John Lawrence B.

Abarquez 8-Pasteur

Related Literature
Vegetable Oil, Diesel Blends as Potential Fuel Sources

Engelman et al. (1978) presented data for 10% to 50% soybean oil fuel blends used in diesel
engines. ( Vegetable oil fuel blends of varying percentages refer to fuels of which raw vegetable
oils have been mixed at the indicated percentage with #2 diesel on a volume basis.) The initial
results were encouraging. They reported at the conclusion of a 50-hour test that carbon build-up
in the combustion chamber was minimal. For the fuel blends studied, it was generally observed
that vegetable oils could be used as a fuel source in low concentrations. The BSFC and power
measurements for the fuel blends only differed slightly from 100% diesel fuel. Fuel blends
containing 60% or higher concentrations of vegetable oil caused the engine to sputter. Engine
sputtering was attributed to fuel filter plugging. They concluded that waste soybean oil could be
used as a diesel fuel extender with no engine modifications.

Studies in New Zealand by Sims et al. (1981) indicated that vegetable oils, particularly rapeseed
oil, could be used as a replacement for diesel fuel. Their initial short-term engine tests showed
that a 50% vegetable oil fuel blend had no adverse effects. While in long-term tests they
encountered injector pump failure and cold starting problems. Carbon deposits on combustion
chamber components was found to be approximately the same as that found in engines operated
on 100% diesel fuel. These researchers concluded that rapeseed oil had great potential as a fuel
substitute, but that further testing was required.

Caterpillar (Bartholomew, 1981) reported that vegetable oils mixed with diesel fuel in small
amounts did not cause engine failure. Short-term research showed that blends using 50/50 were
successful, but that 20% vegetable oil fuel blends were better.

Deere and Company (Barsic and Humke, 1981) studied the effects of mixing peanut oil and
sunflower oil with Number 2 diesel fuel in a single cylinder engine. The vegetable oil blends
were observed to increase the amount of carbon deposits on the combustion side of the injector
tip when compared with 100% diesel fuel. The vegetable oil fuel blends were found to have a
lower mass-based heating value than that of diesel fuel. Fuel filter plugging was noted to be a
problem when using crude vegetable oils as diesel fuel extenders.
John Lawrence B. Abarquez 8-Pasteur

International Harvester Company (Fort et al. 1982) reported that cottonseed oil, diesel fuel
blends behaved like petroleum-based fuels in short-term performance and emissions tests. The
experimental fuels performed reasonably well when standards of judgment were power, fuel
consumption, emissions, etc. However engine durability was an issue during extended use of
these fuel blends because of carbon deposits and fueling system problems.

Other research at International Harvest Company (Baranescu and Lusco, 1982) was done using
three blends of sunflower oil and diesel fuel. Results indicated that the sunflower oil caused
premature engine failure due to carbon buildup. It was noted that cold weather operation caused
fuel system malfunctions.

Worgetter (1981) analyzed the effects of using rapeseed oil as a fuel in a 43-kW tractor. The goal
of running the tractor for 1000 hours on a blend of 50% rapeseed oil and 50% diesel was never
achieved as the test was aborted at about 400-hours due to unfavorable operating conditions. The
use of rapeseed oil in the fuel resulted in heavy carbon deposits on the injector tips and pistons,
which would have caused catastrophic engine failure if the tests had not been aborted. Upon
engine tear down, it was found that the heavy carbon deposits on the pistons was the cause of the
noted power loss and not the fuel injectors.

Related Studies
Local

This Project adopts the concept of a Village-Scale Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) Bio-Fuel Plant.  

Processing capacity is 60 liters per hour (LPH) or 1,440 liters per day (LPD) assuming 24 hours
continuous operation.

Blended with 10% regular petro-diesel fuel, the end-product is a “clean and green” bio-fuel that
can be used directly as diesel engine fuel in stationary diesel engines and in most indirect
injection (IDI) diesel-fed automotive vehicles without any further blending with petro-diesel fuel
or any alteration of the fuel systems

b.    Purpose and Objectives

The project shall produce and profitably sell to consumers in the immediate community where it
is based, a vegetable oil-based alternative fuel to substitute up to 90% of petro-diesel
consumption of diesel engines, at adequate volumes and at the same price as petro-diesel fuel.

The ultimate purpose is to serve the country and the people by contributing to:
John Lawrence B. Abarquez 8-Pasteur

 the reduction of the operating cost of transport and other industries that will redound to
decreased costs of goods and services and improved purchasing power of the peso;
 a significant increase in the use of indigenous and renewable energy resources, thereby
reducing importation of petro-diesel fuel and improving the balance of payment situation;
and
 the shift to clean and green fuels leading to the improvement of over-all environmental
quality.

Foreign

The rising cost and limited availability of crude oil in international market has provided an
opportunity to look for substitute of fossil fuel. Scientists all over the world are experimenting
on variety of renewable fuels for meeting the future energy demands. Bio origin fuels are fast
becoming potential alternative resources to replace the fossil fuels. The vegetable oils, derived
from oil seed crops have got 90 to 95% energy value of diesel on volume basis, comparable
cetane number and can substitute upto 20% (v/v) of diesel fuel. Mahua seed oil is common
ingredient of hydrogenated fat. Two-step transesterification process was employed to
synthesize biodiesel from Mahua Oil and analysis of Physic-chemical properties as well as the
combustion, performance and emission characteristics was done by taking 10, 20 and 100 %
blend with diesel. The physic-chemical properties of the blends were found to be comparable
to diesel. Abstract Formerly, the Hydro-treated Vegetable Oil (HVO) blended fuels has been
studied by running the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) and found that the higher HVO
blended fuel can suppress NOX, lowering the particulate matter (PM) while improving the
vehicle fuel economy. The result also shown that the 20% HVO + 5%FAME blended with
diesel fuel has been proven to compatible with the advance diesel engine technology via the
severe engine durability tests and fuel injection system tests. Therefore, the effects of two
paraffinic diesel fuels, which are Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) and Hydro-treated Vegetable Oil
(HVO), on a common-rail DI diesel engine have been mainly focused in this work. The main
objective of this work was to study the relationships between fuel properties and theirs
combustion characteristics by analyzing cylinder pressure data and exhaust emissions
intensively.

Sources : http://topics.sae.org/vegetable-oils/papers/
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/uidaho_rawoils.html