Volume 1 Issue 3 (2022)

Article

Thermochemical Property Predictions in Biomass Transformation to Fuel Components and Value-added Chemicals

Biomass transformation to fuel and platform chemicals is of an immense interest in the world. The thermochemical data for various reactions involved during biomass transformations to fuel components, fuels and platform chemicals have been investigated using highly accurate Gaussian-4 (G-4) method. Glucose to 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (5-HMF) conversion is a two-step pathway, where first step, glucose isomerization to fructose is highly endothermic with high activation energies. 5-HMF upgradation can be carried through hydrogenation, oxidation, condensation and rehydration. Upgradation of HMF to fuel and value-added chemicals (VAC) is an industrially important process that can reduce the demand of petrochemical based products. Thermochemical calculations predict the hydrogenation of 5-HMF to 2,5 dimethyl furan (2,5 DMF) is feasible and follow either pathways with dihydroxy methyl furan (DHMF) and methyl furan (MF) as intermediates. The total Gibb’s free energy difference for the 5-HMF transformation to 2,5 DMF is highly exothermic. The condensation, rehydration and oxidation reactions of 5-HMF also predicted to be feasible and highly exothermic in nature. That can have potential application in industrial processes. Ethanol is mixed with petrol to run the vehicle on reduced fuel. Ethanol can be obtained from glucose following glycolysis pathway, breaking C-6 sugar to two C-3 sugars. Glyceraldehyde and pyruvic acid are the intermediates in the glycolysis cycle with positive Gibbs free energy change, hence requiring high temperature.

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Article

Performance and Emission Characterstics of Diesel Engine Using Milk Waste Water Bio-diesel

Due to increased usage of petroleum products, fossil fuels are getting exhausted. After discussions, scientists came to a conclusion that there should be an alternative fuel source which can be used instead of diesel. Through this experiment, the authors are going to investigate the possibilities of using milk waste water bio-diesel as an alternative source. The milk waste water methyl ester blends are added with fuels at ratio of 10% and 20% and a turbo charged diesel engine is used to test it. The engine is running under steady condition. The concentration of nitrogen oxide (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), total particulate matter (PM) and unburned hydro carbon are mainly observed in this experiment. From the recorded results, it is concluded that the milk waste water methyl ester (MWME) did not encounter with the engine thermal efficiency when comparing with the diesel engine. The outcomes of MWME upon CO and HC emissions were depended upon the load given to the engine. This resulted in poor breakup and evaporation properties. While comparing with soya bean bio-diesel, the milk waste water bio fuel emitted less NOx. A same test with milk waste water with milk waste water and soya bean fuel was done with high and low load conditions to absorb the particulate matter emissions. The results exposed that at lower load conditions, the level of PM emission was very high for milk waste water bio-diesel blend when comparing with soyabean blends and the fossil diesel.
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