The performance characteristics of groundnut (Arachis hypogea, L.) biodiesel in a diesel engine

The performance of groundnut ethyl ester blended with diesel in a compression ignition engine was experimentally determined. Groundnut oil reacted with ethanol to produce ethyl esters in a two-step transesterification process. The ethyl-esters were blended with automotive gas oil at (0 to 20%) mix with 5% increment of groundnut ethyl-esters to produce biodiesel. The performance of a 2.46 kW diesel engine was evaluated using the groundnut biodiesel at five loading conditions (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of full load). Automotive gas oil was used as a reference diesel fuel. The engine torque had a peak value of 8.5 Nm at full load, while the peak value of speed was 1300 rev/min at 25% full load when using 15% groundnut ester-AGO blend. The exhaust gas temperature had a peak value of 420°C at full load when using 5% groundnut ester-AGO blend. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) in average values of torque, speed and exhaust gas temperature of the engine for groundnut biodiesel and automotive gas oil. Groundnut biodiesel can be used to fuel a diesel engine.Key words: Groundnut oil, ethyl esters, biodiesel, diesel engine

Fuel properties of loofah (Luffa cylindrica L.) biofuel blended with diesel

Fuel properties of loofah oil and its ethyl ester blended with diesel were experimentally determined. Biodiesel blends (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100%) of loofah oil and its ethyl ester by volume with diesel was used. The fuel properties of the biodiesel blends were determined according to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards. Pure Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) was used as a reference fuel. The viscosity in the blends of loofah oil and its ethyl ester with AGO from B10 to B100 ranged from 4.5 - 43.1 mm2/s. It was observed that the viscosities of 10 - 40% loofah ester-diesel blends fell within limit specified by ASTM standards. The cloud points, the pour points and the flash points increased as the percentage of loofah oil and its ethyl ester increased in the blends. The specific gravity of all the loofah biodiesel blends ranged from 0.863 - 0.89 and fell within limit specified by international standards. The heating values of the loofah biodiesel blends decreased from 42.55 - 28.75 MJ/L. All the loofah biodiesel blends had sulphur contents ranging from 9.16 - 13.2% and lower than that of reference AGO. The ash content of all the biodiesel samples produced from loofah oil ranged from 0.01 - 0.02% and were lower compared to AGO obtained as 0.12. The blends of loofah ethyl ester (LEE) of B10 and B20 were found to have acceptable fuel properties to power compression ignition engines. Key words: Loofah ethyl esters, biodiesel, compression ignition engine, automotive gas oil (AGO)

Comparative effects of undigested and anaerobically digested poultry manure on the growth and yield of maize (Zea mays, L)

A comparative study of the effects of undigested and anaerobically digested poultry manure and conventional inorganic fertilizer on the growth characteristics and yield of maize was investigated at Ibadan, Nigeria. The pot experiment consisted of sixty (60) nursery bags, set out in the greenhouse. The treatments, thoroughly mixed with soil, were: control (untreated soil), inorganic fertilizer, (NPK 20:10:10) applied at the 120 kgN/ha; air-dried undigested and anaerobically digested manure applied at 12.5 g/pot, or 25.0 g/pot or 37.5 g/pot, and or 50.0 g/pot. Plant height, stem girth, leaf area, number of leaves at 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks after planting (WAP) and stover mass and grain yield were measured. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) at P 0.05 was used to further determine the relationships among the factors investigated. Generally, results in respect of crops treated with digested manure, were quite comparable with those treated with undigested manure and inorganic fertilizer, right from 2WAP to 6WAP. Stover yield was increased to as much as 1.58, 1.65 and 2.07 times by inorganic fertilizer, digested and undigested manure, respectively while grain yields were increased by only 200% with inorganic fertilizer, but by up to 812 and 933% by digested and undigested manure, respectively. In conclusion, digested poultry manure enhanced the growth characteristics of the treated plants for the maize variety used. As observed, the order of grain yield was undigested manure > digested manure > inorganic fertilizer

Development of a combined manual and motorized operated palm nut cracker

A combined motorized and manual powered palm-nut cracker was designed, fabricated and tested at different moisture contents. The machine was designed for an output capacity of 90.4Kg/hr. for motorized and 19.8Kg/hr. for manual power respectively. The features of the machine are hammers, cracking chamber, hopper, Spout, main frame, chain, sprocket, shafts and effort-arm. During testing, a maximum efficiency of 85% at 16% moisture content was attained for a motorized nut cracker at a speed of 1440rpm; while the efficiency of 44% at 25% moisture content was attained for manually powered machine. The estimated cost of the machine is N12,635.00. Journal of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology Vol. 3(2) 2003: 41-4

Trends and Effective Use of Energy Input in the Palm Kernel Oil Mills

This work aims at studying the importance and the efficiency of energy use in a few palm kernel oil mills selected for their representativity. Pattern of energy use, the cost of energy per unit product, energy intensity and normalized performance indicator (NPI) were determined. Results show that the medium and the large mills depend largely on fossil fuel; while the small mill depends on electricity. It was found out that the large mill has the most effective use of energy with high energy intensity. The annual cost of energy per unit product of N8,360,000 ($64,307.69); N12,262,250 ($94,325) and N13,353,870 ($102, 722.08) were obtained for small, medium and large mills respectively. The NPI results show that there was no wastage of energy through space heating in energy supplied for production within the factory site

Alternative Fuels for Particulate Control in CI Engines

It is widely known that diesel combustion in a compression ignition (CI) engine produces and emits a significant amount of particulate matter (PM) which contributes to degradation in both health and environment. The origin of the soot formation depends on several factors, however, the main source of the soot emissions is the combustion of the diesel fuel itself. To circumvent this issue, studies have been conducted to explore and exploit the advantages of fuels with a lower sooting tendency. Around the world, the utilization of oxygenated biodiesels, such as fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), have been increasing to allow the reduction of PM emissions alongside the net CO2. Due to the FAMEs oxygen content, the fuel is oxidized more readily during the combustion process and thus emitting a significantly lower engine out concentration of PM emission than that of commercial diesel fuel. The utilization of the lighter alcohol fuels, methanol and ethanol neat and blended, is a good option to reduce the soot to zero levels. The reduction of soot to near zero levels introduces another advantage; the soot-NOx trade-off diminishes completely when utilizing exhaust gas recycling (EGR). The issue, however, is that the PN emission of nucleation mode particles is high when utilizing such fuels while ignition is hard to achieve with high octane number fuels in a CI engine