Power generation and gaseous emissions performance of an internal combustion engine fed with blends of soybean and beef tallow biodiesel

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to compare the performance of an internal combustion engine fed with blends of biodiesel produced from soybean and diesel, and blends of biodiesel produced from beef tallow and diesel. Performance was evaluated in terms of power generated at low loading conditions (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 kW) and emission of organic and inorganic pollutants. In order to analyse inorganic gases (CO, SO₂ and NO_x), an automatic analyser was used and the organic emissions (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene – BTEX) were carried out using a gas chromatograph. The results indicate that the introduction of the two biodiesels in the fuel caused a reduction in CO, SO₂ and BTEX emissions. In addition, the reduction was proportional to the increase in loading regime. Beef tallow biodiesels presented better results regarding emission than soybean biodiesels. The use of pure biodiesels also presented a net reduction in pollutant gas emissions without hindering the engine generator performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Air pollution
• biodiesel
• diesel
• gas emissions
• volatile organic compounds

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Brazil; Grant number 475654/2010-2) for its financial support and the Laboratory of Environmental Technologies Research and Development (LPDTA – UNICAMP) for its technical support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.