**Gas-Liquid Process, Thermodynamic Characteristics (19 Blends), Efficiency & Environmental Impacts, SEM Particulate Matter Analysis and On-Road Bus Trial of a Proven NOx Less Biodiesel**

Kandukalpatti Chinnaraj Velappan and Nagarajan Vedaraman *Chemical Engineering Department, Central Leather Research Institute, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Adyar, Chennai India* 

#### **1. Introduction**

316 Biodiesel – Feedstocks and Processing Technologies

Drapcho, Caye, Nghiem Phu Nhuan and Terry H.Walker. Biofuels Engineering Process Technology. New York Chicago San Fr: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc, 2008. Kalayasiri, P., Jayashke, N. and Krisnangkura, K. "Survey of seed oils for use as diesel fuels." Journal of American Oil Chemical Society (1996): 73:471–474. Noshadi I, A Review of Biodiesel Production Via Reactive Distillation AICHE Conference,

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Sharma Y.C, Singh Bhaskar, A hybrid feedstock for a very efficient preparation of biodiesel,

Sundmatcher, Kai and Achim Kienle. Reactive Distillation Status and Future Directions. Mhar. Achim Kienle Kai Sundmatcher. Megdeburg: Wiley-VCH, 2002. Viswanathan B. and A.V.Ramaswamy, 'Selection Of Solid Heterogeneous Catalysts For

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Transesterification Reaction', National Centre for Catalysis Research, Indian

of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data, 1991.

Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai 600 036

Technology, Volume, Pages 1267-1273, 2010

Spring Session,2011

240, 2003 http://www.crnindia.com http://www.castoroil.in http://www.mcxindia.com http://www.biodiesel.org http://www.coconutboard.nic.in http://www.biodiesel.com http://www.teriin.org

http://www.indexmundi.com

Biodiesel has gained worldwide attention as renewable and blending agent with some lower gas emissions, besides a slight increase of NOx emission (Michael & Robert ,1998)in the exhaust gas compared to the petroleum diesel. Vegetable oils (Srivastava & Prasad,2000; Prasad & Mohan,2003) namley soybean, sunflower, cottonseed and rapeseed have been examined for fuel without/ with a small modification in the engine. A number of problems, mainly high viscosity, are associated with vegetable oils when directly used as fuel in the CI engines (Agarwal , 1998; Sinha & Misra , 1997; Roger & Jaiduk 1985). It is difficult to reduce particulate matter (PM) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) ( Mohamad and et al., 2002) simultaneously owing the trade-off between NOx and PM. Moreover, methyl esters of vegetable oils are sulphur free and possess good lubricating properties ( De-Gang et al., 2005). Depending upon the climate and the soil conditions, different countries looking for different type of vegetable oil ( Goering et al., 1982; Fernando et al., 2003; Antolin et al., 2002; Freedam et al., 1986; Noureddini & Zhu, 1997; Mohamad et al., 2002; Yi-Hsu & Shaik, 2005; Sukumar et al., 2005) used for the biodiesel production; soybean oil in US, rapeseed oil in Europe, palm oil in Malaysia and Indonesia, and coconut oil in the Philippine are being considered (Barnwal & Sharma , 2005).

In India, out of more than 125 million tons (Arumugam et al., 2003) of rice production, about 6 million tons of rice bran and 1 million ton of RBOBD is produced annually (Table 1). General characteristics of refined rice bran oil are as follows: sp gr, 0.916 kg/m3; ref index 1.47; Cloud index, 17; iodine value, 99-108; saponification value, 180-190; unsopanifiable matter, 3.5(%); smoke point, 213 C; and fire point, 352 C. General properties of vegetable oil based biodiesel (Table 2) show many variations that might be due to the conversion to biodiesel through different raw materials and different processes.

Gas-Liquid Process, Thermodynamic Characteristics (19 Blends),

succession to get biodiesel.

Fig. 1. Lab scale experimental setup

ready to use biodiesel few samples shown in Fig.2.

Efficiency & Environmental Impacts, SEM Particulate Matter Analysis… 319

less than 30 minutes under continuous turbulent condition at rpm in the range of 100-150 to get a mixture of ester and glycerol. The Reynolds number (NRe) is maintained at not less than 4000 irrespective of the type of the reactor. The mixture of ester and glycerol is subjected to separation by known method for a period of not less than 4 hrs and the top layer ester is purified by conventional method for a period of not less than 8hrs. The process of separation as well as purification is repeated for not less than three times in

In lab scale experimental setup Fig.1, RBO was taken in the continuous stirred tank glass reactor (1 l) with reflex condenser, temperature control and agitation control setup. In another reactor, NaOH (50 g) was dissolved in methanol (300 ml). This solution was added slowly at the reactor maintained at 65-70 C for 150 min. Then the entire mixture kept in the separating funnel. The top layer, biodiesel, is taken for the removal of methanol in the ROTO vacuum distiller. Then the methyl ester washed of distilled water (1 l) in the same reactor for 30 min. After washing, top layer in the separating funnel has to be washed with saline water for two times. Finally, clear biodiesel was kept in the oven for 4 h at 100C. The


Table 1. Annual production (metric million tons) of rice, rice bran and oil in the world.

This chapter presents process for rice bran oil biodiesel (RBOBD) production, composition and physico-chemical properties of RBOBD, engine test results, scanning electron microscope (SEM) image, particulate matter in exhaust gas and emission reductions.


Table 2. Properties of Biodiesel from vegetable oils.
