Utilization of waste cooking oil via recycling as biofuel for diesel engines

Abstract

In this study, waste cooking oil (WCO) was used to successfully manufacture catalyst cracking biodiesel in the laboratory. This study aims to evaluate and compare the influence of waste cooking oil synthetic diesel (WCOSD) with that of commercial diesel (CD) fuel on an engine’s operating characteristics. The second goal of this study is to compare the engine performance and temperature characteristics of cooling water and lubricant oil under various engine operating conditions of a test engine fueled by waste cooking oil and CD. The results indicated that the engine torque of the engine running with WCOSD dropped from 1.9 Nm to 5.4 Nm at all speeds, and its brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) dropped at almost every speed. Thus, the thermal brake efficiency (BTE) of the engine fueled by WCOSD was higher at all engine speeds. Also, the engine torque of the WCOSD-fueled engine was lower than the engine torque of the CD-fueled engine at all engine speeds. The engine’s power dropped sequentially through 0.3 kW, 0.4 kW, 0.6 kW, 0.9 kW, 0.8 kW, 0.9 kW, 1.0 kW and 1.9 kW.