Abstract
Palm oil is being seriously looked at as one of the alternative fuels to fossil fuels, this being due to the aspect of vegetable oils and the so called carbon neutral state. However, at room temperature, the viscosity of palm oil is too high to apply as a fuel for the internal combustion engine. In this study, pure palm oil is mixed with fossil fuels, this in order to reduce the viscosity. In the experiment palm oil was blended with gas oil and then marine diesel oil, by weight ratio, and the kinematic viscosity of the mixed fuels were measured. In the cases of 20% palm oil used, and 50%, was found to be useable without any heating of the fuels. Engine performances, such as cylinder pressure histories and exhaust emissions, were examined with a pre-combustion chamber type diesel engine. We discovered that a palm oil blended fuel shows earlier ignition and shorter combustion period than gas oil or marine diesel oil. NOx emissions show a lower concentration for all palm blended cases, and the reduction ratio is proportional to the palm mixing amount. From these results, we can suggest that palm oil could be used for the diesel engine by mixing with the fossil fuels without heating the fuels.
