Performance Evaluation of Biodiesel Produced from Avocado Seed in Diesel Engine

Abstract

Biodiesel is produced through a chemical process called transesterification, which refers to a catalyzed chemical reaction involving vegetable oil and alcohol to yield fatty acid alkyl esters (biodiesel) and glycerol as a byproduct. Biodiesel is petroleum substitution in which its quantity continually decreases due to increasing of demand. Plenty of plants could be used as raw material for biodiesel, for example is avocado (Persea gratissima) seed. The study was carried out to produce biodiesel through transesterification of waste avocado seed. The method involves solvent assisted alkali-catalyzed transesterification. Avocado seed (persea gratissima) is a waste that so many people throw them away after using the fruit flesh. This thesis focuses on the performance characteristics of diesel engine vehicle using biodiesel fuel mixture of avocado seed oil with diesel fuel. In this work, crude oil from waste avocado seed is obtained using chemical extraction method and the biodiesel is produced using a process called transesterfication. Performance analysis is done on chassis dynamometer on four stroke, four cylinder diesel engine vehicle. Brake power, brake torque and brake specific fuel consumption of biodiesel blends shows similar pattern with slight reduction of brake power and torque as the blend ratio increased as compared to that of diesel fuel on performance test result. Four selected important properties of the biodiesel were measured and all this properties are in the limits of the test standard for all blends of the biodiesel tested. The blends of the avocado seed biodiesel in this work uses a mixture of avocado seed oil biodiesel and diesel fuel with volumetric compositions of avocado seed oil biodiesel : diesel fuel were 10%: 90% (B10), and 20%: 80% (B20 ).