Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Comparative Performance Analysis of Marula comparable to that of conventional diesel fuel while reducing
engine emissions of particulates, hydrocarbons and carbon
Oil and Petrodiesel fuels on a Variable monoxide [1]. Other advantages include reduced emission of
Compression Ratio Engine carbon monoxide, particulate matter and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons; physical and chemical properties that are very
similar to those of petroleum based diesel fuel in terms of
Jerekias Gandure, Clever Ketlogetswe operation in compression ignition engines (diesel engines);
biodegradability; non-toxic and essentially free of sulphur and
Department of Mechanical Engineering
aromatics, making it safer to handle and transport; ability to
University of Botswana
run in any conventional, unmodified diesel engine; improved
Gaborone, Botswana
lubricity and high cetane number. The best advantage is the
gandurej@mopipi.ub.bw, ketloget@mopipi.ub.bw fact that biodiesel is a renewable fuel source, while petroleum
fuel is limited. This alone will be the reason for its ever
increasing popularity. Biodiesel, however, has its disadvantage
Abstract - The quest for biofuel production and use in and these include lower energy content, Engine operation
Botswana is driven by factors including volatile oil prices,
need for fuel security, potential for job creation, potential
problems such as fuel filter plugging, injector coking (carbon
reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and economic deposits), piston ring sticking and breaking, and severe engine
diversification. In line with national efforts to come up with lubricant degradation. Biodiesel can be produced from any
energy sources that are both environmentally friendly and material that contains fatty acids, be they bonded to other
sustainable, this work was carried out to compare molecules or present as free fatty acids. As a result various
performance properties of native marula seed oil and vegetable fats and oils, animal fats, waste greases, and edible
petrodiesel fuels on a variable compression engine test rig with oil processing wastes can be used as feedstocks for biodiesel
automatic data acquisition set up. Parameters such as engine production. The choice of feedstock is based on such variables
torque, brake power and specific fuel consumption were as local availability, cost, government support and performance
measured at different loads for the two fuels. The results
indicated that engine performance when powered with marula
as a fuel [2].
oil as fuel was very close to that when powered with
petrodiesel. The engine performance was also analysed for This work sought to establish performance properties of
same parameters of engine torque, brake power and specific marula oil as a potential feedstock for biodiesel production
fuel consumption when powered by the same two fuels over in Botswana. The results are expected to provide indicators
varying compression ratios at a fixed load of 80%. The results which can be used to stimulate rapid development of
indicated that compression ratio of 16:1 yields optimum
biodiesel using indigenous feedstocks in Botswana. Marula
performance in terms of engine torque and brake power for
both petrodiesel and marula oil fuels; marula oil fuel has a
tree is indigenous to most parts of the Southern African
smooth rising performance profile across all compression Development Community. In Botswana, for example, it is
ratios which out-performs petrodiesel on lower compression widely distributed all over the country, but it is
ratios for engine torque and brake power, and is largely better concentrated in the north eastern part of the country.The
than petrodiesel on fuel consumption. tree grows in warm and dry climatic conditions, and
produce oval fruits that turn pale yellow when ripe.
Key words: Performance, marula oil, petrodiesel
1. Introduction
The fruit consists of a hard woody seed covered by pulp 680C to remove water. The fuel was then used to power a
and juice which makes the fleshy part of the fruit.The hard variable compression ignition engine to test the engine
seed contains mostly two oil rich nuts (kernel) which can be performance prior to transesterification. The results were
eaten as a snack. The kernel oil is currently being used to compared with the results for petroleum diesel under
make cosmetic ointments. The fact that the marula tree similar conditions on the basis of engine torque, engine
grows in drier parts where common oil seeds cannot thrive brake power, and specific fuel consumption for
has stirred interest in it as a valuable source of oil. This has compression ratio 16:1. The experimental data were
led to the evaluation of marula nut oil as a potential source collected as discussed in section 2.2, leading to the results
of vegetable oil for biodiesel production. In evaluating the presented in figures 2 to 4.
potential of oil for use, the fatty acid profile plays an
important role. Oil with a high content of oleic acid makes
ideal frying oil because of the stability offered by the acid
[3]. Engine Torque (Nm)
2. Materials and methods 30
The marula oil for the current study was purchased from 10
B100
Kgetsi Ya Tsie, a Community Trust promoting the 0 D100
economic and social empowerment of rural women in the
Tswapong Hills of Eastern Botswana, who extracts marula 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
oil mostly for cosmetic markets in Europe and America. Load (%)
2.2 Engine performance analysis
Legend: B100 = Marula oil fuel; D100 = Petrodiesel
The engine performance test was conducted on a TD43F
engine test rig. The test rig is water cooled, four-stroke Figure 2: Engine torque profile for marula oil and
diesel engine that is directly coupled to an electrical petroleum diesel fuel.
dynamometer. In addition to the conventional engine
design, the engine incorporates variable compression design
feature which allows the compression ratio to be varied
from 5:1 to 18:1.
Brake Power (W)
To establish that engine operating conditions were 8
Brake Power (W)
4. Conclusions