Development of an atmospheric combustor test rig for firing envodiesel blends

Abstract

Liquid fuel combustion contributed to air pollution and global warming problems. Combustion using fossil fuel e.g. petroleum diesel produces high concentration of emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulphur dioxide (SO2). Palm biodiesel consists of palm methyl ester and diesel has been used to reduce the emission value. However, the production of biodiesel is expensive. Therefore, the direct blending method of palm olein and diesel has been used to produce envodiesel without using the transesterification process. The properties and characteristics of envodiesel have been studied in order to determine the fuel performance during combustion. A 500 mm length and 152 mm diameter of combustor has been fabricated using stainless steel tube for firing the envodiesel blends. Thermocouples type-K are placed axially along the combustor length to measure the wall temperatures. Besides that, the gas analyzer probe has been used to measure the emission gas during the testing. An axial swirler of 45º angle with 8 blades, fuel injector system, electrode copper igniter system, air blower and super heater are installed in the combustion system to burn the envodiesel blends. As a result, envodiesel blends with 5% palm olein and 95% diesel (B5) has higher wall temperature as compared to other blends. The result shows the various percentages of envodiesel blends decrease the CO2, CO, NOx and SO2 emission. The B25 has lowest of CO2, CO, NOx and SO2 values of 3%, 492 ppm, 8 ppm and 9 ppm respectively. It can be concluded the envodiesel blends have lower emissions compared to diesel fuel.