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In the present work, a pebble bed thermal energy storage (PBTES) system is developed to utilize the waste energy from engine exhaust. The developed PBTES is integrated with an electric dynamometer coupled stationary Diesel engine for experimental investigation. The engine performance is compared with and without integration of the PBTES system. The 60-75% of energy can be stored in the fabricated system during the charging process at various load conditions. It is found that nearly 11-15% of engine fuel energy can be saved using this storage system considering the charging process. Heat recovery/discharging from PBTES shows that 6-8.5% of fuel primary energy can be saved. The system combined (engine+PBTES) efficiency varies from 11-38% at different load conditions. The highest exergy saved is obtained as 3.32% when a 3 kW load is applied. The developed system can be easily used for domestic or industrial use space heating or hot fluid requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aligning to water-in-diesel emulsion technology, a newer work has been proposed in this study by introducing gomutra-in-diesel emulsion (GMD emulsion) fuel for application in CI engine. Experimental investigations have been performed in this study for ignition delay and combustion duration to understand the underlying mechanisms of combustion with this fuel. The complete work has been performed over a variable compression ratio (VCR) stationary diesel engine. Emulsions of different gomutra-in-diesel (5%, 10%, 15% and 20%) concentrations were taken for the study. The ignition delay was found to be 24°, 27°, 29°, 32°, and 34° crank angle (CA) with diesel, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% water-in-diesel emulsions respectively. The effect of injection timing on the engine performance was also analysed. It was observed that the combustion duration got decreased by a maximum of 12 degrees CA with 20% GMD emulsion. It is estimated that after the optimisation of other engine parameters like injection pressure and compression ratio, the performance of the engine could further be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional petroleum fuels are depleting rapidly and the prices are going up day by day. Moreover, these petroleum fuels are responsible for green house emissions and other forms of pollution in the environment. Among various options available, the fuels derived from vegetable oils have emerged as promising alternate fuels for IC engines. The use of unmodified or straight vegetable oils in diesel engine creates operational problems due to their high viscosity and poor volatility. In the present work, an experimental setup has been designed to reduce the viscosity of the fuel by blending Karanj oil with Petro-Diesel and preheating the Karanj-Diesel blend. Experiments are also conducted to determine the optimal injection pump timing for the selected blend, with respect to the engine performance parameters. Experiments are performed using Petro-Diesel and preheated Karanj-Diesel blend (in ratio 40:60 by volume) on constant speed direct injection C.I. engine. The effect of injection timing on the preheated Karanj-Diesel blend is investigated and the results are analyzed. On the basis of results obtained, the optimal injection timing is determined for Karanj-Diesel blend, which is found to be 19° BTDC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]