Sunflower Oil Report

Introduction

In this century, it is believed that crude oil and petroleum products will become very scarce and costly. Day-to-day, fuel economy of engines is getting improved and will continue to improve. However, enormous increase in number of vehicles has started dictating the demand for fuel. Gasoline and diesel will become scarce and most costly in the near future. With increased use and the depletion of fossil fuels, alternative fuel technology will become more common in the coming decades.

All these years there have always been some IC engines fuelled with non-gasoline or diesel oil fuels. However, their numbers have been relatively very small.  Because of the high cost of petroleum products, some developing countries are trying to use alternate fuels for their vehicles.

Another reason motivating the development of alternate fuels for the IC engine is the concern over the emission problems of gasoline and diesel engines. Combined with other air-polluting systems, the large number of automobiles is a major contributor to the air quality problem of the world. Quite a lot of improvements have been made in reducing emissions from automobile engines. If a 35% improvement made over a period of years, it is to be noted that during the same time the number of automobiles in the world increased by 40%, thereby nullifying the improvement.  Lot of efforts has gone into for achieving the net improvement in cleaning up automobile exhaust. However, more improvements are needed to bring down the ever-increasing air pollution due to automobile population.

A third reason for alternate fuel development is the fact that a large percentage of crude oil must be imported from other countries which control the larger oil fields.  As of now many alternate fuels have been used in limited quantities in automobiles. Quite often, fleet vehicles have been used for testing (e.g., taxies, delivery vans, utility company trucks).  This paves way for comparison with similar gasoline-fuelled vehicles, and simplifies fuelling of these vehicles.

The engines used for alternate fuels are modified engines which were originally designed for gasoline fuelling.  They are, therefore, not the optimum design for the other fuels.  Only when extensive research and development is done over a period of years, maximum performance and efficiency can be realized from these engines.  However, the research and development is difficult to justify until the fuels are accepted as viable for large numbers of engines.

Some diesel engines have started appearing on the market.  They use methanol or natural gas and a small amount of diesel fuel that is injected at the proper time to ignite both fuels.  Most alternate fuels are very costly at present since the quantity used is very less. Many of these fuels will cost much less if the amount of their usage gets to the same order of magnitude as gasoline.  The cost of manufacturing, distribution, and marketing would be less.

Another problem with alternate fuels is the lack of distribution points (service stations) where the fuel is available to the public. The public will be reluctant to purchase an automobile unless there is a large-scale network of service stations available where fuel for that automobile can be purchased.  On the other hand, it is difficult to justify building a network of these service stations until there are enough automobiles to make them profitable

CHAPTER 2

Literature Review

P.K.Devan, N.V.Mahalakshmi (2008), “A study of the performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a compression ignition engine using methyl ester of paradise oil-eucalyptus oil blends” studied the necessity of alternative fuel and studied exhaust emissions of much concern are Hydrocarbon (HC), Carbon monoxide (CO) and Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) from the internal combustion engine and also improving the Brake thermal efficiency. In the present investigation a methyl ester derived from paradise oil is considered as an ignition improver.  The results shows a 49% reduction in smoke, 34.5% reduction in HC emissions and a 37% reduction in CO emissions for the Me50-Eu50 blend with a 2.7% increase in NOx emissions at full load.  There was a 2.4% increase in brake thermal efficiency for the Me50-Eu50 blend at full load.  The combustion characteristics of Me50-Eu50 blend are comparable with those of diesel.

Murrari Mohon Roy, Wilson Wang, Justin Bujold (2012), “Biodiesel production and comparison of emissions of a DI diesel engine fuelled by biodiesel-diesel and canola oil-diesel blends at high idling operations” studied exhaust emissions of much concern are Hydrocarbon (HC), Carbon monoxide (CO) and Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) from the automotive engine. Three fuel series are examined: pure canola biodiesel, used canola biodiesel and pure canola oil series.  In all the series, fuels are blended with petroleum diesel 2–20 vol.%. Engine performance is examined by measuring brake specific fuel consumption and fuel conversion efficiency. The emission of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon dioxide (CO2) and others are measured. Pure and used canola biodiesel blends show very similar fuel properties, engine performance and emissions. CO and HC emissions from biodiesel–diesel blends are significantly less than neat diesel fuel. Even pure canola oil up to 5% in diesel fuel can show significantly less CO emissions than that of diesel fuel. Up to 5% biodiesel and canola oil in diesel fuel, NOx emissions either can reduce or maintain similar level to that of diesel fuel.

Oguntola J ALAMU, Opeoluwa DEHINBO Adedoyin M SULAIMAN

(2010), “Production and Testing of Sunflower oil Biodiesel Fuel and its Blend” Test

quantities of sunflower oil biodiesel were produced through transesterification reaction using 100g sunflower oil, 20.0% ethanol (wt% sunflower oil), 0.8% potassium hydroxide catalyst at 65°C reaction temperature and 120 min. reaction time. The experiment was carried out three times and average results evaluated. Low yield of the biodiesel (10.4%) was obtained. The sunflower oil biodiesel produced was subsequently blended with petroleum diesel and characterized as alternative diesel fuel through some ASTM standard fuel tests. The products were further evaluated by comparing specific gravity and viscosity of the biodiesel blend, the raw sunflower oil and conventional petroleum diesel.

Md A. Hossain, Shabab M. Chowdhury, Yamin Rekhu, Khandakar S. Faraz, Monzur Ul Islam (2012), “Biodiesel from Sunflower oil: A Renewable Alternative Fuel for Diesel Engine” This article shows the prospect of sunflower oil as a renewable and alternative fuel of diesel fuel. Since diesel engine has a versatile uses including small electricity generation, an experimental set up is then made to study the performance of a small diesel engine using different blends of bio diesel converted from sunflower oil. It is found that bio diesel has slightly different properties than diesel. With biodiesel the engine is capable of running without difficulty. Different blends of bio diesel (i.e. B80, B60, and B 50 etc.) have

been used to avoid complicated modification of the engine or the fuel supply system. Finally, a comparison of engine performance for different blends of biodiesel has been carried out to determine the optimum blend for different operating conditions.

Pranil Singh, Jagjit Khurma, Anirudh Singh (2010), “Sunflower oil Based Hybrid Fuels as Alternative Fuel for Diesel Engines” The experimental results show that the engine efficiency of the hybrid fuels is comparable to that of diesel. As the percentage of ethanol and/or octan-1-ol increased, the viscosity of the hybrid fuels decreased and the engine efficiency increased. The exhaust emissions were lower than those for diesel, except carbon monoxide, which increased.  Hence, it is concluded that these hybrid fuels can be used successfully as an alternative fuel in diesel engines without any modifications. Their completely renewable nature ensures that they are environmentally friendly.