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Pretreatment methods to improve the kinematic viscosity of biodiesel for use in power tiller engines

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Abstract

Biodiesel is an environmentally friendly fuel that can replace diesel in compression ignition engines without changing the engine structure. Biodiesel is typically manufactured from vegetable oils and animal fats, which give the fuel its oxidation stability and cold-flow properties, respectively. However, the kinematic viscosity of biodiesel can cause engine performance problems such as incomplete combustion and sludge formation due to insufficient fuel atomization. To address these problems, in this study, a pretreatment technology that lowers the kinematic viscosity of biodiesel made from blended animal fat and vegetable oil was developed. The results of application of the pretreated fuel to a single-cylinder power tiller engine indicated that it produced 88.3–99.8 % of the brake power produced by conventional diesel. In addition, although the pretreated biodiesel exhaust included increased amounts of nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide emissions, the proposed fuel also decreased the amounts of hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions compared with conventional diesel emissions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0808, Japan

    Duk Gam Woo

  2. Department of Bio-Industrial Machinery Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, 41566, Korea

    Tae Han Kim

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  1. Duk Gam Woo
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  2. Tae Han Kim
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Correspondence to Tae Han Kim.

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Recommended by Guest Editor Maenghyo Cho.

Duk Gam Woo received his Ph.D. degree from Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea in 2017. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher with Research Faculty of Agriculture at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. His current research interests include conversion of biofuels from biomass, technology for biodiesel production, effective utilization of natural energy in agriculture.

Tae Han Kim received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo, Japan in 1989. He is currently working as a Professor with the Department of Bio-Industrial Machinery Engineering at Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea. His current research interests include effective utilization of biogas in cogeneration of power, and technology for biomass conversion into energy.

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Woo, D.G., Kim, T.H. Pretreatment methods to improve the kinematic viscosity of biodiesel for use in power tiller engines. J Mech Sci Technol 33, 3655–3664 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0706-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-0706-2

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