International Journal of Automotive Technology, ISSN:2051-7831, Vol.29, Issue.

1 1114

Experimental Studies on the Characteristics of

Diesel Engine with Chicken Fat Methyl Ester
K Srinivasa Rao A.Ramakrishna B S K Sundara Siva Rao
Asso.Prof, Mechanical Engineering, Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Professor (Retd.),
Sai Spurthi Institute of Technology, AU college of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering,
Sathupally, India, 507303 Visakhapatnam, India, 530003 AU college of Engineering,
Email:profksrmechanical@gmail.com Email:ramakrishna_a@yahoo.com Visakhapatnam, India, 530003

ABSTRACT
The performance, combustion and emission characteristics
of a 4-S single cylinder water cooled constant speed
naturally aspirated Kirloskar diesel engine with different
blends of diesel-chicken fat oil methyl ester (CFME)
combinations have been investigated. The investigation is
focused on various performance characteristics like Brake
specific fuel consumption, Brake thermal efficiency,
Exhaust gas temperature, and combustion characteristics
like heat release rate, pressure variation and emission
characteristics like CO, NOX, HC. The fuel properties of
CFME are found to be similar to those of diesel. A minor
decrease in Brake thermal efficiency with significant
improvement in reduction in exhaust gas temperature, CO,
UHC is observed compared to diesel. The use of
transesterfied chicken fat oil and its blends as fuel for
diesel engine will reduce the dependence on fossil fuel and
also decrease considerably the environmental pollution.
Keywords-Alternative fuels, diesel engine, blends,
combustion, CFME, emission, performance.
1. INTRODUCTION
The depletion of petroleum reserve and even increase in
number of automobile in recent years makes it important
to find alternative fuels. Of the various alternative fuels
under consideration Bio diesel derived from chicken fat oil
is one of the most promising alternative fuels to diesel due
to following reasons.
1. Bio diesel is an oxyrich fuel, emission of CO, HC
tends to reduce.
2. Bio diesel is produced from fat oils/ vegetable oil
and hence improves the energy securities and
economy independence.
3. The life of diesel engines can be increased
because bio diesel is more lubricating than diesel.
4. Bio diesel can be used directly in the diesel
engine without any modifications.
As raw chicken fat oil is more viscous and low volatility, it
affects injection pattern and atomization leading to
incomplete combustion. The transesterfication is
commonly used commercial processes to reduce the
viscosity and increase volatility of chicken fat oil.
Transesterfication is a chemical process of converting very
large, branched, triglyceride molecules of fat oil into
smaller straight chain molecules similar in size of diesel.
Many research works were carried out on the engine
characteristics with edible oils like Rice bran[1], Soya
bean[2], Palm[3], Cotton seed[4], Coconut[5], Corn[6] etc
and non edible oils like Jatropha[7], Pongamia[8],
Tobacco seed [9] and Tung [10]. Victor T. Wyatt, Melissa
A. Hess et. al [12] studied emission levels of biodiesel
produced from animal fats. Jagadale S., Jugulkar L M [13]
investigated engine performance characteristics using
chicken fat biodiesel. Chicken fat oil methyl ester (CFME)
produced from transesterfication process [11] is used for
present study to investigate various engine characteristics.
ErtanAlptekin et.al [14], Kambiz Tahavildari A. et. al [15]
reported optimization of transesterfication for methyl ester
production from chicken fat.
In this paper, the behaviour of CFME is reported. The
explanation of observations has been based on inferences
drawn from various characteristics. The most important
disadvantage of petroleum diesel is its high sulphur
content which participates in environment pollution. The
blending of petroleum diesel with specified percentage of
CFME Bio diesel decreases its disadvantage. This paper
presents a complete analysis of CFME and its blends with
diesel compared to standard petroleum diesel (PD).
Blending CFME with petroleum diesel decreases viscosity
and improves volatility. These improved properties results
in better mixture formation and spray penetration.
2. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND
PROCEDURE
2.1 Engine
Single cylinder 3.72 kW direct injection water cooled
naturally aspirated stationary CI engine coupled with eddy
current dynamometer available at Sai Spurthi Institute of
technology, Sathupally, Andhra Pradesh, India is used
for experimental study and detailed technical
specifications are given in Table 1.

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Table.1 Engine Specifications

Table.2 Exhaust gas analyzer specifications
Manufacture Kirloskar Oil Engine
Exhaust Gas Analyzer make and model:
Single Cylinder Direct INDUS make and PEA 205
Engine
Injection Compression Ignition
Range Resolution
Admission of air Naturally aspirated
NO 0-5000 ppm 1 ppm
Bore 80 mm
HC 0-15000 ppm 1 ppm
Stroke 110 mm
CO 0-15.0% 0.01%
Compression ratio 16.5:1
The engine is tested with chicken fat methyl ester (CFME-
Max power 3.72 kW
B100), B20 (20% CFME+80%PD) and B40 (40%
Rated speed 1500 rpm CFME+60%PD) and obtained results are compared with
Dynamometer Eddy Current Dynamometer standard petroleum diesel (PD-B0). The engine is allowed
to maintain at constant speed of 1500 rpm and steady state.
Method of cooling Water cooled An eddy current dynamometer is used to measure load
(BP). Tests are conducted on engine at 25% (0.93 kW),
Type of starting Manual cranking
50% (1.86 kW), 75% (2.79 kW) and 100 %( 3.72 kW)
Mechanical governing loads. To record cylinder pressure, heat release rate, mass
Governor
(centrifugal type) fraction burnt and all other required parameters, Lab
Type of Pressure View software developed by Tech-Ed, Bangalore, India,
Piezo electric type
sensor is used.
0.1 bar for cylinder
Pressure sensor
resolution
pressure,1.0 bar for 2.2 Fuel
injection pressure
Crank angle CFME fuel produced from transesterfication is used in this
1 degree study. The useful properties of CFME, diesel and ASTM
sensor resolution
standard specifications for bio diesel [16] are given below
Fig. 1 shows the photograph of the experimental setup. in Table 3. From these properties, it is observed that the
The entire experimental setup consists of engine, eddy CFME fuel properties are similar to petroleum diesel and
current dynamometer, display panel, computer and exhaust this indicates that the CFME fuel can be utilized in
gas analyzer. Exhaust gas analyzer is used to investigate existing diesel engine without any modification and used
the emission characteristics. The technical specifications as alternative fuel by blending with diesel and pure form.
of exhaust gas analyzer are given in Table 2. CFME is a methyl ester and its fatty acid composition is
shown in table 4.
Table.3 Properties of fuels

ASTM
Property Unit PD CFME
Standards
Density g/cc 0.831 0.862 0.87-0.89
Kinematic
Viscosity at cSt 2.58 4.93 1.9-6.0
40oc
o
Flash Point c 50 160 130 min
o
Fire Point c 56 - -
Calorific 4250
kJ/kg 40170 37500
value 0
Cetane
- 48 - 48-70
number
mg
Acid value - 0.41 0.5 max
KOH/g
g
Iodine value Iodine/ 38 74 120 max
100 g
Fig.1 Photograph of Engine Test Rig

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Table.4 Fatty acid composition of CFME

Fatty acid Wt (%) 0.8

Myristic(14:0) 0.20 0.7

Palmitic(16:0) 18.30 B0
0.6
Palmitoleic(16:1) 4.20 B20

BSFC ( kg/kW hr)

0.5
Stearic(18:0) 6.05 B40
0.4
Oleic(18:1) 53.66
B10
0.3 0
Linoleic(18:2) 16.72
Linolenic(18:3) 0.42 0.2
Eicosenoic(20:1) 0.44 0.93 1.86 2.79 3.72
Engine load (kW)

3. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS Fig.2 Variation of BSFC with engine load (BP)

This paper compares variation of Brake Specific Fuel

Consumption (BSFC), Brake Thermal Efficiency(BTE), 35
Brake Specific Energy Consumption (BSEC), Exhaust Gas
Temperature (EGT), Cylinder pressure, Heat release rate,
30
Mass fraction burnt, Cylinder peak pressure and exhaust
emission Hydro carbons (HC), Carbon monoxide (CO),
and Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) of CFME and its blends 25
BTE ( % )

with those of petroleum diesel. B0

3.1 Performance Characteristics B20

20
The performance characteristics of the engine are the very B40
important criterion for selection and suitability of alternate B100
15
fuels. This study evaluates BSFC, BTE, BSEC, EGT of
CFME and diesel blends
a. Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC) 10
0.93 1.86 2.79 3.72
Calorific value of CFME is lower than diesel. Hence the
BSFC is slightly higher than that of the diesel for CFME Engine load (kW)
and its blends. Fig.2 shows the variation of BSFC of
CFME and its blends with engine load. BSFC decrease
Fig.3 Variation of BTE with engine load (BP)
with increase in engine load. At full load BSFC of CFME
(B100) is 15.16% higher than PD(B0). BSFC of B20 fuel c. Brake specific energy consumption (bsec)
is very closer to PD at full load.
The significance of brake specific energy consumption is
b. Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTE) to know the fuel energy required to produce unit brake
power. Fig .4 shows the variation of BSEC with engine
Fig.3 shows the variation of BTE of pure CFME (B100) load for different CFME and diesel blends compared to
and various CFME & diesel blends compared to pure pure diesel. BSEC decreases with engine load and is low
diesel. BTE increases with engine load for all fuels. The at full load for all fuel blends. BSEC of PD is lower than
increase of percentage of CFME in diesel blend decreases CFME at all loads, this may be due to higher calorific
the BTE at all loads. It is observed that B20 fuel blend has value of diesel than CFME.
BTE very closer to PD at 3.72 kW load.

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30000 3.2 Combustion Characteristics

28000 This section highlights the effect of CFME and its blend in
26000 diesel on combustion characteristics like cylinder pressure
BSEC ( kJ/kW hr )

24000 variation, heat release rate and also mass fraction burnt
22000 with crank angle and compared with PD. This section also
B0
20000 includes the variation of cylinder peak pressure of various
18000 B20 fuels with engine load.
16000
B40 a. Cylinder Pressure
14000
12000 B100 Fig.6 shows variation of cylinder pressure with crank
10000 angle for complete cycle at 2.79 kW load. It is observed
0.93 1.86 2.79 3.72 that the curves are overlapped for all fuel blends during
cycle except the crank angle range between 360Oto
Engine load (kW) 390O(i.e. near to TDC). For the crank angle range between
350Oto 450O,the cylinder pressure variation is shown in
fig.7 to know the attainment of peak pressure for all fuels.
Fig.4 Variation of BSEC with engine load (BP) From this, it is observed that the attainment of peak
d. Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) pressure is slightly delayed with increase in percentage of
CFME in diesel.
Fig.5 shows the exhaust gas temperature variation for the
test fuel with engine load. It is observed that the exhaust b. Heat Release Rate
gas temperature increases with load because to meet the Knowledge of heat release rate of fuel is very essential for
higher power requirement more fuel has to be burnt. EGT cooling system design. The comparison of heat release rate
of CFME is very much lower than PD at all loads. The of various fuel combinations at 2.79kWload is shown in
EGT of CFME is 360oc at full load which is 6.25% less fig.8. The maximum heat release rate(56.49 J/0ca) is
than PD. This may be due to lower calorific value of observed for CFME fuel at 3940 crank angle. Cumulative
CFME. heat release rate for crank angle ranges between 350Oto
450Ois shown in fig.9.The area under cumulative heat
400 release rate curve indicates the net heat released during the
given period of cycle. It is observed that the area under
B0(PD) is higher than all other fuel blends. This is due to
350
liberation of more heat of PD than CFME during
combustion.
300
EGT ( OC)

B0 c. Peak Pressure
250 B20 Fig.10 shows the variation of cylinder peak pressure of
various fuel blends with engine load. Peak pressure
200 B40
increases with increase in engine load for all fuels. Peak
B100 pressure of CFME is higher than PD at 2.79kW load , but
150 at 3.72k w load CFME peak pressure is lowered.
0.93 1.86 2.79 3.72 d. Mass Fraction Burnt

Engine load (kW)
Fig.5 Variation of EGT with engine load (BP)
Fig.11 indicates the variation of mass of fuel burnt with
crank angle at 2.79 kw engine load. This graph describes
burning rates of various fuel blends. For B0(PD) fuel
burning rate is very high in the beginning of combustion
compared to cfme and other blends. Though the burning is
initiated at 10o bTDC, but rapid increase in burning rate is
observed immediately after TDC only.

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70

60
Cylinder pressure ( bars )

50

40
B0
30 B20
B40
20
B100
10

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
crank angle ( degrees )

Fig.6 Variation of cylinder pressure with crank angle at 2.79 kW load

70

60
Cylinder pressure ( bars ) near TDC

50

40
B0
30 B20
B40
20
B100
10

0
350 370 390 410 430 450
crank angle (degrees)

Fig.7 Variation of cylinder pressure with crank angle near TDC at 2.79 kW load

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60
heat release rate ( J /Oca )
40

20 B0
B20
0
B40
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
-20 B100

-40

-60
crank angle ( degrees )

Fig.8 Variation of Heat release rate with crank angle at 2.79 kW load

2500
cummulative heat release rate ( J

2000

1500
B0
1000 B20
/ Oca )

B40
500
B100
0
350 370 390 410 430 450 470
-500
crank angle(degrees)

Fig.9 Variation of Cumulative Heat release rate with crank angle at 2.79 kW load

68
67
Peak Pressure(bar)

66
65
B0
64
63 B20
62 B40
61
B100
60
0.93 1.86 2.79 3.72
Engine load (kW)

Fig.10 Variation of cylinder peak pressure with engine load (BP)

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1
mass fraction burnt

0.8

0.6
B0
0.4 B20

0.2 B40
B100
0
340 350 360 370 380 390 400 410
crank angle ( degrees )

Fig.11 Variation of Mass fraction of fuel burnt with crank angle at 2.79 kW load

3.3 Emission Characteristics

Engine emission characterstics are analysed based on
variation of HC (ppm), NOX(ppm), CO(%) with respect to
engine load. Fig.12 shows variation of HC with engine
load. HC emissions increase with increase in engine load
for all fuel blends. CFME (B100) HC emissions are very
much lower than PD (B0) at all load conditions . This may
be due to promotion of oxygenated fuel (CFME) lead to
complete combustion . Fig.13 shows NOX emission
variation with respect to engine load . NOX increases with
increase in engine load for all fuels. CFME NOX
emissions are much more greater than PD at all load
conditions.The oxygenated CFME fuel combustion leads
to increse in NOX emissions. The variation of CO
emissions with engine load for all fuel blends is shown in
the Fig.14. CO emission increses with increase in engine
load but at particular load CO emissions decrease with
increase of peercentage of CFME in the blend.
Comparatively the complete combustion of the
oxygenated CFME fuel decreases the CO emissions.

70 500
65
450
60
55 400
HC (ppm)

NOX (ppm)

50
B0
45 350
B20
40 B0
300 B40
35
B20
30 B100
250
B40
25
20 B100 200

0.93 1.86 2.79 3.72 0.93 1.86 2.79 3.72

Engine load (kW) Engine load (kW)

Fig.12 Variation of HC with engine load (BP)

Fig.13 Variation of NOX with engine load (BP)

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0.24
0.22
0.2
0.18
CO (%)
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.1
0.08
0.93 1.86 2.79 3.72
Engine load (kW)
Fig.14 Variation of CO with Engine Load (BP)
4. CONCLUSIONS
The performance, combustion and emission
characteristics of 3.72kW DI-CI engine fueled with
CFME and its blend have been analyzed and compared
with base line petroleum diesel. The present study
results are summarized as follows.
The BSFC and BSEC decreases with increase
in engine load, and also increases with %
CFME in the blend due to its lower calorific
value.
EGT increase with increase of engine load and
decreases with % CFME in the blend.
BTE decreases with increase in % of CFME in
the blend and increases with engine load.
Pressure rise and heat release rates of CFME
fuel are very closer to PD at all loads,
attainment of peak pressure is delayed due to
lower burning rate of CFME compared to
diesel.
Higher oxygen content in the CFME compared
to PD results in better combustion and leads to
decrease in CO, HC and increases in NOX.
The CFME satisfies all the important
properties of CFME fuel as per ASTM
standard specifications of Biodiesel and
achieved significant engine characteristics.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Authors thank the management of Sai Spurthi
Institute of Technology, Sathupally, India, 507303,
for providing necessary experimental support
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