Investigation and Study of Ammonium Hydroxide and Biodiesel Blend as an IC Engine Fuel

Abstract

The use of conventional fossil fuel has resulted in global warming. Biodiesel is a substitute fuel obtained from vegetable oil by transesterification process which can replace conventional diesel. Good alternative to traditional hydrocarbon-based fuel is ammonia combined with a biofuel. Ammonia is free of Carbon and can be extracted from sustainable renewable energy sources. It can be used with slight modifications on current IC engines. However running the engine on pure ammonia poses a lot of challenges which needs to be tackled. Running the engine on Biodiesel results in slightly more NOx emission, compared with traditional fuel. In the present study an experimentation has been carried out to examine the effect of biodiesel and ammonium hydroxide blend on ICE performance, emission and combustion aspects, in terms of specific fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency, Nitrogen oxides (NOx) and Hydrocarbon (HC), Carbon monoxide (CO) and Carbon dioxide emissions. Biodiesel blends are examined using a single cylinder four stroke Kirloskar ICE. Experiments have been performed with varying percentages of ammonium hydroxide (3%, 6%, 9%) and B50 (50% diesel and 50% Karanja biodiesel) blended with Diesel and then compared with base line conventional diesel. This paper will help in understanding how percentage variation in ammonium hydroxide and biodiesel blend will effect emission and performance.