CHAPTER 1

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Energy Scenario

Energy is one of the basic needs for the development of any country and now it

becomes very critical concern for developing countries. The requirement of

energy globally is increasing faster than the population. International Energy

Agency (IEA) estimated that, global energy requirement will increase by 53% till

2030. The fossil fuels are the main source of energy today. 88.1% of total energy

is supplied by fossil fuel; where in crude oil contributes 34.8%, coal 29.2% and

natural gas 24.1%. The contribution of nuclear energy stands at 5.5% and

hydroelectricity at 6.4%. Most countries are dependent on petroleum based fuels.

Fig 1.1 represents to global energy consumption in terms of million tones oil

equivalent (MTOE) of various energy resources with time [1].

Primary energy sources are stored natural resources such as crude oil, Coal,

natural gas, biomass, radioactive substances, Earth's interior thermal energy

and gravitational potential energy. Mostly, commercial and transport energy

requirement are fulfilled by petroleum based fuels and natural gas [1].

Page 1 of 137
 Fig 1.1 World Energy distribution, June 2014[1]

Renewable energy resources are reproducible resources of nature. Non-

renewable energy resources are limited conventional energy resource such as

fossil fuels, which are likely to exhaust with time. For displacing depleting fossil

fuel and to address emission concerns, new alternative fuels have to be

developed. Mixing of air with fuel is directly dependent on microscopic and

macroscopic spray characteristics adequate mixing of air with fuel leads to better

combustion and low air pollution, formation in engine. Suitability of liquid

alternate fuel such as biodiesel and alcohol were investigated by microscopic and

macroscopic spray visualization techniques. Microscopic and macroscopic

analysis of fuel gives droplet size distribution with velocity, penetration length,

cone angle, and spray projected area of various fuel sprays at different injection

pressure.

Page 2 of 137
1.1.1 Alternative fuel

Petroleum fuel resources are limited in the world. Some continents are rich in

petroleum resources w.r.t their population density. On the other hand, there are

many countries which do not have petroleum reserves and are facing a foreign

exchange crisis, mainly due to import of crude oil from the limited underground

reserves in other country. Therefore it is important to search for alternative fuels

such as biofuels, which can be produced from easily available resources

domestically. Biofuels can be utilized in a diesel engine with minor modifications

to the engine hardware. For complying with the-straight emission norms, and to

produce energy from domestically available resources, various alternative fuels

have been investigated such as primary alcohols, compressed natural gas (CNG),

liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), hydrogen etc. Among various alternative fuels,

biodiesel and alcohols are alternative biofuels, which can be easily produced from

biomass resources. Most famous biodiesels in India are Jatropha and Karanja oil

based biodiesel. Many countries are carrying out research in the field of biofuels.

Production of bio-fuel worldwide has increased by 6.1% in 2013 [2]. Biodiesel

does not increase greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere as done by mineral

diesel. From the life cycle analysis, it emerged that overall carbon-dioxide

emission decreased by 78% when mineral diesel was replaced from biodiesel

diesel [3].

1.1.2 Biodiesel

Biodiesel mainly contains methyl or ethyl esters, which are produced by the

transesterification of tri-glycerides (straight vegetable oils) in presence of a

Page 3 of 137
catalyst. The straight vegetable oils, waste cooking oil, and animal fat, which

contain free fatty acids, are used as feedstock in production of biodiesel. Jatropha

and Karanja is the most important non-edible SVOs in India, which are used for

production of biodiesel. Transesterification is also called alcoholysis process. In

this process, methanol is mixed with SVO in the molar ratio of 6:1 in presence of

KOH catalyst (1% by weight of SVO) at 600C and reaction continuous for an hour

for the production of esters (biodiesel) and glycerols, as show in following

chemical reaction.

CH COO R R COO CH CH OH

CH COO R + 3CH OH R COO CH + CH OH

KOH
CH COO R R COO CH CH OH

Triglyceride + 3 Methanol 3 Methyl ester + Glycerol

Biodiesel
1.1.3 Butanol

Butanol is also primary alcohol, which has several advantages over both,

methanol and ethanol. It is produced from fermentation of biomass and fossil

fuels. Unlike methanol and ethanol, butanol is less corrosive. It has auto-ignition

temperature of 385C, which is lower than the methanol (479 C) and ethanol

(434 C). It has lower viscosity and almost similar density as compare to mineral

diesel and biodiesel. Therefore on mixing it with diesel and biodiesel, it improves

the spray characteristics. Due to its higher cetane number, butanol is best suited

additives for diesel and biodiesel amongst primary alcohols. No phase separation

can takes place on mixing butanol with mineral diesel. It has higher energy

content per unit mass compare ethanol and methanol. Butanol is less

Page 4 of 137