Journal of Environmental Protection, 2011, 2, 454-459
doi: 10.4236/jep.2011.24052 Published Online June 2011 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jep)
A Comparative Study of Thumba Seed Bio Diesel
Shiv Lal1, V. K. Gorana1, N. L. Panwar2
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajasthan Technical University, Kota, India; 2Department of Renewable Energy Sources,
College of Technology and Engineering, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, India.
Received February 23rd, 2011; March 26th, 2011; April 29th, 2011.
ABSTRACT
Biodiesel is considering a clean-burning fuel produced from non edible vegetable oils, or animal fats. It is produced by
transesterification of oils with short-chain alcohols or by the esterification of fatty acids. In the present context, bio-
diesel is an alternative eco friendly diesel fuel. Keeping this in view, an attempt has b een made through th e experiment
of Thumba blended biodiesel on CI engine in laboratory and analyzes its properties and characteristic compare with
other biodiesel oils. Five blends B05, B10, B15, B20 and B25 of thumba seed oil biodiesel were papered and it per-
formance was evaluated with 7HP four-stroke diesel engine. The performance of thumba seed oil biodiesel were com-
pared with biodiesel prepared by mustard, castor and Jatropha seed oil with same blends.
Keywords: Bio-Diesel, Thumba Oil, Blending, Engine Testing, Pollution
1. Introduction
Climate change is a global phenomenon that has a global
scale impact. The current trend of climate change to-
wards the warming of the globe has resulted in various
changes in the geological, climatology, social, economi-
cal, and biological processes worldwide. Temperature of
the globe has increased due to various factors, but an-
thropogenic p lays a major cont ribution through th e heav y
input of Greenhouse gases [1]. The emission from the
vehicle is one the reason for global warming. So there is
need to find out alternative of petroleum diesel. The bio-
diesel is one of replacement of diesel fuel. The biodiesel
has been used to reduce petroleum consumption and pol-
lutant emissions. Biodiesel is a non-toxic, sulphur-free,
biodegradable, oxygenated and environment friendly
alternate diesel fuel. Biodiesel (fatty acid alkyl esters) is
an alternative diesel fuel derived from the reaction of
vegetable oils or lipids and alcohol with or without the
presence of a catalyst [2]. One of the important charac-
teristic of biodiesel fuel is that its use does not require
any significant modification in diesel engine [3].
One of the importance aspects of biodiesel is its bio-
degradability and being more environmental friendly
than of the fossil fuels, resulting in less environmental
impact upon accidental release to the environment. There
are number of studies conducted by many researcher,
scientist and entrepreneurs on safety, health and envi-
ronmental effects of biodiesel emissions when biodiesel
considered as a vehicular fuel [4-6]. In general combus-
tion of biodiesel fuel in compression-ignition (CI) en-
gines results in lower smoke, particulate matter, carbon
monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions as compared to
diesel combustion while the engine efficiency is little
improved [7-9]. This may due to heating value, less calo-
rific value, oxygen content, viscosity and higher density
[10-12]. It was found that using biodiesel in diesel en-
gines can reduce HC, CO and PM emissions but NOx
emission may increase [13,14]. In present study the bio-
diesel derived from thimba seed oil has been used. Five
blends (B05, B10, B15, B2 0 and B25) were prep ared and
its performance were compared with biodiesel produced
from mustard, cast or a n d jat r op ha seed oil.
2. Seed Preparation
The action plan of India on biodiesel is targeted on Jat-
ropha curcas Because it is a drought-resistant tree be-
longs to the Euphorbiaceae family, which is cultivated in
all part of India.. Thumba seed oil is one which found in
western Rajasthan (India) and it is very familiar to use in
soap manufacturing industries. The Thumba is also a
wild plant and does not produce any harmful effect like
jatropha curcas seed if it comsumed by animal or hun-
man being. Thumba usually growing in rainy season and
its seed available in summer season. Figure 1 shows the
humba and their seeds. t

A Comparative Study of Thumba Seed Bio Diesel455
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
Figure 1. Thumba seed.
3. Experimental Set-up
The performace and suitability of thumba seed oil bio-
diesel a four-stroke single cylinder diesel engine having
brake power 7 bhp at 1500 rpm, the cylinder stroke length
and bore diameter are 110 mm and 87.5 mm respectively
was used. The orifice diameter 25 mm and coefficient of
discharge is 0.64. The brake drum type dynamometer of
0.155 m drum diameter is used for applying the load.
Maximum load capacity of this engine is 20 kg. The ex-
perimental set is shown in Figure 2. In which 1-2-3-12 is
an air circuit. In this circuit air passed through air filter (2)
and goes to the engine through engine inlet valve. For the
measurement of air supply to the engine a U-tube ma-
nometer (4) was used. Air compressed by the piston in
compression stroke at the end of compression combus-
tion starts and after complete combustio n in power strok e;
the combusted gases goes through the filter in the at-
mosphere. Here 10-8-7-11-6 is a fuel circuit for bio-diesel
supply. Whereas 10 is a fuel tank, 9 is a grad uated trans-
parent glass tube which used to measure the fuel con-
sumption in engine per second, 8 is a fuel filter, 7 is a
fuel pump and 6 is multi-point injector. For measur ing of
brake power a brake drum type dynamometer was used at
the engine which shows in label 15 (drum) and 16 (belt
and weight spring). Another most important circuit is the
cooling circuit in which 14 is th e source or sink of water
supply to the engine where 13, 19, are the pump and
three way valve respectively.
4. Results and Discussion
The variation of brake specific fuel consumption with
respect to break horse power is presented in Figure 3.
Five blends (B05, B10, B15, B20 and B25) were pre-
pared with four different biodiesel namely, mustard, cas-
tor, thumba and jatropha. For all blends tested, brake
specific fuel consumption is found to decrease with in-
crease in BHP. Blend, B10 of all biodiesel yield better
results as compared to other blends.
Figure 2. Experimental set-up.

A Comparative Study of Thumba Seed Bio Diesel 456
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
(e)
Figure 3. Break specific fuel consumption with break horse power.

A Comparative Study of Thumba Seed Bio Diesel 457
Figure 4 reveals the var iation of mechanical efficiency
with respect to BHP for different blends. In all cases,
brake thermal efficiency was having tendency to increase
with increase in applied BHP. Thumba seed biodiesel
blends (B20) shows comparable mechanical efficiency
with other bio d i esel .
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
(e)
Figure 4. Mechanical efficiency with BHP.

A Comparative Study of Thumba Seed Bio Diesel 458
ISFC of thumba seed biodiesel is lowest at B25 for all
loads and it is comparable for other blending to corre-
sponding load as illustrated in Figure 5.
5. Conclusions
The major problem associating with diminishing petro-
leum reserves and the increasing attentiveness of envi
(a) (b)
\
(c) (d)
(e)
Figure 5. isfc v/s bhp.

A Comparative Study of Thumba Seed Bio Diesel459
ronmental pollution from fossil petroleum fuel emissions
have led to the urge to find renewable alternative fuels as
a substitute for petroleu m based fuel. Biodiesel is a clean
burning fuel that is renewable and biodegradable. Bio-
diesel is found better substitute for petroleum diesel and
also most advantageous over petro-diesel for its envi-
ronmental friendliness. The quality of biodiesel fuel was
found to be considerable for its doing well use on com-
pression ignition engines and ensuing replacement of
non-renewable fossil fuels. Biodiesel produce from
thumba seed oil also yield comparable results with pe-
troleum diesel.
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