Wear characteristic of RBD palm olein using four-ball tribotester

Palm oil shows a great potential to be used as a lubricant. It is a vegetable oil which is environmentally friendly and has a high biodegradability in comparison to mineral oil. However, the research of the properties of palm oil based lubricant from the industrial point of view has never been widely conducted. In this research, the tribological properties of RBD palm olein; which is one of the palm oil refine product, was tested with four-ball tribotester to investigate its wear resistance. The testing method followed the ASTM D4172. The investigation was continued with 40kg, 80kg and 120 kg normal loads. For comparison, similar experimental and analytical works were done with additive-free paraffinic mineral oil and their results were compared with RBD palm olein. The analysis focused on the temperature properties, friction coefficient and wear observation. Results show that RBD palm olein has a good wear resistance performance in high and low temperature compared to additive free paraffinic mineral oil, especially at high normal load

Utilization of waste hydraulic oil as fuel in diesel engine

Production of alternative diesel fuel has been increasing drastically in many Asian countries. Since the reduction of petroleum production by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the research on alternative fuel for diesel engine has gain interest. The target of this project is to substitute some percentage usage of conventional diesel fuel with waste substance without compromising on engine performance and exhaust emissions. This study has produced two type of alternative fuels. A test fuel consisting 30% of water into diesel fuel with the existence of additive or emulsifier (span 80) is called as DW Emul. Another test fuel which is named as DHW Emul produced by blending 30% of water into a mixture consisting of 20% of waste hydraulic oil and 80% of diesel fuel with the existence of span 80. The engine performance and exhaust emissions of DW Emul and DHW Emul are measured and has been compared with the conventional diesel fuel. A 600cc single cylinder direct injection diesel engine was used. The experiment was conducted at 1500 rpm with variable engine loads. Results show that DHW Emul and DW Emul has higher brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC). However, by considering the total use of diesel fuel contained in DW Emul, the quantity was lower at all loads. The same goes for DHW Emul at low load but deteriorate at high load which show slightly higher compared with of using 100% conventional diesel fuel. DHW Emul has suppressed CO emission that is usually high of using emulsion fuel to the level similar to conventional diesel fuel. NOx and Smoke emissions for DHW Emul are lower than conventional diesel. The use of DHW Emul can give significant reduction of NOx and Smoke emissions without deterioration of CO emission

Performance of sludge palm oil combustion using waste oil burner

Sludge palm oil (SPO) is one of the wastes produced during the activity of palm oil milling process. The most common method to synthesise biodiesel from SPO is through a chemical process known as esterification and transesterification. The chemical process required additional cost and time. Hence this paper aims to evaluate the utilisation of SPO directly as fuel in burner system and compare with conventional diesel. The SPO studied contain free fatty acid (FFA) content about 30 %, density and viscosity at 0.982 g/cm3 and 67.76 mm2/s respectively which is higher than diesel. The maximum combustion temperature achieved was 869 °C lower than diesel, 891 °C. Lower CO, CO2 and NOx emission during combustion compare to diesel around 34 %, 6% and 90 % reduction respectively. The low combustion temperature, flame length and emission due to the high viscosity of SPO compare to diesel. Fuel spray and flow was affected by viscosity which lowers the combustibility and consumption of SPO. SPO show great properties and combustion performance as fuel for burner system and improvement can make it even better

Engine performance and exhaust emission analysis of a single cylinder diesel engine fuelled with water-diesel emulsion fuel blended with manganese metal additives

Water-in-diesel emulsion fuel (W/D) is one of the alternative fuels that capable to reduce the exhaust emission of diesel engine significantly especially the nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM). However, the usage of W/D emulsion fuels contributed to higher CO emissions. Supplementing metal additive into the fuel is the alternate way to reduce the CO emissions and improve performance. The present paper investigates the effect of using W/D blended with organic based manganese metal additives on the diesel engine performance and exhaust emission. The test were carried out by preparing and analysing the results observed from five different tested fuel which were D2, emulsion fuel (E10: 89% D2, 10% - water, 1% - surfactant), E10Mn100, E10Mn150, E10Mn200. Organic based Manganese (100ppm, 150ppm, 200ppm) used as the additive in the three samples of the experiments. E10Mn200 achieved the maximum reduction of BSFC up to 13.66% and has the highest exhaust gas temperature. Whereas, E10Mn150 achieved the highest reduction of CO by 14.67%, and slightly increased of NOx emissions as compared to other emulsion fuels. Organic based manganese which act as catalyst promotes improvement of the emulsion fuel performance and reduced the harmful emissions discharged

Water content determination of steam generated water-in-diesel emulsion

Emulsion fuel is one of the prevalent NOx and PM reducing techniques in compression ignition engines. An alternative method to produce emulsion is by mixing steam into diesel involving the condensation of water in the immiscible diesel. The converted steam into water, however, is difficult to determine. Hence, this paper describes a method of estimating the water content of the produced emulsion by using heat balance and Jakob’s number equations. Experiments were performed by using a custom designed 250 ml glass column, where final temperatures of the emulsion were recorded, and distillation of the sample was performed to analyze the water content. The results were compared with the equations where Jakob’s number model delivers a closer estimate of the experimental values (maximum difference 5.90%) than the heat balance equation (maximum difference 7.93%)

A Safe-Distance Based Threat Assessment with Geometrical Based Steering Control for Vehicle Collision Avoidance

This work proposes a vehicle collision avoidance strategy based on the usage of Geometrical Based Steering Controller. The algorithm is composed of these features : 1) Collision Detection strategy using safe distance threshold, 2) predicts the future trajectory of the vehicle in the occurrence of obstacle, 3) decision making prior to avoiding collision, 4) avoiding obstacles while ensuring the vehicle to return to its original path. The strategy used a nonlinear vehicle model with steering and braking input as the actuators that will react and avoid collisions. Simulation results depict the ability of the methods to avoid the potential collision while returning to its original path. The inclusion of the Threat Assessment Strategy ensures the hindrance of the vehicle from colliding with the obstacle's edg

Treating palm oil mill effluent by activated sludge process using submerged mechanical aerator/agitator replacing surface aerator

Activated sludge process (ASP) is gaining recognition as a process technique for the control of biological oxygen demand (BOD) in palm oil mill effluent (POME). Surface aerators or diffusing plates are often used in aeration tanks serving as core of the ASP. For consistent improvement in water quality within the aeration tank utilising the ASP and in particular, mitigating its BOD effluent stream, this study replaced the surface aerator with submerged mechanical aerator/agitator incorporating separate “agitation function” and “agitation diffusing function” intended for use in aeration tank of polishing plant that contains surface aerators. In order to confirm the activated state of the sludge in the aeration tanks, sludge was observed by microscopy (magnification 600 or lower). The water analysis, POME, BOD, ammonium, and total nitrogen were analsyed. As a result of the study, improvement in water quality criteria including the agitation state in the aeration tank, mixed liquid dissolved oxygen, and BOD were observed. The BOD has improved from 34.7% to 93.1% at a maximum removal rate

Diesel engine fuel consumption and emission analysis using steam generated non-surfactant water-in-diesel emulsion fuel

Efforts in making water in diesel emulsion (W/D) with the absence of surfactant have been developed to address the issues of long-term stability and the dependence on surfactants. This paper discusses an alternative formation method of a non-surfactant W/D, e.g. by steam condensation. By injecting steam into a batch of colder diesel fuel, fine water droplets are formed and suspended in the fuel forming an emulsion. The droplets are confirmed to be in the size range of hundreds of nanometers. The emissions of NOx is reduced by a maximum of 71%, whereas the CO and UHC emissions are increased by maximum respectively 180% and a surprising 517%. Not less interesting is the lower BSFC which was measured at a maximum reduction of 18.4%. These results on emission analysis together with the brake specific fuel consumption confirm this method to resemble the combustion behaviour of a conventional emulsion fuel of lower NOx and BSFC, yet higher CO and UHC

Development of Tata super ace finite element model

Finite Element Method (FEM) widely used to solve engineering problems and mathematical models. In this paper, Tata Super Ace was chosen as a model of vehicle to generate finite element model on its body structure called chassis. It also presents a detailed finite element model of a Super Ace Tata model called meshing. In this study, mesh is made based on Finite Element Model. Meshing is carried out through Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) Software called Altair Hyperworks. As the result of these efforts, the finite element vehicle model was developed with the following characteristics: number of parts 3544, number of nodes 3 million, and number of elements 3 million. The average element size used is 8 mm with a minimum size of 4 mm. Thus, the model can successfully be used in computational frontal impacts analysis

The intention to purchase safer car in Singapore: an application of theory of planned behaviour

Vehicles with safety and crash-avoidance features are believed to reduce crashes and are saving lives. This study aims to identify the factors that influence safer car purchasing. It is proposed in this paper that consumers’ purchase intention can be explained by three factors which are attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control by using the Theory of Planned Behavior. A sample of 81 respondents in Singapore were selected to participate in this study. Analyses of data include Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Linear Regression. Findings showed that there is a significant relationship between attitude and perceived behavioral control towards the safer car purchase intention