A comparative evaluation of compression ignition engine characteristics using methyl and ethyl esters of Karanja oil

B. Baiju, M.K. Naik and L.M. Das

Renewable Energy, 2009, vol. 34, issue 6, 1616-1621

Abstract: This paper investigates the scope of utilizing biodiesel developed from both through the methyl as well as ethyl alcohol route (methyl and ethyl ester) from Karanja oil as an alternative diesel fuel. The major problem of using neat Karanja oil as a fuel in a compression ignition engine arises due to its very high viscosity. Transesterification with alcohols reduces the viscosity of the oil and other properties have been evaluated to be comparable with those of diesel. In the present work, methyl and ethyl esters of Karanja oil were prepared by transesterification using both methanol and ethanol. The physical and chemical properties of ethyl esters were comparable with that of methyl esters. However, viscosity of ethyl esters was slightly higher than that of methyl esters. Cold flow properties of ethyl esters were better than those of methyl esters. Performance and exhaust emission characteristics of the engine were determined using petrodiesel as the baseline fuel and several blends of diesel and biodiesel as test fuels. Results show that methyl esters produced slightly higher power than ethyl esters. Exhaust emissions of both esters were almost identical. These studies show that both methyl and ethyl esters of Karanja oil can be used as a fuel in compression ignition engine without any engine modification.

Keywords: Biodiesel; Methyl ester; Ethyl ester; Emissions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (36)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096014810800428X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:34:y:2009:i:6:p:1616-1621

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2008.11.020

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().