Performance, Emission Characteristics of Dual Fuel Engine Fuelled with Brown Briquette Biomass and Rice bran Oil Biodiesel.

In this work agricultural waste-based coconut biomass and compressed agricultural waste derived from brown briquette were used for generation of gas in a downdraft gasifier. Its subsequent combustion takes place in a modified diesel engine using rice bran oil (RiOME) biodiesel injected in bi-fuel mode. For the injected pilot fuel, producer gas operation with coconut biomass derived fuel has improved liquid fuel saving. Downdraft gasifier was integrated with four stroke DI water cooled 5.2 kW CI engine at 1500 rpm speed. Experimentation results showed that for the gasifier- engine system coconut biomass derived gas with diesel based dual fuel operation results in 9.05% higher BTE. RiOME-producer gas (CNS) operation showed 16.1% decrease in EGT and 12.1% reduction in NOx emission compared to diesel based dual fuel operation. NOx emissions for the RiOME based engine operation were found to be lower than the diesel based operation. However, the smoke, HC and CO emissions were higher. Diesel fuel saving about 56% was achieved by diesel and producer gas (CNS) dual fuel operation and 100% biofuel utilization in RiOME -producer gas bi-fuel mode of operation was achieved. Further, heat release rates and cylinder pressure for RiOME producer gas (CNS) was marginally lesser than diesel operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]