Study on Bio-Fuels from Water borne Oleaginous Sources

The estimated Per-capita Energy Consumption (PEC) in India has increased from 1204 KWh in 1970-71 to 4816 KWh in 2010-11, with a CAGR of 3.44 %, as per Energy Statistics 2012, a government of India report [1]. Petroleum based energy consumption contributes to more than 25 % of the PEC, and hence there has always been a strong emphasis on any research that leads to cleaner, alternate fuels, keeping in view the diminishing fossil fuels and the environmental concerns associated with these fuels. Bio-diesel is recognized as a clean alternative fuel or as a fuel additive to reduce pollutant emissions from combustion equipment. Bio fuel (termed as B100) refers to a vegetable oil or animal fat-based fuel. Biodiesel (termed as Bxx, where xx is the percentage of bio fuel mixed) refers to a mix of bio fuels and diesel, often through a chemical reaction forming fatty acid esters consisting of long-chain alkyl esters. Extensive research has already been done using both edible and non-edible vegetable oils as bio-fuels. As cultivated land is too precious to grow bio-fuel plants such as Pongamia or Jatropha alongside food grain production, recent research focus has been on non-land-based oleaginous materials as source of biofuel production, such as water borne living beings. As per a recent study by Alaska Energy Authority [2], processing of Fish oil (for health supplements like Omega 3 Fatty acids etc. ), involves discarding nearly 2/3rd of the Fish oil. The scope of the current paper is to bring out the observations on usage of Fish Oil Blends as bio-diesel and compare the performance of Fish Oil Blended Bio fuel with pure diesel. Biodiesel with Fish Oil blends ranging from B10 to B100 by volume, were used to study the performance on a diesel engine test bed.