Energy Education Science and Technology Part A. Energy Science and Research 2014
Volume issues 321: 283-292
Combustion of jatropha curcas oil on perforated burner
I. K. G. Wirawan
1,2,
, I. N. G. Wardana
2
, Rudy Soenoko
2
, Slamet Wahyudi
2
1
Udayana University, Mechanical Engineering Department, Bali, Indonesia
2
Brawijaya University, Mechanical Engineering Department, East Java, Indonesia
Received: 31 October 2013; accepted: 18 December 2013
Abstract Jatropha curcas oil premixed combustion behavior on perforated plate has been studied
experimentally. The results showed that both of perforated and secondary flames were formed in very lean mixture with maximum laminar flame velocity S
L
higher than that of hexadecane and almost similar with that of ethanol flame. Slight increase of equivalent ratio
φ causes drastic decrease of S
L
of perforated and secondary flame and S
L
reaches minimum at φ = 0.355 where the physic of flame
change into open tip Bunsen and triple flame. Above φ = 0.365, S
L
of open tip Bunsen flame relatively constant much lower than that of hexadecane flame at around stoichiometry. Small explosions occur
due to ambient air intervention attributed to unsaturated fatty acid components of Jatropha curcas which reaches 55 of the overall composition. Without ambient air intervention perforated flames
experienced lift off at φ = 0.355 to 0.375, perforated and secondary flame are stable at φ = 0.387 to
0.467, and from φ = 0.489 to 0.585 the flame becomes cellular in the form of island and petal. Above
φ = 0.632 the flame become very unstable. Keyword: Bunsen flame with open tip; Cellular flame; Laminar burning velocity; Perforated
flame; Triple flame
©Sila Science. All Rights Reserved. 1.
Introduction
The availability of fossil fuels become the world attention as limited as non-renewable energy sources. To solve this problem, scientists have tried to make biofuels from crops as a
fuel alternative to fossil fuels. The difficulty in making biofuels appears when the plant is also used as a food ingredient. In order to avoid this competition, non-food plants producing high
___________
Corresponding author: Tel.: +62-361-431-214
; fax: :+62-361-703-321.
E-mail address: wirawan_ikgyahoo.com I. K. G. Wirawan.
284
I. K. G. Wirawan et al. EEST Part A: Energy Science and Research 31 2014 283-292
oil is needed. One of the plants that produce high oil but cannot be used as food is Jatropha curcas. Jatropha curcas contains 40.70 monounsaturated fatty acids and 37.80
polyunsaturated fatty acids that could potentially cause an explosion when combustion occurs [1]. Urgency using Jatropha curcas is as a source of energy because it produces biofuel with
high productivity, while jatropha curcas is non edible and growing in arid regions. Several studies have been conducted with different fuel compositions to get a diesel
alternative fuel with the raw material Jatropha curcas. Jatropha curcas can be used as biodiesel fuel and environmental friendly without modification. Jatropha curcas oil meets ASTM
standards and showed better performance than ordinary fuel in diesel engines. Another advantage of jatopha is as follows: i able to reduce the greenhouse gas, ii used as a raw
material and iii do not compete with food crops [2]. Different fuel properties of jatropha curcas oil methyl ester JMEs including heating value, filter plugging point, density,
kinematic viscosity and oxidation stability in a mixture of diesel is calculated. Recommended mixture ratio of JMEs with diesel above 40 volume is compared with the relevant
specifications for biodiesel-diesel blend [3]. Jatropha curcas oil has been tested and is able to replace fossil diesel fuel in a multi-cylinder with water cooling direct injection IDI engine
type CI. Atrophy curcas oil give 3 higher pressure at top dead center, showed 5 shorter combustion duration, the same cumulative heat release at full load, but lower heat release at
lower loads when compared to fossil diesel. Thus, minor modifications in the coolant and fuel supply circuit are needed on CI IDI engine type when using jatropha curcas oil [4]. Jatropha
curcas seeds shell allows the generation of heat without formed into pellets or briquettes. Thermal power generated is 2.9 kg hour jatropha curcas seed shells of 11.1 kW with 87
efficiency furnace or 9.0 kg h shell jatropha curcas seeds of 36.7 kW with 91 efficiency furnace. The carbon monoxide is 0.4 - 2 gm
3
lower than burning wood by legal requirements in Germany for up to 50 kW combustion units [5]. Quasi-steady gas-phase combustion of
spherical particles fed from jatropha curcas bio-diesel has been carried out numerically and experimentally [6]. Jatropha curcas bio-diesel used in the experiment were mixed with
convective air environment and compared with ordinary diesel fuel under the same conditions. The investigation revealed that biodiesel from jatropha curcas without purification
is suitable as an alternative to diesel fuel. Improvement in jatropha curcas biodiesel mixture is required to obtain optimal performance, the characteristics of good combustion and low
emissions [7]. Influence of various parameters such as acid value AV, water content WC, and ash content AC of jatropha curcas oil sediment accumulation has been investigated. It
also resulted in safe operation, low maintenance, and optimal power, required acid value AV is lower than 6.00 mg KOH g, WC moisture content less than 0.15 and ash content below
0.10 AC [8]. Experimental investigations have been conducted for the feasibility of Jatropha curcas as an alternative diesel fuel. The experiment used B
100 diesel, B
10
90 diesel and 10 biodiesel jatropha curcas and B
20
20 biodiesel jatropha curcas and 80 diesel. The results showed that the characteristics of the B
10
and B
20
are almost similar with B
0.
These results showed that jatropha curcas biodiesel blends B
10
and B
20
can be used in Diesel engines without major modifications [9].
Based on previous study so far, Jatropha curcas is used as fuel for non-premixed combustion. Research on flame behavior such as laminar burning velocity, open end flame
and cellular Bunsen flame has not been done. Based on this information, the novelty of this journal is utilization of jatropha curcas as fuel in premixed combustion to investigate the
behavior of the flame. These studies provide greater benefits in jatropha curcas oil in premixed combustion.
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2. Methods
