Abstract
This work emphasized optimum production of biodiesel using non-edible Prunus armeniaca (Bitter Apricot) oil via transesterification collected from the high altitude areas of Himachal Pradesh, India. In this study the author produced biodiesel through the process of transesterification by using an alkali catalyst with alcohol (methanol and ethanol), under the varying molar ratio (1:6, 1:9, 1:12), variable catalyst percentage (1% and 2%) and temperature (70oC, 75oC, 80oC, 85oC). Furthermore, a few strong base catalysts were used that includes sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, sodium metal and freshly prepared sodium methoxide. After screening the catalyst, response surface methodology (RSM) in connection with the central composite design (CCD) was used to statistically evaluate and optimize the biodiesel production operation using NaOH as catalyst. It was found that the production of biodiesel achieved an optimum level biodiesel yield with 97.30% FAME conversion under the following reaction conditions: 1) Methanol/oil molar ratio: 1:6, 2) Reaction time: 3h, 3) Catalyst amount: NaOH 2 wt. %, and 4) Reaction temperature: 85oC. The experimental results showed that the optimum production and conversion of biodiesel through the process of transesterification could be achieved under an optimal set of reaction conditions. The biodiesel obtained showed appropriate fuel properties as specified in ASTM, BIS and En- standards.
Key Words
bitter apricot oil; biodiesel; RSM and CCD; process optimization; fuel properties
Address
Deepak Singh, Veerendra Kumar, S.S. Sandhu: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar 144001, Punjab, India
A.K. Sarma: Chemical Conversion Division, Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Renewable Energy, Kapurthala 144601, Punjab, India
Abstract
A good understanding of the chemical composition and structural characteristics of a carbonaceous material is essential in conversion processes. Understanding how the composition and structural changes influence the burning behaviour of coal is important when assessing a coal\'s potential for utilization. To explore the potentials of a typical Nigerian coal, both conventional and advanced analytical techniques such as proximate analysis, ultimate analysis, calorific value, surface area analyser, SEM, FTIR, XRD and SAXS were employed. The results obtained from these characterizations agree favourable well with a typical South African coal that is of enormous contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the nation economy.
Key Words
coal; char; physical properties; chemical properties; petrographics; GDP
Address
Andrew O. Odeh: Coal Research group, Unit of Energy Systems, School of Chemical and Minerals Engineering, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Private Bag X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa
Abstract
The main purpose of this work is to test the validation of use of a four step reaction mechanism to simulate the laminar speed of hydrogen enriched methane flame. The laminar velocities of hydrogenmethane-air mixtures are very important in designing and predicting the progress of combustion and performance of combustion systems where hydrogen is used as fuel. In this work, laminar flame velocities of different composition of hydrogen-methane-air mixtures (from 0% to 40% hydrogen) have been calculated for variable equivalence ratios (from 0.5 to 1.5) using the flame propagation module (FSC) of the chemical kinetics software Chemkin 4.02. Our results were tested against an extended database of laminar flame speed measurements from the literature and good agreements were obtained especially for fuel lean and stoichiometric mixtures for the whole range of hydrogen blends. However, in the case of fuel rich mixtures, a slight overprediction (about 10%) is observed. Note that this overprediction decreases significantly with increasing hydrogen content. This research demonstrates that reduced chemical kinetics mechanisms can well reproduce the laminar burning velocity of methane-hydrogen-air mixtures at lean and stoichiometric mixture flame for hydrogen content in the fuel up to 40%. The use of such reduced mechanisms in complex combustion device can reduce the available computational resources and cost because the number of species is reduced.
Key Words
laminar burning velocity; reduced mechanism; methane; hydrogen
Address
Ridha Ennetta: Higher Institute of Industrial Systems (ISSIG), Gabes University, Salaheddine El Ayoubi Street, 6011 Gabes, Tunisia
Ali Yahya and Rachid Said: Ionized and Reactive Media Studies (EMIR), Preparatory Institute of Engineers Studies of Monastir (IPEIM), Monastir University, Avenue of Ibn El Jazzar, 5019 Monastir, Tunisia
Abstract
The excess use of conventional sources of energy by the industries and power sector result in acute shortage of energy produced by fossil fuel. To overcome this energy crisis, biomass feedstock is used to produce syngas or producer gas. For cleaning the dust particle present in the producer gas cyclone separators are largely used. In this paper we investigate the performance parameters of cyclone separator mainly efficiency and pressure drop for different feedstock. Cyclone performance has been evaluated based on experimentation and empirical approach using Leith and Licht model. The same has also been calculated by using turbulent RSM in Ansys Fluent for Wood and Coconut shell feedstock. Experimental results show that using feed stock with 10 % Calcium oxide (CaO) by weight, the efficiency of cyclone got reduced from 71.87% to 70.75% for wood feed stock, whereas in case of coconut shell, the cyclone efficiency got reduced from 78% to 73.44%. It is also seen that Leith and Licht model and Reynolds stress model (RMS) predicts very close to the particle collection efficiency evaluated by using experimental data.
Key Words
cyclone separator; downdraft gasifier; Leith and Licht model; RSM (Reynolds Stress Model)
Address
Sunil Kumar and S.K. Shukla: Centre for Energy and Resources Development, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, India
Abstract
Air quality in hospitals has always concerned hospitals\' health officials due to its dangerous particles and gases. Because of the importance of air conditioning in the operating room, a system must be embedded in operating rooms to direct the contaminated air outside, and inject fresh filtered air from outside back into the room. In this study, laminar flow air conditioning system is implemented in the operating room by slot linear diffusers and with the help of air curtain. For this, stimulation Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) was used due to its efficiency. The aim of the present study was to find a proper solution to overcome the unfavorable factors, namely, contamination, humidity, and also temperature, velocity and pressure inside the room. These factors were implemented with different values and then stimulated through FLUENT software program. Results showed that the aforementioned factors can be overcome using air curtain and slot linear diffusers.
Key Words
operating room air conditioning; computational fluid dynamics; slot linear diffusers; operating room contamination; air curtain
Address
Mohammad Mehdi Keshtkar and Maryam Nafteh: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Islamic Azad University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran
