Abstract

Vegetable oil causes problem when used as fuel in compression ignition engines. This problem is due to high viscosity and low volatility of vegetable oils, which can be minimized by the process of trans-esterification. The relatively high cost of refined vegetable oils render the resulting fuels unable to compete with petroleum derived fuel. To reduce the cost of biodiesel a relatively low cost palm fatty acid which is the by- product of palm oil refinery was chosen as feed stock. A two step acid catalyzed methanolysis process is employed for efficient conversion of palm fatty acid into palm fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). The conversion of palm fatty acid into palm FAME was done on pilot plant. This paper presents the results of performance of compression ignition engine fueled with different blends of high speed diesel with biodiesel obtained from conversion of palm fatty acid. Parameters like torque, brake specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency were calculated at different loads for pure diesel and different combinations of dual fuel. The results indicate that, in case of palm fatty acid biodiesel, the dual fuel combination of B40 can be used in the diesel engines without making any engine modifications.

Key words: Trans-esterification, methanolysis, palm fatty acid, fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), compression ignition engine, triglyceride (TG).