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Clean Techn Environ Policy (2012) 14:633639
DOI 10.1007/s10098-011-0426-5
ORIGINAL PAPER
Evaluation of performance and emissions of Hibiscus cannabinus (Ambadi) seed oil biodiesel
S. Jindal K. Goyal
Received: 1 August 2011 / Accepted: 28 October 2011 / Published online: 11 November 2011 Springer-Verlag 2011
Abstract New and alternative oil crops must be explored for extending the horizon of plant based fuels for the increasing number of engines in agriculture sector. To preserve the biodiversity, locally available oil crops need to be identied and evaluated for its biodiesel potential. In this study, one of such oil crop, i.e., Hibiscus cannabinus (Ambadi) was selected for exploring the potential to be used as alternative fuel in diesel engines. The oil is found to be good as the properties of its methyl ester (biodiesel) are well within the range prescribed by ASTM. The bio-diesel so prepared posses 8% lesser heat content when compared to diesel on volume basis but thermal efciency and specic fuel consumption improves with blend of 20% (B20). Improved combustion regimes are also seen with the biodiesel blends.
Keywords Ambadi Hemp Biodiesel Efciency
Combustion
Introduction
During last few years, the importance of vegetable oil and fat based biodiesel has been established due to its renewable nature added with emission advantage over petroleum derived fuels. This is considered to be a good substitute for
petro diesel in existing diesel engines. Biodiesel scores several merits over that of the existing petroleum fuels. A signicant amount of research has been undertaken to understand the operative characteristics and emissions of biodiesel-fueled engine, as well as the technologies for production of biodiesel from various sources (Panwar et al. 2010; Jindal et al. 2010a). The experimental ndings of various researchers support the use of biodiesel as a suitable alternative to the diesel oil for use in the commonly available internal combustion engines (Jindal et al. 2010b). A large number of vegetable crops and plant seeds have been identied as good source for synthesizing biodiesel. Peanut oil (Kaya et al. 2009), palm oil (Kalam and Masjuki 2002), rapeseed oil (Karaosmanoglu et al. 1996), jatropha oil (Jindal et al. 2010b), karanj oil (Sharma and Singh 2008), etc., are popularly researched oils for production of biodiesel. In a quest for nding newer and different sources,...