Literature review Background: To minimize the fuel consumption, waste engine oil can be blended with petroleum diesel

to run compression ignition engines. To understand the processes to obtain a biodiesel that will give good engine performance and reduce emission, a research need to be done on existing experiment carried out on biofuel.

Literature: During my research work, I have conducted the journals from the science direct and highlighted the informations that are of importance for me and are listed as follows.

Findings: Due to the poor physical properties (high viscosity, high pour point) of vegetable oils and animal fats, these fuels are unsuited to be used in diesel engines. However, these can be improved by transesterification process.

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) defines biodiesel fuel as monoalkyl esters of long fatty acids derived from a renewable lipid feedstock, such as vegetable oil or animal fat.

The difference between used and unused vegetable oil is very minimal and the oil is made appropriate for transesterifacation process, just by simple heating and removal of solid particles by filtration.

Disadvantages of biodiesel compare to petrodiesel is cold starting problems, lower energy content and pumping difficulty due to high viscosity. Thus, imposing the use of biodieseldiesel fuel mixtures in order to fuel diesel engines.

A proportion of 25% methyl ester in diesel fuel does not affect the engines performance and efficiency and any change in the fueling system need not to be change.

The fuel injection characteristics have a significant impact on the engine performance and emission.

It was found that due to lower injection rate and higher injection duration, the combustion pressure were low when a mixture of 50% methyl ester + 50% diesel fuel blend was used.

Biodiesel is produced by chemical reaction from vegetable oil, waste frying oils and animal fat with an alcohol such as methanol.

Waste frying oil methyl ester was used as an alternative for diesel engine fuel to operate a turbocharged direct injection diesel engine. The emission value were decreased as 17.14% CO, 1.45% NOx, whereas smoke intensity was increased in average 22.46% and the exhaust temperatures has decrease on average by 6.5% compare to diesel fuel.

Preheated crude sunflower oil (PCSO) was tested for combustion and emission properties against petroleum based diesel fuel in an indirect injection engine. o It was noted that the ignition delay for PSCO was longer and the start of ignition timing was longer than that for the petroleum based diesel fuel. o There was a decrease of 2.05% in CO2 emission and 4.66% in smoke opacity when PSCO was used. o There was also a significant improvement of 34% in the emission of unburned hydrocarbon emission when PSCO was used.

Generally, biodiesel either neat or blends with petroleum diesel, produce lower emissions of unburned hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM), and overall life cycle carbon dioxide (CO2). However, Fontaras [1] and coworkers found that there is an increase in CO, HC, and PM emissions when tested neat soy-based biodiesel and a 50% blend with diesel fuel in a Euro 2 passenger car over the NEDC. The increases for the 50% blend over the cold phase of the NEDC were in the order of 49%, 36%, and 31% for HC, CO, and PM 2

emissions, respectively, whereas for the neat biodiesel the increases were 88%, 70%, and 188%, respectively.

The New European Driving Cycle is a driving cycle consisting of four repeated ECE-15 driving cycles and an Extra-Urban driving cycle (EUDC). The NEDC is supposed to represent the typical usage of a car in Europe, and is used, among other things, to assess the emission levels of car engines. [2]

Oils/fats are basically triglycerides which are composed of three long-chain fatty acids. These oils/triglycerides have higher viscosity and is therefore cannot be used as fuel. In order to reduce viscosity, triglycerides are converted into esters by transesterification reaction.

Biodiesel offers advantages regarding the engine wear, cost, and availability. When burned, biodiesel produces pollutants that are less detrimental to human health and provides better lubricity as compared to that of diesel fuel.

But, due to its unsaturated molecules and compositional effects, it is more oxidative and causes enhanced corrosion and material degradation.

Geller et al. [3] found that copper alloys were more prone to corrode in biodiesel as compared with ferrous alloys.

Combustion of biodiesel fuel in compression-ignition (CI) engines in general results in lower smoke, particulate matter, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions compared to diesel combustion while the engine efficiency is either unaffected or improved. However, these are influenced by a number of factors including lower heating value, increased viscosity, higher density, less calorific value, oxygen content, auto-oxidation of biodiesel.

Different blending components are added in the biodiesel to minimize the adverse effect mentioned above. Methanol is added to improve viscosity, ethanol to reduce fuel consumption, additives to reduce oxidations, etc.

The Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission can be reduced by improving the biodiesel properties, adjusting engine setting by emulsified water, emulsified methanol and ethanol, etc. However, it has noted that most of these methods also lead to deterioration in engine performance as well as degradation of automotive components.

Masjuki and Maleque [4] have investigated the anti-wear characteristics of palm oil methyl ester (0%, 3%, 5%, 7%, 10%) in lubricant and observed that 5% POME can provide better lubricity whereas, lubricant containing more than 5% POME causes higher wears damage due to oxidation and corrosion.

The majority of studies have found sharp reductions in exhaust emissions with biodiesel as compared to diesel fuel. The more accepted reasons in reduction of emissions particularly CO, CO2, hydrocarbons, SO2, particulates, smoke can be attributed to presence of sufficient oxygen in biodiesel.

Biodiesel contain 10% oxygen while diesel has no oxygen content. Increased amount of oxygen in fuel-rich combustion zone is believed to ensure more complete combustion and thereby reduces exhaust emissions.

A durability test was performed by the National Biodiesel Board(NBB) for 1000 h duration on 1987 Cummins NI4 engine by B20 (soybean methyl ester).However, this test had to be terminated at 650 h due to failure of the engine pump, a part of the fuel system. This failure was caused by build-up in the pump of a residue composed of fatty acid esters, free fatty acids, and acid salts. The same residue had plugged a fuel filter and the pump earlier in the durability test while the fuel injectors were in good condition at the end of the test. 4

Filter plugging problem in biodiesel-fueled engine becomes more severe in cold weather. At low temperatures, wax crystals begin to form in diesel fuel and with further decreasing in temperature, the wax crystals will increase and can ultimately clog fuel filters and injectors and will finally gel and cease flowing.

The temperature at which diesel fuel begins to crystallize is called the cloud point. According to Benjumea et al. [5] petroleum diesel has a cloud point of around 5 C whereas B20 and B100 (palm oil based) have cloud points of about 0 and 18 C, repectively.

The biodiesel fuels derived from fats or oils with significant amounts of saturated fatty compounds will display higher cloud points and pour points.

Ethanol blended biodiesel is totally a renewable, viable alternative fuel for improved cold flow behavior and better emission characteristics without affecting the engine performance.

Analysis of the characteristics of cold flow performance indicate that the reduction in cloud point of Mahua Methyl Ester (MME) was from 291 K to 281 K when blended with 20% of ethanol and 278 K when blended with 20% of kerosene.

The smoke emissions were reduced with the oxygenated fuels and were decreased most with 20% ethanol blended biodiesel. Adding oxygenates to diesel fuel had a remarkable effect on the reduction of smoke emission, especially at high load.

Biodiesel reduces net carbon dioxide emissions by 78% on a life-cycle basis when compared to conventional diesel fuel. It has also been shown to have dramatic improvements on engine exhaust emissions. For instance, combustion of neat biodiesel decreases carbon monoxide (CO) emissions by 46.7%, particulate matter emissions by 66.7% and unburned hydrocarbons by 45.2%. 5

At present several countries such as Brazil, United States, Germany, Australia, Italy and Austria are already using bio-ethanol or blended/diesel and biodiesel. Other countries such as Malaysia use blend fuel (5% palm oil, 95% regular diesel).

There are different methods of biodiesel production and application such as direct use and blending, microemulsions, thermal cracking (Pyrolysis) of vegetable oil and transesterification.

The most common method of biodiesel production is transesterification (alcoholysis) of oil (triglycerides) with methanol in the presence of a catalyst which gives biodiesel (fatty acid methyl esters, FAME) and glycerol (by-product). The selection of catalyst depends on the amount of free fatty acid (FFA) present in the oil.

The results obtained when an experiment was carried out on a 2 cylinder diesel engine using blends of waste vegetable oil methyl ester with diesel fuel revealed better engine performance and improved emission characteristics.

During the experiment it was noted that the brake specific fuel consumption of fuel blends trends is very similar to net diesel fuel. Brake specific fuel consumption of fuel blends is higher than net diesel fuel. In other words, increasing fuel blend percentage, a mild increase in brake specific fuel consumption is observed.

References: Rosca Radu, Crlescu Petru, Rakosi Edward, Manolache Gheorghe, 2099. Fueling an D.I. agricultural diesel engine with waste oil biodiesel: Effects over injection, combustion and engine characteristics [online], Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196890409001630 August 2011] [Accessed 24

Zafer Utlua, Mevlt Sreyya Koc-akb, 2007. The effect of biodiesel fuel obtained from waste frying oil on direct injection diesel engine performance and exhaust emissions [online], Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148107003187 August 2011] [Accessed 24

Mustafa Canakcia, Ahmet Necati Ozsezena, Ali Turkcana, 2088. Combustion analysis of preheated crude sunflower oil in an IDI diesel engine [online], Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0961953408002456 [Accessed on 24 August 2011]

M.A. Fazal, A.S.M.A. Haseeb, H.H. Masjuki, 2010. Biodiesel feasibility study: An evaluation of material compatibility; performance; emission and engine durability [online], Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032110003448 [Accessed on 24 August 2011]

Georgios Karavalakis, Evangelos Bakeas, Georgios Fontaras, Stamos Stournas, 2011.Effect of biodiesel origin on regulated and particle-bound PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon) emissions from a Euro 4 passenger car [online], Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544211004270 [Accessed on 24 August 2011]

Purnanand Vishwanathrao Bhale, Nishikant V. Deshpande, Shashikant B. Thombre, 2008. Improving the low temperature properties of biodiesel fuel [online], Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148108001651 [Accessed on 24 August 2011]

Z. Helwani, M.R. Othman, N. Aziz, W.J.N. Fernando, J. Kim, 2009. Technologies for production of biodiesel focusing on green catalytic techniques: A review [online], Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378382009002148 [Accessed on 24 August 2011]

B. Ghobadian, H. Rahimi, A.M. Nikbakht, G. Najafi, T.F. Yusaf, 2008. Diesel engine performance and exhaust emission analysis using waste cooking biodiesel fuel with an artificial neural network [online], Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148108003108 [Accessed on 24 August 2011]

[1] Fontaras G, Karavalakis G, Kousoulidou M, Tzamkiozis T, Ntziachristos L, Bakeas E, et al. Effects of biodiesel on passenger car fuel consumption, regulated and non-regulated pollutant emissions over legislated and real-world driving cycles. Fuel 2009;88:1608e17.

[2] Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, New European Driving Cycle [online]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_European_Driving_Cycle [Accessed 28 August 2011]

[3] Geller DP, Adams TT, Goodrum JW, Pendergrass J. Storage stability of poultry fat and diesel fuel mixtures: specific gravity and viscosity. Fuel 2008;87:92102.

[4] Masjuki HH, Maleque MA. The effect of palm oil diesel fuel contaminated lubricant on sliding wear of cast irons against mild steel. Wear 1996;198:2939.

[5] Benjumea P, Agudelo J, Agudelo A. Basic properties of palm oil biodiesel-dieselblends. Fuel 2008;87:206975.