Studying the ultrasonic assisted transesterification of castor oil by using factorial design for optimization of biodiesel production

This work presents the biodiesel production from castor oil with methanol in presence of potassium hydroxide as catalyst at room temperature using ultrasonic bath. A factorial design of experiments and a central composite design have been used to evaluate the influence of operating conditions on biodiesel synthesis from inedible castor oil. The response chosen was viscosity while the variables studied were catalyst concentration and the methanol/vegetable oil molar ratio at room temperature in an ultrasonic bath. The methanol/vegetable oil molar ratio is the most important factor, having a negative influence on viscosity.The catalyst concentration has a small negative influence on viscosity and this is attributed to the presence of ultra-sonification. A second order model was obtained to predict the produced biodiesel viscosity. Within the experimental range studied the model matched the results from the experiments

Probabilistic performance modelling when using partial reconfiguration to accelerate streaming applications with non-deterministic task scheduling

Many streaming applications composed of multiple tasks self-adapt their tasks’ execution at runtime as response to the processed data. This type of application promises a better solution to context switches at the cost of a non-deterministic task scheduling. Partial reconfiguration is a unique feature of FPGAs that not only offers a higher resource reuse but also performance improvements when properly applied. In this paper, a probabilistic approach is used to estimate the acceleration of streaming applications with unknown task schedule thanks to the application of partial reconfiguration. This novel approach provides insights in the feasible acceleration when partially reconfiguring regions of the FPGA are partially reconfigured in order to exploit the available resources by processing multiple tasks in parallel. Moreover, the impact of how different strategies or heuristics affect to the final performance is included in this analysis. As a result, not only an estimation of the achievable acceleration is obtained, but also a guide at the design stage when searching for the highest performance

Performance and emissions characteristics of C.I. engine fueled with palm oil/palm oil methyl ester blended with diesel fuel

The rapid increasing worldwide demand for energy, continuous increasing of fuel consumption and the progressive depletion of fossil fuels led to an intensive search for biodiesel as alternative fuel for diesel engine. Performance and emissions characteristics of C.I. engine fueled with palm oil/palm oil methyl ester blended with diesel fuel is investigated experimentally. Biodiesel was prepared from palm oil by transesterification process. Diesel, biodiesel and palm oil blends were prepared in volume percentages of 20 and 100% as B20, B100 and PO20. Physical and chemical properties of biodiesel blends were near to diesel fuel. The experimental study is conducted on a diesel engine at different engine loading from zero to full loads using palm oil and palm biodiesel and its blends with diesel fuel. Thermal efficiency of biodiesel and oil blends with diesel fuel was lower than diesel fuel. Specific fuel consumptions for biodiesel and oil blends were found to be higher than diesel oil. Unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide emissions have been decreased for biodiesel blends but it increased for oil blends compared to diesel fuel. Nitrogen oxide emissions have slightly been increased for biodiesel and oil blends compared to diesel fuel. Blends of diesel – biodiesel up to 20% biodiesel percentage by volume are recommended because of the improvement in performance and emissions as compared to diesel fuel. Keywords: Palm oil, Biodiesel, Transesterification, Diesel, Performance, Emission

Empirical equations and economical study for blending biofuel with petroleum jet fuel

Distillate of upgraded palm biodiesel was blended in different volume percentages (5, 10, 15, and 20%) with jet A-1. The mixture can be used as a replacement for petroleum Jet fuel. Physical properties of blends were measured and compared with those of jet A-1. Empirical equations were developed to predict the properties of blended fuel, including density, kinematic viscosity, freezing point, H/C ratio, and acid value. The statistical analysis indicated that the proposed equations predictions agree well with the experimental data. The predicted model shows an (R2) between 0.99–0.98, indicating good fitting between the experimental data and proposed model. The distillate of upgraded palm biodiesel was miscible with the kerosene jet A-1 in all volume fractions under study 5–20%. The economic analysis shows that the production cost per unit of the produced bio jet fuel was much higher than the selling price of the petroleum jet fuel. This price difference is due to the raw materials cost; as the palm oil used is nearly three times that of crude oil. The economic evaluation study reveals that the operating cost of prepared bio jet equals to 2360 $/ton, which is a promising result