An experimental investigation on laminar burning velocity of castor bio-diesel blended with gas oil

Abstract

In this article we describe how the laminar burning velocity values were determined experimentally for different blends of castor bio-diesel with gas oil. The experiments were performed with a constant volume combustion bomb using pressure-time history. The castor bio-diesel obtained from pyrolysis was blended with 5, 10, 25 and 50% of castor bio diesel with gas oil by volume. The experiments were performed for a range of equivalence ratios (0.8–1.2), initial mixture temperatures (573–773K) and initial mixture absolute pressures (0.5–1 bar). It was found that blends of castor bio-diesel with gas oil exhibit lower burning velocities than pure gas oil fuel which was attributed to the oxygen content and lower heat of combustion of the blends. The experimental data showed that the burning velocity of bio fuels was lower by about 25–30% than that of gas oil. Also, the maximum value of burning velocity was obtained at an equivalence ratio of approximately 1.05, and the laminar burning velocity increased considerably as the initial temperature increased but reduced as the initial pressure increased.

Highlights

• Castor bio-diesel is synthesized by using pyrolysis process with the presence of a catalyst.

• The synthesized castor bio-diesel proves to conform to ASTM D-6751 for bio-diesel.

• The laminar burning velocity is decreased by increasing the ratio of castor bio-diesel.

• The higher initial temperature leads to a higher laminar burning velocity.

• Higher initial pressure leads to a lower laminar burning velocity.

Keywords:

• Laminar burning velocity
• castor bio-diesel
• pyrolysis
• combustion bomb
• alternative fuels

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.