Fuel properties and emission characteristics of biodiesel fuel produced from waste cooking oil using CaO/CaFe2O4 catalyst

Abstract

The key challenges to be overcome while selecting the most suitable potential substitutes for petro-diesel are the high cost of various biodiesel and the demand for their feedstock as food materials. In addition, certain properties of biodiesel, such as high viscosity and density limit their usage in compression ignition (CI) engines since they can severely damage the components of the engine and shorten their useful lives. To address these problems, biodiesel was produced from waste cooking oil via a transesterification process using CaO/CaFe₂O₄ composite nanocatalyst. The characteristics of the exhaust emissions of the various biodiesel blend with petro-diesel (B20, B50, and B80) as well as the produced biodiesel (B100) and diesel (D100) were tested in a four-stroke, horizontal, single-cylinder, water-cooled diesel engine at a constant speed of 1500 rpm. The produced WCO biodiesel properties were within the range of ASTM biodiesel standards. Emission study results indicate that utilizing B20, B50, and B80 blends resulted in reduced CO, HC, and CO₂ emissions than using petro-diesel fuel. In comparison to diesel fuel, the different blends emit more NO_x. The reduction in CO, HC, and CO₂ emissions for B20 and B50 is (7.88, 25.29, and 31.26 %) and (9.24, 5.54, and 27.85 %) respectively. The reductions are (10.4, 6.02, and 21.96%) for B80. These biodiesel blends produced higher NOx emissions than diesel fuel, with B20, B50, and B80, respectively, producing 1.2%, 1.79%, and 2.96% increases in NO_x emissions.