RUDN engineers run a diesel engine on vegetable oil

Newswise — RUDN engineers found how internal combustion engine performance changes with rapeseed oil instead of regular diesel fuel. This data will help regulate engine operation and, in the future, switch to plant biofuel. The results were published in the E3S Web Conf.

Among the possible competitors of petroleum is vegetable oil. In particular, rapeseed oil. It can be used as a fuel, although it differs in chemical and physical characteristics from conventional hydrocarbons. RUDN engineers compared diesel fuel and rapeseed oil and found out exactly how these differences would affect the performance of an internal combustion engine.

“It is possible to implement the operation of diesel engines using fuel from vegetable oils in different ways. Vegetable oils themselves can be used as fuel in pure form or as part of mixtures with diesel fuel or other petroleum and alternative fuels. More than 200 million tons of various vegetable oils are produced annually in the world. In addition, technical, low-grade, expired vegetable oils can be used for fuel. One of the most promising types of such biofuels is rapeseed oil,” Pablo Vallejo, PhD, Associate Professor of the Department of Power Engineering at RUDN University said.

RUDN engineers experimented on a high-speed small-sized diesel engine of the MD-6 type. This type of engine is used, for example, in small agricultural machinery.

When using rapeseed oil, the maximum fuel injection pressure and fuel delivery duration increased. The remaining parameters remained virtually unchanged. However, the engine performance has deteriorated significantly. For a diesel engine to run on rapeseed oil, it is necessary to reconfigure the fuel supply parameters, injection and atomization settings, and also change the dimensions of the combustion chamber. RUDN engineers have already investigated this issue and found out exactly how to adjust the engine. These results will be presented in the following works of the authors. 

“The solution to the problem of global warming and compliance with stringent emissions requirements can be achieved using various alternative fuels. The most important factor that needs to be taken into account when choosing a particular alternative fuel is the raw material base for its production. From this point of view, biofuels, which are produced from renewable energy sources of plant origin, have virtually unlimited reserves. This group includes fuels made from vegetable oils. Our results suggest that converting the MD-6 engine from diesel fuel to biofuel leads to a deterioration in the quality of the work process. To achieve the required performance indicators, you first need to change the work process itself,” Pablo Vallejo, PhD, Associate Professor of the Department of Power Engineering at RUDN University said.