Effects of Palm Biodiesel Blends on Fuel Consumption in Fire Tube Boiler

Abstract

Biodiesel application in boiler is basicly potential due to the combustion system tends to be simpler than compression ignition as performed in diesel engine. The various tests on combustion facilities showed that the use of biodiesel will increase the fuel consumption. This study was conducted in a fire tube boiler, with heat input rate of 60.000 kCal/hr and 3 bars of pressure, using palm biodiesel. A series of test shown that the combustion behavior in boiler was strongly possible influenced by some changes in physical properties of the fuel. The blends was varied in 10, 20, 30, 50 and 100% of biodiesel in mixture with petrodiesel. The fuel consumption was likely similar or slightly lower than petrodiesel when the fuel used in lower blends (less than 20%). In higher blends, the fuel consumption was increased up to 17%. The rate of consumption was relatively lower at average 9,4% in half load mode of the boiler operation rather than full load.