Experimental Investigation for Determining an Ideal Algal Biodiesel-Diesel Blend to Improve the Performance and Mitigate Emissions Using a Response Surface Methodology

Elumalai Ramachandran; Ravi Krishnaiah; Elumalai Perumal Venkatesan; Manickam Murugan; Sreenivasa Reddy Medapati; Prabhakar Sekar

doi:10.1021/acsomega.2c07104

Experimental Investigation for Determining an Ideal Algal Biodiesel-Diesel Blend to Improve the Performance and Mitigate Emissions Using a Response Surface Methodology

ACS Omega. 2023 Mar 6;8(10):9187-9197. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c07104. eCollection 2023 Mar 14.

Authors

Elumalai Ramachandran¹, Ravi Krishnaiah¹, Elumalai Perumal Venkatesan², Manickam Murugan³, Sreenivasa Reddy Medapati², Prabhakar Sekar⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore 632014, India.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aditya Engineering College, Surampalem 533437, India.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aditya College of Engineering and Technology, Surampalem 533291, India.
⁴ Automotive Engineering, Wollo University, Dessie 208, Ethiopia.

Abstract

The ongoing depletion of the world's fossil fuel sources and environmental damage has compelled the quest for alternative energy. Excellent characteristics of biodiesel include its renewable nature, safety, absence of sulfur, environmental advantages, and biodegradability, which can eradicate the above problems. In this study, algal oil was characterized to obtain the fatty acid profile, and the free fatty acid value of algal oil suggested a two-step process of esterification and transesterification for efficient biodiesel production. The performance and emission results of biodiesel and its blends (B10, B20, and B30) were investigated in a constant speed, single-cylinder, 4-stroke, 3.5 kW compression ignition engine at different loads for arriving at an appropriate fuel blend ratio. The response surface methodology technique is used to predict the ideal composition of microalgae-diesel using the experimental data with due weightage for the optimization criterion. The predicted blend ratio of B25 was tested on the engine and authenticated. The findings recorded an improvement in brake thermal efficiency to 31.42% and reduction in brake specific energy consumption to 9.82 MJ/kW h, unburned hydrocarbon to 85 ppm, carbon monoxide to 0.164% v/v, carbon dioxide to 4.115% v/v, nitrogen oxides to 691 ppm, and smoke opacity to 16.93%.