Effect of Wood Type and Carburetor on the Performance of Producer Gas-Biodiesel Operated Dual Fuel Engines

Modern compression ignition engines combine excellent fuel efficiency with high power output, and have the ability to use high quality renewable fuels, which can be produced efficiently from biomass. With regards to the progressively stringent emission legislation in the automotive sector and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades, this research work is directed at developing diesel engine-gasifier integrated systems to operate on renewable fuels. In the present work, to make the diesel engine completely independent of fossil fuel, the diesel fuel was replaced by Honge oil methyl ester and producer gas. The non edible fuel mainly consists of biodiesel derived from Honge oil called Honge oil Methyl Ester [HOME]. The main biomass sources for producer gas generation are obtained from both ordinary and Honge wood. The proposed work therefore involves development of a system completely independent of diesel fuel with biodiesel derived from non-edible oil i.e., Honge oil and producer gas operation. In the study different carburetors were designed and developed to check the suitability of the producer gas and air mixing. Carburetors of Y- shaped, basic and parallel gas entry were considered for the study. The parallel flow carburetor operated biodiesel-gasifier dual fuel engine results in better performance compared to Y-shaped and basic carburetor system. The parallel carburetor ensures stoichiometric air and producer gas mixing compared to Y-shaped carburetor. Honge wood results in poor performance than the babul wood because of its lower density, higher moisture content and lower calorific value resulting in poorer quality of the gas.