The Effect of Palm Biodiesel Fuel on the

Performance and Emission of the

Automotive Diesel Engine

Soni S.Wirawan
1
, Armansyah H. Tambunan
2
, Martin Djamin
3
,
Hiroshi Nabetani
4

1
Institute for Engineering and Technology System Design, BPPT Bldg. 1,
6
th
Floors, Jl. M.H. Thamrin 8 Jakarta 10340, Indonesia
(soni@webmail.bppt.go.id)
2
Agricultural Engineering Sciences, Bogor Agricultural University,
Indonesia
3
Ministry of Research and Technology, Indonesia
4
Agricultural and Life Sciences, the University of Tokyo,
Japan



A CRITIQUE



Submitted to



ENGR. NORMAN GIOVANNI M. GUEVARRA

For

ChE Research
Undergraduate Studies
Technological Institute of the Philippines

On

10 SEPTEMBER 2014



By



ROSENN B. AMADO
CHE - 1320130






A Critical Analysis of the study, The Effect of Palm Biodiesel Fuel on
the Performance and Emission of the Automotive Diesel Engine

1. Thesis

Due to increase of fuel price and diminishing oil reserves,
Indonesia advances their studies on developing alternative energy
such as biofuel. Various policies which support this alternative fuel
production were: Presidential Regulation No. 5/2006 regarding the
National Energy Policy (Perpres, 2006), Presidential Instruction No.
1/2006 regarding the utilization of biofuel (Inpres, 2006), the
Indonesian biodiesel standard so called SNI 04-7182-2006 (BSN,
2006), and the decree No. 3675K/24/DJM/2006 issued by the
Ministry of Energy land Mineral Resources.

Biodiesel by definition is a compound of methyl ester derived
from the esterification/trans-esterification process of various types of
vegetable oils or animal fats.

This study aims to measure the performance through torque,
power, specific fuel consumption (fuel efficiency) and speed; and
evaluate the emission component and its content (carbon monoxide
(CO), hydrocarbon (HC), particulate matter (PM), carbon dioxide
(CO
2
), and NO
x)
of pure petro diesel, blended biofuel-petro diesel
and pure biodiesel in Indonesia through coconut. Also the, health and
economic impact of those air pollution levels.
Although from May 2006, Indonesia has been formally selling
B5 blend of biodiesel (BIOSOLAR) with the same price on subsidized
automotive diesel oil, it was accepted to have higher fluctuating price
if its technical, environmental and other characteristics are more
advantageous than the petro-diesel ones.

2. Methods
The testing includes 3 rooms: (1) Control and Data Management; (2)
Vehicle test; (3) Emission analysis.

(1) Control and Data Management, used to control those data collected
from emission analysis

(2) The test vehicle was a 2004 built passenger car with direct
injection, automatic transmission, and a 2500 cc capacity diesel
engine. The engine was as it is with slight modification in its fuel
delivery system for convenience of fuels changing between test
runs. The chassis dynamometer (CD) which is located in the
vehicle test room consists of a pair of 48 inch in diameter steel
roll. The roll was connected to a DC motor.

(3) The emission analysis system consists of 5 main divisions,
namely the CVS System, the (a) handling unit; (b) the bag; (c)
the particulate; (d) hydrocarbon sampling system; (e) emission
analyzer. The function of handling system is to control the
exhaust gas circulation. The emission from CVS was collected on
the bag. The particulate and hydrocarbon sampling systems are
only used for a diesel vehicle test. The emission analysis system
consists of a gas analyzer which functions to analyze the exhaust
gas emission both from the bag or transient condition and
weighing the particulate.


2.1 The test fuel


Seven fuels are used, either pure or blended: High quality low sulfur
diesel (BO1) to obtain (B10, B20, B30, B50), Pure petro diesel from gas
stations (BO2) and Pure biodiesel (B100). The comparison of fuels used are
good since the limitations are clear and obtained from one two sources only.

3. Evidence of thesis support
The result which is demonstrates that power exerted by pure biodiesel
(B100) was lower than those by pure petro-diesel, both B0(1) and B0(2) in
all speed levels is acceptable, because the calorie content of pure biodiesel is
about 10% lower than calorie content of pure petro-diesel fuel.
Figure 3 : Power VS Speed

Power exerted by pure biodiesel (B100) was lower than those by pure petro-
diesel, both B0(1) and B0(2) in all speed levels is acceptable, because the
calorie content of pure biodiesel is about 10% lower than calorie content of
pure petro-diesel fuel. Power and viscosity is somehow correlated in terms of
the vehicle test. If the viscosity is high, inject pump will be unable to supply
sufficient fuel to supply for pumping chambers, therefore power loss for an
engine is attained. Based on the graph shown above, blended biodiesels
have higher viscosity than pure form of cocodiesel.


Figure 4: Torque vs. Speed

Torque decreased when test vehicle speed increased. Maximum torques
exerted by all test fuels were reached at a speed of around a 30 to 40 km.

Figure 5. Emission profile

Figure 6. Fuel Consumption VS Biodiesel Blending Composition


Higher viscosity of the fuel tends to reduce the quality of fuel atomization,
which could potentially give impacts to the higher emission and fuel
consumption. As CO2 decreases, Fuel consumption decreases too.





















Figure 7. The effect of biodiesel on exhaust gas emission

Exhaust gas emission decreased linearly with the increasing concentration of
the biodiesel blend. Cetane number defines the NOx emission.

Table 2. Emission of biodiesel blend as compared to Euro II
regulation


4.
Contributi
on to the
Literature

According
to
Biodiesel
from
coconut
oil: A


Emission Fuel Type Maximum
(g/km) (Euro II)

B0(1) B0(2) B10 B20 B30 B50 B100

HC 0.121 0.045 0.106 0.063 0.051 0.043 0.031

NO
x
1.167 1.062 1.107 1.138 1.079 1.031 0.860
NO
x
+ HC 1.288 1.107 1.213 1.201 1.13 1.074 0.891 0.9 g/km
CO 0.876 0.754 0.831 0.790 0.707 0.656 0.622 1.0 g/km

Particle 0.176 0.077 0.108 0.095 0.090 0.072 0.057 0.1 g/km

renewable alternative fuel for diesel engine.











5. Recommendations

The paper title fits well on the whole journal paper. But the objective
lacks the part on how it does it affect the health and economic status of on
which specific part of Seranga, Indonesia. But some part on economic
impact has discussed yet without particular values or costing shown.

The journal format doesnt look appealing especially there is a skip
page, misplacing of graph as well as its title or description. Also, the
sescription wasnt that organized, jumping from one to another, correlating
one to another which makes it little hard to understand.

Overall, the paper is well written, clear and understandable. But being
an undergraduate student, some terms are not so clear which is good in
helping us to become a better researcher.



REFERENCES

Munack, A., O. Schroder, J. Krahl, and J. Bunger. 2001. Comparison of
Relevant Exhaust Gas Emissions from Biodiesel and Fossil Diesel Fuel. In
Agricultural Engineering International: the CIGR Journal of Scientific
Research and Development. Manuscript EE 01 001. Vol.III.

Yuan, W., A. Hansen, and Q. Zhang. 2004. The Specific Gravity of Biodiesel
Fuels and Their Blends with Diesel Fuel. In Agricultural Engineering
International: the CIGR Journal of Scientific Research and Development.
Manuscript EE 04 004. Vol. VI..

Knothe, G., J. V. Gerpen and J. Krahl. 2004. In The Biodiesel Handbook.
AOCS Press, Illinois.

Md A. Hossain, et al. Biodiesel from coconut oil: A renewable alternative fuel
for diesel engine. In World academy of Science, Engineering and Technology.
Vol VI.