G. Bell et al.

/ Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 23 (2009) 1261~1269 237

Effect of Biodiesel Fuel on Boiler Emissions

Graham Bell1, Albert Einstein2 and Erwin Schrödinger3* (Times New Roman, Font 11.5)
1
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 00000, Korea
2,3
Faculty of Engineering, University of Vienna, Karl-Lueger-Ring 1, Vienna,, Austria (Times New Roman, Font 8, Italic)

(Manuscript Received 000 0, 2009; Revised 000 0, 2009; Accepted 000 0, 2009) -please leave blank

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Abstract

Boiler is one of industrial facilities, which has energy intensive in producing steam or hot water, through fuel combustion. The large
use of industrial boilers contributes to large emission. Emission factor is one of the most common methods to quantify emissions from
combustion appliances such as boilers. As the biodiesel is an alternative fuel that has great potential to reduce emissions, it can be
potentially used as boiler fuel. In this study, biodiesel combustion emission factor is determined through fuel analysis and direct
measurements (stack sampling). A series of test was performed on a fire tube boiler, in which pressure of 3 bar, using palm biodiesel
and its blend with petrodiesel in a variety of composition of biodiesel of 10%, 20%, and 30%. It is known that SO 2 and CO emission
factors in biodiesel combustion in boiler was significantly lower than petrodiesel, while CO2 and NOx emission factors tend to higher.
Inconsistently, the stack sampling data showed that the emission of CO and CO 2 was higher than petrodiesel, instead NOx emission of
biodiesel combustion was 10% and 27% lower than petrodiesel.
Keywords: Biodiesel, Boiler Emissions,
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Diesel is one of the main fossil fuels largely consumed in
1. Introduction
industrial sectors, agriculture, commercial, and domestic with
Emission inventories are fundamental tools for air quality important roles in everyone’s life. Diesel fuel also could be
management. They are used for identifying major used in boilers for heating purposes and generating electricity
contributors of atmospheric pollutants, developing emission (Barnwal and Sharma, 2005; Knothe, 2010). Biodiesel is a
control strategies, determining applicability of permitting type of biofuel that has the potential for total or partial
programs, and other related applications by an array of users replacement with diesel fuel. Biodiesel could be made from
including federal, state, and local agencies, consultants, and vegetable oils and animal fats. Nowadays, more than 95% of
industry. Among several methods in quantifying emission, produced biodiesel is made of pure edible vegetable oil
the emission factors are frequently the best method available. (Ghorbani and Bazooyar, 2012). Biodiesel is produced from
Emission factor is typically defined as the amount of a the reaction of vegetable oil or animal fat with alcohol
concerned pollutant emitted per unit mass per a defined task (especially methanol) in the presence of a catalyst called
performed. The former is often referred as mass-based factor transesterification. The alkali-catalyzed transesterification of
and has a unit such gr pollutant/kg fuel or lb/lb. The unit of vegetable oils is currently the most commonly adopted
task or activity-based emission factor depends on the method for biodiesel production (Leung et al., 2010).
definition of the task. In case of boiler operation, the activity In many papers, biodiesel is defined as diesel replacement
unit is fuel con-sumption or heat energy input in the fuel. in diesel engines, and performance of this renewable fuel in
As occurred in internal combustion, everytime fuels burn the other criteria is not examined (Gerpen, 2005). Tashtoush
in boiler, they are converted into carbon dioxide (CO 2) and et al. (2003) examined the combustion efficiency and
water. The noncombustible portion of the fuel remains as a emissions of the ethyl ester of used palm oil relative to diesel
solid res-idue or ash. Products of incomplete combustion are fuel over a wide range of air/fuel ratios in a water-cooled
also common, and can include carbon monoixide (CO), furnace. Their findings show that at low energy input,
sulfur oxides (SOx), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), particulate biodiesel burned more efficiently with higher combustion
matters (PM), and other organic compounds. The respective efficiency. At higher energy input, biodiesel combustion
amounts and chemical composition of the emissions formed performance deteriorated and was inferior to diesel fuel due
in boilers’ stack are dependent upon variables occurring to its high viscosity, density, and low volatility. As for
within the combustion pro-cess. Fuel properties are known as emissions, biodiesel emitted lower pollutants at both energy
the major parameters which influenced the quality and levels over the whole range of A/F ratio considered
quantity of the emissions. (Tashtoush, 2003). This study investigates the effect of input

†
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© KSME & Springer 2010
0000 G. Bell et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 00 (2010) 0000~0000

air upon combustion performance and emissions of biodiesel Saponificatio

Feedstoc
and diesel fuel compared with each other in a semi-industrial
n
boiler. k Viscosity
The dominance of fossil fuel utilization for industrial boiler (g/cm3) Number Value (mg KOH/g)
(cSt, at 40 C)
undoubtedly leads to a poten-tial opportunities of the
substitution to the new and renewable energy utilization. Palm 4.5–4.66 855–898.4 196.4–206 58–61 0.24–3.6
Biodiesel use in boiler is very straightforward as it is
Coconut 2.726–4.1 807.3–877.1 - - 0.106
produced to have flow and combustion properties very
similar to those of petroleum diesel. Some exhaustive engine Soybean 4.039–4.1 885–913.8 - 0.266 128–143
tests showed that biodiesel can be adopted as an alternative
Rapeseed 4.44–4.7 882–887 - - -
fuel for existing conventional diesel engine without requiring
any major modifications in the mechanical system of the Corn 3.62–5.8 873–913 - 103–140 0.34
engine. In order to prove the potential use of biodiesel in the
Jatropha 4.4–4.75 869.2–880 192.6 93.8 0.27–3.8
boiler, especially from the aspect of reducing emissions, the
emission factor calculation needs to be studied in a Karanja 6.13 931 - - 0.3–5.06
comparison to fossil fuels.
Polanga 4 888.6 - - -

2. Material Moringa
5.05 869.6 199 77.5 8.62
2.1 Biodiesel Oliefera

‘Biodiesel’ is a general term covering a number of
esterbased oxygenated fuels produced from the fatty acid
triglycerides contained in either vegetable oils, animal fats
or waste vegetable oils (i.e., used cooking oil). There are two
types of vegetable oils feedstocks: edible and non-edible oils.
One reason vegetable oils are more attractive than petroleum
is because they contain no sulfur]. Vegetable oils produced
from different plants give different levels and mixes of fatty
acids content. Currently, the most common biodiesels are
produced from edible plant oils such as palm, soybean,
sunflower, coconut oil, etc. However, non-edible oils are also
being used for conversion into biodiesel fuels because the
production from these does not reduce the amount of
vegetable oils available for human use and consumption.
Biodiesel can be produced by various methods such
transesterification, dilution, pyrolysis and micro-emulsion.
The properties of biodiesel are the most important
characteristics for defining the combustion products.
Biodiesel fuel properties are characterized by
physicochemical properties including density (kg/m3),
viscosity (mm2/s) cetane number, calorific value (MJ/kg),
acid value (mg KOH/g-oil), pour point (oC), cloud point (oC),
flash point (oC), saponification value and iodine value. The
physical and chemical properties of each biodiesel depend on
the type of feedstock and its fatty acids composition, based on
ASTM 6751-3 and EN14214. Table 1 shows the variation in
properties of biodiesels produced from different feedstock
vegetable oils. These physicochemical properties of biodiesel
will impact on the combustion products produced or emitted.
Table 1. Properties of Biodiesel from various feedstocks
Kinematic Density
The chemical characteristics of biodiesels make any
concentra-tion of biodiesel and petroleum distillates possible
for use in compression ignition engines or in boilers.
Therefore, biofuels have lower emissions than fossil fuels. It
is also obvious that the large part of CO2 emitted in the level
of generating energy from these fuels will be consumed in
photosynthesis process by the plants in which biofuels are
made of. Consequently, CO2 will pass through the producing-
consuming cycle and not accumulate in the atmosphere
(Alonso et al., 2008).
2.2 Boiler
Boiler is one of industrial or commercial device which
crucial for steam generation. The fuel used in boiler depends
on the design and operating conditions. Boilers fuelled with
oil fossil based is still dominated by commercial and or
institutional sector, and a small portion is still used by
industry sector. In order to reduce the dependence on petro
diesel consumption, the utilization of biodiesel in blends with
diesel oil has been mandated. The Indonesia government has
targeted the use of biodiesel in the industrial and commercial
sectors, namely 20% in 2020 and 25% in 2025.
3. Effects of Biodiesel Combustion on Emission
Biodiesel has very favorable energy balance, it can be
blended in any properties with petro-leum diesel fuel, having
higher cetane number and excellent lubricity, and having high
flash-point (>300 F).11,12 Due to higher content of oxygen,
biodiesel has potential in promoting good combustion.
Biodiesel is said to be carbon neutral as more carbon dioxide
absorbed by biodiesel production than what it added to the
atmosphere when it is burnt as fuel. 12 The major advantages
of biodiesel attributed to lesser exhaust emissions in terms of
Iodine
carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and particulate matter.
 G. Bell et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 23 (2009) 1261~1269
These lower emission levels were likely due mostly to the
fact that biodiesel contains about 10% oxygen by weight, and
this oxygen helps to oxidize the combustion products in the
boiler cylinder. As expected, application biodiesel in engines
would produce less smoke and particulates than standard
engines for reasons such as high gas temper-atures and high
temperatures of the combustion chamber wall.
Some tests of biodiesel combustion were founded a
significant reductions in PM emissions. It was reported that
PM emissions of biodiesel use was roughly ten times lower
than the distil-late fuel oil.17,18,22 The reduction trend in PM is
due to lower aromatic and sulfur compounds and higher
cetane number of biodiesel, besides the factor of higher
oxygen content.23,24 Carbon monoxide emissions were
generally correlated to PM emissions trend. Sulfur emissions
are essentially eliminated with the use of pure biodiesel.6,18
In a combustion process, biodiesel resulted fewer CO2
emissions due to the lower carbon to hydrogen ratio. 6 This is
also attributed to the fact that biodiesel is a low carbon fuel
and has a lower elemental carbon to hydrogen ratio than
diesel fuel. CO2 emission rise or keep similar due to more
efficient combustions proceed.15,16,21,23 Instead, while soybean
biodiesel tested on boiler, the net CO 2 emissions would drop
by about 79% compared to diesel oil.18
However, biodiesel generally produces more nitrogen
oxides (NOx) than petroleum diesel. NOx and other emission
limits are requiring engine manufacturers to develop new
technologies to limit petroleum diesel emissions, hence any
increase is problematic.10,15 The source of these increased
emissions is unclear and still under debate. Most of the
authors who tested biodiesel in diesel engine found that only
the oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emission which was increased
in boiler emission due to higher temperatures in combustion
chamber.6,17,23 Moreover, Miller (2008) was tested some
blends of soy based and animal based biodiesel on a
commercial-institutional boiler with heat input of 85 000
Btu/h. They reported that the largest emission reductions
were identified on the pollutants of SO 2, total hydrocarbon
(HC) and CO2, while the emissions of NOx and CO found to
be higher than petroleum diesel oil.18
Technically, a boiler’s excess air supply provides for safe
operation above stoichiometric conditions. As known, the
stoichiometri air to fuel ratio for biodiesel was about 13.8.14 A
typi-cal burner is usually set up with 10%–20% excess air
(2%–4% O2).5 It is set in order to per-form good combustion
with lesser exhaust emissions.
4. Emission Factors Development
In quantification of boiler emission, the most common
methods used were sampling or direct measurement, mass
balance, and engineering calculation (fuel analysis and
emission fac-tors). The method used depends on available
data, available resources, and the degree of accu-racy
requirement. In general, direct measurement is the most
239
accurate for characterizing and quantifying the emissions.3
Emission factors developed from measurements for a
specific process may sometimes be used to estimate
emissions at other sites. Ideally, the emissions estimates are
based upon factors compiled through extensive fields testing
and are related to the fuel type, the boiler type and size, and
the method of firing. Although the use of emission factors
based on the above parame-ters can yield an accurate first
approximation of on-site boiler emissions, these factors do
not reflect individual boiler operating practices or equipment
conditions, both of which have a major influence on emission
rates.
From fuel and stack emission data, the emission factors
specific will be generated to boiler operations. The emission
factors are stated as the amount of a concerned pollutant
emitted per unit mass of fuel burned (gr pollutant/kg fuel).
The primary information necessary to develop emission
factors in the standardized units. Emission factors are
commonly provided as an emis-sion rate (e.g., lb
pollutants/lb fuel combusted) and also provided above the
fuel heat input rate (e.g., lb pollutants/MMBtu). Minnesota
Pollution Control Agency19 has already released a data-base
of emission factor of biodiesel combustion in boilers, as well
Miller (2008) concluded in a study18 as presented in Table I.
5. Experimental and Engineering Calculations
5.1 Direct Measurement
A fire tube cylindrical pilot plant boiler was used in the
study to perform the emission effect of biodiesel combustion.
As shown in Fig. 1, the boiler was operated in a pressure of 3
bars and heat capacity of 60 000 kCal/h, the detailed
specification is listed in Table II. On burner set, the
arrangement of air supply was maintained in fan damper
scale of f 4.0–4.6. The biodiesel used in the test was palm
methyl ester and stack flue gas was monitored with portable
gas analyzer IMR 1400.
The characterization of biodiesel was conducted
following the American Society for Testing and Materials
(ASTM) and European Standards (EN) methods, and the
analysis of fatty acid components contained in palm biodiesel
was conducted by gas chromatography Hewlett Packard (HP)
series with capillary column Innowax Agilent with a Flame
Ionization Detector (FID) and split injector, using nitrogen as
the carrier gas.
5.2 Calculating Emission Factors Using Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
Emission factors developed from pollutant concentration
data, with considering oxygen per-centage in the gas stream,
and F factors (Fd) for oil type of fuel (2.65 x 10 -7 dscm/J or
9.190 dscf/MMBtu). The formulation is:
0000 G. Bell et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 00 (2010) 0000~0000

delayed. The DOI number will be assigned by the journal

where EFx is the emission factor in lb/MMBtu of pollutant
x, Cd is the pollutant concentration (lb/dscf), and Fd is the
F factor at standard condition 20 C and 760 mmHg ¼ 9190
dscf/MMBtu (oil fuel)—ASTM Method D 388-77.9
office. The manuscript received, revised and accepted dates
will be checked and corrected by the journal office.
Acknowledgments
This work supported by Research Program supported by
the Department of Education and Technology (program
name), Country Name.

Nomenclature
E : (Effective) work potential

E0 : Exergy

E00 : Energy of a system

K : Kelvin temperature scale

S : Entropy

T : Temperature or Celsius temperature scale

W : Effective work

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