Towards a greener world

A team from Goa College of Engineering, Ponda has sent their video presentation on ‘Performance Optimisation of Compression Ignition Engine Fuelled with Rice Bran Oil Biodiesel’ for the ongoing two-day International Conference on Innovative Applied Energy (IAPE’19) at King’s Centre, Oxford, United Kingdom. NT KURIOCITY reports

NT KURIOCITY

The depletion of world petroleum reserves and increased environmental concerns has stimulated recent interest in alternative sources for petroleum-based fuels. In this regard, a team from Goa College of Engineering, Ponda (GEC), have sent in a video presentation of their research on biofuel titled ‘Performance Optimisation of Compression Ignition Engine Fuelled with Rice Bran Oil Biodiesel’ for the ongoing two day International Conference on Innovative Applied Energy (IAPE’19) at King’s Centre, United Kingdom.

In the video that will be played during the conference, they have stressed on biodiesel production from waste rice bran oil, modification on diesel engine for biodiesel, testing of engine, performance and emission analysis of engine with biodiesel as alternate fuel.

The organisers of the conference received more than 800 research papers from more than 42 countries.  Around 105 papers were selected for oral presentation. The selection criteria were based mainly on the submission originality and involvement in the applied energy field. Five research papers were selected from India of which GEC is the only college from Goa. The GEC team comprised of associate professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, Goa College of Engineering, Jagannath Hirkude, who led the research, and third year mechanical engineering students Sunay Dharwadker and Risha Hegde. In fact GEC is only research centre in engineering under Goa University.

“Biodiesel produced from rice bran oil by transesterification with alcohol like methanol is recommended for use as a substitute for petroleum-based diesel mainly because biodiesel is an oxygenated, renewable, biodegradable and environmentally friendly bio-fuel with similar flow and combustion properties and low emission profile,” says Jagannath, adding that one of the advantages of this fuel is reduced exhaust gas emissions like carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), and particulate matter.

The primary objective of their paper was to investigate the combined effect of compression ratio and injection pressure on the performance and smoke emissions of diesel engine using rice bran oil methyl ester (biodiesel). The secondary objective was to determine optimum values of compression ratio and injection pressure which would result in improved performance with lesser smoke emissions.

Jagannath says that they observed that the performance of engine with rice bran oil biodiesel with optimisation in compression ratio and injection pressure was at par with mineral diesel. Therefore, biodiesel from rice bran oil can be considered as an alternative fuel to mineral diesel. He added that this paper will also help the mechanical engineering department get points during the accreditation process. Also, this research will help the students who are coauthors of this paper to get admission in top institutes in India or abroad for their higher studies.

RK