demand is predicted to increase rapidly and will be around 1900 Million Tonnes of Oil Equivalent (MTOE) at the end of 2040. This rapid increase in primary energy requirement will be a major obstacle as it leads to faster depletion of fossil fuels, severe environmental concerns such as acid rain, emission of pollutants and greenhouse gases. These will pave way to global warming, national energy security issues and economic instability, as India imports majority of its crude oil (the second largest consuming energy source) requirement for transportation from abroad. Hence it is necessary to focus on environmental friendly alternative fuel for use in internal combustion engines. newlineUtilization of biodiesel blends with diesel and dual fuelling of gaseous fuels with diesel in Compression Ignition (CI) engines might be a tangible option to meet major energy requirements and mitigating environmental issues. Jack fruit tree, grown in southern India and Malaysian forests, are consumed for its pulp and the seeds are discarded as waste. It was decided to investigate the CI engine characteristics in dual fuel mode using biodiesel extracted from jack fruit seeds and acetylene gas. Doping of ceria nano-additive was also attempted towards analysing the performance, combustion and emission characteristics. newlineA 3.5 kW Kirloskar make, single cylinder, water-cooled, CI engine with an option to run on Dual Fuel (DF) mode adopting port injection technique and at Variable Compression Ratio (VCR) has been established for conducting experiments. Baseline experiments were conducted using diesel. Experimentation on CI engine in dual fuel mode (diesel + acetylene gas), adopting port injection of acetylene gas, at various acetylene flow rates (2, 4 and 6 lpm) have been performed and the acetylene gas flow rate for the optimal performance of CI newlineengine (6 lpm) has been arrived. Engine characteristics have also been established for the optimal acetylene flow rate of 6 lpm and at Variable Compression Ratio (VCR 16:1, 18:1