Comparative analysis of various techniques to improve the performance of novel wheat germ oil – an experimental study. (19th February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Edwin Geo, V.; Prabhu, C.; Thiyagarajan, S.; Maiyalagan, T.; Aloui, Fethi
• Is Part Of: International journal of hydrogen energy. Volume 45:Number 9(2020)
• Page Start: 5745
• Page End: 5756
• Publication Date: 2020-02-19
• Subjects: Wheat germ oil -- Fuel ionization -- Transesterification -- Hydrogen induction -- NO emission -- Performance improvement; Hydrogen as fuel -- Periodicals; Hydrogène (Combustible) -- Périodiques; Hydrogen as fuel; Periodicals; 665.81
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.05.198
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0360-3199

Abstract

Abstract: The current study aims to explore the opportunities of using the high viscous biofuel namely Wheat Germ oil (WGO) in a twin cylinder CI engine. High viscous fuels suffer from improper atomization leading to poor combustion and higher smoke emission. To address this problem, various techniques namely transesterification, fuel ionization and hydrogen induction were studied. WGO was converted to its ester which reduced the viscosity. Fuel ionization increases the vibrational frequency of the molecules, weakens the bonds and converted to ions, which increases the dispersion rate during injection and improves the combustion subsequently. Hydrogen is having faster flame speed and higher calorific value aids in combustion enhancement at its knock limited levels. The twin cylinder tractor engine selected for this experiment runs at a constant speed of 1500 rpm. The engine was run using diesel to achieve the preferred warm-up condition in order to use WGO, which hada cold starting problem. Tests were conducted with wheat germ biodiesel (WGBD), WGO with permanent magnet (PM), electromagnet (EM) and the combination of PM and EM-based fuel ionization system and finally WGO with hydrogen induction rates of 2%, 4.3%, 6.7% and 10.3% at maximum engine load condition. It is observed that all the techniques improved the performance of WGO. Among the techniques tested, hydrogen induction displayed better results in terms of performance and emission characteristics with a slight penalty in NO emission. Highlights: The followings are the main highlights of the present work. Novel Wheat germ oil identified as potential fuel for CI engine. Various techniques namely transesterification, fuel ionization and hydrogen induction were adopted. Improvement in engine characteristics was observed with all the techniques. Hydrogen induction was better in terms of performance and emission characteristics with NOx emission penalty.