Fuel 126 (2014) 194201

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Fuel
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel

Fundamental combustion characteristics of Jatropha oil as alternative fuel for gas turbines
Nozomu Hashimoto , Hiroyuki Nishida, Yasushi Ozawa
Energy Engineering Research Laboratory, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), 2-6-1 Nagasaka, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 240-0196, Japan

h i g h l i g h t s
 We investigate combustion

g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

characteristics of Jatropha oil for gas turbines.  Combustion experiments were conducted at atmospheric pressure.  NOx, CO emissions, smoke number and ame radiation intensity were measured.  The ame radiation intensity decreases with increasing mixing ratio of Jatropha oil.  The ame radiation intensity has a strong correlation with the SMD.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
To investigate the combustion characteristics of Jatropha pure oil (JPO) and Jatropha methyl ester (JME) as an alternative fuels for gas turbines, combustion experiments were conducted at atmospheric pressure employing an air-assist pressure swirl atomizer. As well as the NOx and CO concentrations and smoke number in the exhaust gas, the ame radiation intensity was measured using the two-color method. The results show that the ame radiation intensity and the soot emission decrease with increasing mixing ratio of JPO or JME to diesel fuel. It was also found that the ame radiation intensity has a strong correlation with the mean diameter of the fuel spray for all fuels. The CO emission for JPO is higher than those for JME and diesel fuel in the case of low ame temperature. 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 9 October 2013 Received in revised form 9 January 2014 Accepted 22 February 2014 Available online 6 March 2014 Keywords: Jatropha oil Biofuel Gas turbine Spray combustion Flame radiation

1. Introduction Recently, the development of various technologies for the utilization of biomass fuels as renewable energy resources has been underway from the viewpoint of reducing CO2 emission. For oil-red thermal power stations, vegetable oil can be used as an alternative biomass-derived fuel. The vegetable oil from Jatropha
Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 46 856 2121; fax: +81 46 856 3346.
E-mail address: nozomu@criepi.denken.or.jp (N. Hashimoto). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.02.057 0016-2361/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

curcas is a promising biomass-derived fuel because it does not have a direct inuence on the food price owing to its toxicity. Another advantage of Jatropha is that the latitude range in which it can be cultivated is wider than that for palm [2]. In addition, Jatropha can be grown in marginal soil [2]. According to a report by the Global Exchange for Social Investment (GEXSI) [3], there is huge area of land where Jatropha is cultivable but other edible crops are not cultivable. There are generally two ways of utilizing Jatropha oil as an alternative fuel. One way is to utilize Jatropha methyl ester

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195

Nomenclature Ap C1 C2 do Ds E Eki FSN K KA L _ air m total area of inlet to swirl chamber (m2) rst Plancks constant (3.742 1016 W m2) second Plancks constant (1.439 102 m K) discharge orice diameter (m) swirl chamber diameter (m) ame radiation intensity (W/m2) monochromatic radiation intensity for ki (W/m3) ltered smoke number [1] absorption coefcient (1/m) atomizer constant line-of-sight path length through ame (m) air supply rate (g/s) _ fuel m Q SMD T Tad fuel supply rate (g/s) combustion load (kW) Sauter mean diameter (lm) temperature of soot particles in ame (K) adiabatic ame temperature (C)

Greek symbols a constant ek i monochromatic emissivity for ki U equivalence ratio ki wavelength (m)

(JME), which is the product from the esterication of the straight oil. As a result of the esterication, the viscosity of the oil can be greatly decreased. Since the viscosity of a fuel has a signicant effect on its atomization characteristics, the straight use of Jatropha oil can cause problems in diesel engine combustion such as increased CO emission. Therefore, investigations of the JME combustion characteristics in diesel engines have been conducted by many researchers [414]. However, the esterication of vegetable oil consumes methanol and energy, which is a cause of increased CO2 emission in life cycle assessment (LCA). For this reason, the straight use of Jatropha oil without chemical treatment is advantageous for reducing CO2 emission. Therefore, investigations of the combustion characteristics of Jatropha pure oil (JPO) in diesel engines have also been conducted by many researchers [1521]. However, the main weak point of JME and JPO as fuels for automobiles is their high pour point. On the other hand, JME and JPO may be used as alternative fuels for combined cycle power plants with a gas turbine, which has a high thermal efciency. In contrast to automobiles, fuel temperature control to avoid congelation is easy. The applications of various biodiesels to gas turbines have been considered by some researchers [22]. Chong and Hochgreb performed an experimental study on the detailed spray ame structure of palm methyl ester (PME) [23] and rapeseed methyl ester (RME) [24] employing a commercial plain-jet airblast atomizer. Erazo Jr. et al. conducted an experimental study on the spray ame structure for canola methyl ester [25]. Hashimoto et al.

performed a combustion experiment on PME employing a pressure-swirl atomizer and found that the combustion characteristics of PME are similar to those of diesel fuel [26]. Rehman et al. conducted combustion tests on JME/diesel blend fuels employing a Rover IS/60 gas turbine (pressure ratio: 2.8, output power: 44 kW), and found that the CO and HC concentrations in the exhaust gas for the JME blend fuel were lower than those for the diesel fuel, while the NOx concentration for the JME blend fuel was higher than that for the diesel fuel [27]. Although experimental investigations on the combustion characteristics of vegetable oil methyl esters for gas turbine combustors have been performed as cited above, there is no research conducting combustion experiment on JPO for gas turbines as far as we know. In this study, the fundamental combustion characteristics of JPO and JME as alternative fuels for gas turbines were investigated [28]. Combustion experiments on JPO, JME and diesel fuel were conducted at atmospheric pressure. In addition to CO and NOx concentrations and the smoke number in the exhaust gas, the ame radiation intensity was measured. The effect of the fuel mixing ratio of JPO or JME to the diesel fuel on the combustion characteristics was also examined. 2. Fuel properties The properties of the fuels investigated in this study are listed in Table 1. The LHV of JPO and JME are approximately 10% lower than that of diesel fuel. The densities of JPO and JME are higher than that of diesel fuel. The ash and ignition points of JPO and JME are higher than those of diesel fuel. In particular, the ignition point of JPO is much higher than those of the other two fuels. It should be noted that JPO and JME contain more than 10 wt.% oxygen in their molecules. It is considered that the oxygen content in fuel molecules has an effect on the sooting tendency.
102

Table 1 Fuel properties. Property Density at 30 C (g/cm ) Density at 50 C (g/cm3) Density at 75 C (g/cm3) Viscosity at 30 C (mm2/s) Viscosity at 50 C (mm2/s) Viscosity at 75 C (mm2/s) Surface tension at 23 C (dyn/cm) Surface tension at 50 C (dyn/cm) Surface tension at 75 C (dyn/cm) Flash point (C) Ignition point (C) Pour point (C) Water content (wt.%) Carbon content (wt.%) Hydrogen content (wt.%) Oxygen content (wt.%) Nitrogen content (wt.%) Sulfur content (wt.%) Carbon residue content (wt.%) HHV (MJ/kg) LHV (MJ/kg)
3

Diesel fuel 0.8178 0.8042 0.7869 2.976 2.053 1.442 28.0 25.2 23.4 63 228 22.5 0.0028 86.5 13.5 <0.5 0.0002 0.0006 <0.01 45.98 43.09

JME 0.8708 0.8563 0.8382 5.408 3.575 2.375 31.1 28.9 26.9 160 249 2.5 0.0106 77.1 12.2 10.3 0.0005 0.0002 0.02 40.73 37.98

JPO 0.9096 0.896 0.8793 49.78 25.04 13.01 32.9 31.1 29.2 230 402 2.5 0.0862 77.3 11.8 10.9 0.0006 0.0002 0.41 40.14 37.47

: JPO : JME : Diesel fuel

Viscosity [mm /s]

101

100 20

40

60

80

100

120

Temperature [ ]
Fig. 1. Kinematic viscosities as functions of fuel temperature.

196 Table 2 Fuel temperature and viscosity conditions. Fuel JPO JME Diesel fuel 80% Diesel 60% Diesel 40% Diesel 20% Diesel 80% Diesel 60% Diesel 40% Diesel 20% Diesel Fuel temp. (C) 120 60 30 56 81 110 120 36 42 49 54 Viscosity (mm2/s) 5.7 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.9 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0

N. Hashimoto et al. / Fuel 126 (2014) 194201

Reference Figs. 5,6,10,11 5,6,10,11 5,6,10,11 10,11 10,11 10,11 10,11 10,11 10,11 10,11 10,11

fuel + 20% fuel + 40% fuel + 60% fuel + 80% fuel + 20% fuel + 40% fuel + 60% fuel + 80%

JPO JPO JPO JPO JME JME JME JME

chamber size is larger and the combustion chamber pressure is higher than those is this study. Therefore, instead of using the exhaust gas temperature, the adiabatic gas temperature was used to evaluate the test results. The adiabatic ame temperature was calculated by the Chemical Equilibrium with Applications (CEA) code [29]. The ratio of chemical elements was calculated from Table 1. LHV was assumed to be a constant value regardless of the fuel temperature. Enthalpies for the gas species were obtained from the JANAF thermodynamic database [30]. The temperature of air and the combustion chamber pressure were assumed to be 673 K and 0.1013 MPa, respectively, which are the same as those in the experiments. For the calculation, it is assumed that all of the air and fuel supplied into the combustion chamber react under the adiabatic constantpressure condition. 4. Experimental apparatus Fig. 3 shows the experimental apparatus used in the combustion tests. The apparatus consisted of a combustion chamber, an air supply line, a fuel supply line, a two-color thermometer, a smoke meter and an exhaust gas analyzer. The combustion experiments were carried out at atmospheric pressure. The inner diameter of the exhaust line was sufciently large to maintain the combustion chamber at atmospheric pressure. To take into account the high gas temperature of the compressed air in the actual gas turbine system, the air supplied to the combustion chamber was heated to 673 K by an electric heater in all cases. All the air was supplied from a burner placed at the bottom of the combustion chamber. The combustion chamber was cylindrical with an inner diameter of 150 mm and an axial length of 910 mm, and was made of an insulation material covered with a metal jacket. The outside of the metal jacket was cooled by a water-cooled tube. The fuel was pressurized by supplying N2 gas to the fuel chamber. The pressure of the nozzle was measured by a pressure sensor. The fuel ow rate was measured using a volumetric owmeter placed in the fuel supply line. The temperature of fuel chamber was kept at 30 C by thermostatic bath to measure the fuel ow rate accurately without the change in fuel density. The entire fuel supply line was heated by electric heaters so that the temperature immediately upstream of the nozzle tip could be controlled. Ignition was carried out by electric discharge from a spark igniter.

600 500 400 300 200 100

Upper limit for measurement

: JPO : JME : Diesel fuel

Temperature [ ]

20

40

60

80

100

Distillation [%]
Fig. 2. Distillation curves of fuel samples.

Fig. 1 shows the kinematic viscosities of the fuels as a function of fuel temperature. The plots in the gure indicate the measured values listed in Table 1. The curves in the gure were estimated using data measured by the method specied in the Japanese Industrial Standards JIS-K2283. It is found that the viscosity of JPO is much higher than those of other fuels. The viscosity of JME is between that of JPO and diesel fuel. Table 2 shows the fuel temperature and viscosity conditions in our combustion experiment. In this study, the fuel temperature was basically controlled so that the viscosity of the fuel was equal to that of diesel fuel at 30 C (3.0 mm2/s) or the upper temperature limit of the fuel heater (120 C), except when the fuel viscosity was varied (Figs. 7 and 9). In other words, the fuel viscosities in the cases of 100% JPO and 20% diesel fuel + 80% JPO were higher than those in the other cases owing to the upper temperature limit of the experimental apparatus. The distillation curves of the fuel samples are shown in Fig. 2. The distillation curves were measured based on the Japanese Industrial Standards JIS-K2254. It is found that the evaporation temperatures for JPO and JME are higher than that for the diesel fuel. The distillation test for JPO could not be completed because of the upper temperature limit of the distillation test apparatus. It is expected that the combustion characteristics will be affected by the extremely low evaporativity of JPO.

3. Chemical equilibrium calculation In this study, it is considered that the exhaust gas temperature at the exit of the combustion chamber is much lower than the ame temperature because of the heat loss through the combustion chamber wall to the environment. However, the ratio of the heat loss to the combustion load for actual gas turbine combustors is much lower than that in this study because the combustion

Fig. 3. Experimental apparatus.

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197

The concentrations of CO, NOx, O2 and total hydrocarbons (THC) in the exhaust gas from the combustion chamber were measured by a gas analyzer (CO, non-dispersive infrared method; NOx, chemiluminescence method; O2, paramagnetic method; THC, ame ionization method). The maximum uncertainties in CO, NOx, O2 and THC measurements are 1 ppm, 1 ppm, 0.25% and 1 ppm, respectively. In this study, NOx, CO and THC emissions were evaluated as their volumetric concentration in the exhaust gas corrected to 16% O2. The corrected concentration was calculated by the following equation.

X 16%O2 ;i X measured;i

20:99 16 20:99 X m;O2

where X 16%O2 ;i ; X measured;i and X m;O2 are the concentration corrected to 16% O2 of species i (ppm), the measured concentration of species i in the exhaust gas (ppm) and the measured concentration of O2 in the exhausted gas (%), respectively. The soot in the exhaust gas was evaluated in terms of the ltered smoke number (FSN) [1], obtained using smoke meter (GSM-10EA, Tsukasa Sokken Inc.). The maximum uncertainty of smoke meter is 0.05 FSN. The ame radiation intensity was calculated from the KL value and the temperature measured by the two-color method. The two-color method for the KL value and the temperature is based on the theory by Hottel and Broughton [31]. The thermal radiation intensity from soot particles is expressed by the well-known Plancks equation with Wiens approximation law as follows.

(a) Structure of air flow path

Eki

C 1 eki k5 i

  C2 exp ki T  

Here, eki is expressed by the following empirical equation [31].

eki 1 exp

KL ka i

In this study, 1.38 was employed as the value for a, which was proposed by Matsui et al. [32]. By substituting the measured thermal radiation intensities for two different wavelengths and Eq. (3) into Eq. (2), the following equation is obtained.

(b) Details of fuel-atomizing nozzle

Fig. 4. Schematic of burner.

"

#ka " #ka 1 2 k5 k5 1 Ek1 expC 2 =k1 T 1 2 Ek2 expC 2 =k2 T 1 1 1 0 C1 C1 4

5. Results and discussion Fig. 5 shows the NOx and CO emissions, (a) as a function of the adiabatic ame temperature and (b) as a function of the equivalence ratio. In Fig. 5, the fuel ow rate is constant, while the air ow rate is varied. It is found that the CO emission increases with decreasing adiabatic ame temperature (with decreasing equivalence ratio) for all fuels. The increase in the CO emission is considered to be caused by the decrease in the oxidation rate of CO due to the decrease in the gas temperature. The same tendency (the increase in the CO emission with decreasing equivalence ratio at a low equivalence ratio) was also observed by Rink and Lefebvre [36] who conducted the combustion experiment of gas turbine type combustor with various operating condition and Khalil and Gupta [37] who investigated the combustion characteristics of butyl nonanoate biofuel, hydrogenated renewable jet fuel and JP-8 using a swirling colorless distributed combustor. The increase in the CO emission for JPO is larger than those for the other fuels. This is considered to be caused by the extremely low evaporativity of JPO and/or the different reactivity of the fuel vapor from JPO, because the low evaporativity causes the decrease in the reaction time of the gaseous fuel and the intermediate product represented by CO and the low reactivity of the fuel vapor also causes the decrease in the reaction time of CO. It is also found that the changing trend of the NOx emission with the adiabatic ame temperature of JPO was different from that for the other fuels, i.e., the NOx

In this study, 550 and 650 nm were employed for k1 and k2, respectively, to avoid the superposition of the radical emission and chemiluminescence on the thermal radiation. The temperature, T, was calculated from Eq. (4). Then, KL was calculated from Eqs. (2) and (3) using T. The ame radiation intensity, E, was calculated by integrating Ek with respect to k as follows.

Ek dk

 C 1 1 expKL=ka k5

  C2 dk exp kT

The maximum uncertainty for the measurement value of Ek is 3%. Fig. 4 shows a schematic of the burner used in the combustion test. A pressure-swirl-type atomizing nozzle with a diameter of 0.4 mm was placed at the center of the burner. The liquid fuel was sprayed from the atomizing nozzle, after being swirled in a small swirl chamber (diameter of 1.37 mm). The atomizer constant, KA, of the atomizing nozzle, which is dened by the following formula [33], is 0.33.

K A Ap =do Ds

A small amount of air (about 10% of the total amount of air) was supplied to the nozzle cap to prevent the accumulation of soot [34] and to assist the atomization of the fuel spray. The effect of the assist air on the fuel atomization characteristics was reported by Fan et al. [35].

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N. Hashimoto et al. / Fuel 126 (2014) 194201

O 2]

, , ,

: NOx, CO (JPO, Q = 48.4 kJ/s) : NOx, CO (JME, Q = 48.4 kJ/s) : NOx, CO (Diesel fuel, Q = 51.9 kJ/s)

, , ,

: NOx, CO JPO : NOx, CO JME : NOx, CO Diesel fuel mair: 39.5 g/s mfuel: variable

200

O2]

60

NOx, CO [ppm at 16

NOx [ppm at 16

40
mfuel: constant mair: variable

40 100 20

20

1200

1400

1600

1800

0 1000

1100

1200

1300

1400

1500

0 1600

Adiabatic flame temperature [ ]

Adiabatic flame temperature [

(a) As a function of adiabatic flame temperature

, , , : NOx, CO (JPO, Q = 48.4 kJ/s) : NOx, CO (JME, Q = 48.4 kJ/s) : NOx, CO (Diesel fuel, Q = 51.9 kJ/s)

(a) As a function of adiabatic flame temperature

, , , : NOx, CO JPO : NOx, CO JME : NOx, CO Diesel fuel mair: 39.5 g/s mfuel: variable

O 2]

200

O2]

NOx, CO [ppm at 16

NOx [ppm at 16

40
mfuel: constant mair: variable

40 100 20

20

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.3

0.4

0.5

Equivalence ratio [-]

Equivalence ratio [-]

(b) As a function of equivalence ratio

Fig. 5. NOx and CO emissions (the air ow rate was varied).

(b) As a function of equivalence ratio

Fig. 6. NOx and CO emissions (fuel ow rate was varied).

emission for JPO monotonically decreased with increasing adiabatic ame temperature, while that for diesel fuel and JME had a minimum values at adiabatic ame temperatures approximately 14001500 C. It can be understood from Fig. 5 that the NOx emission is greatly affected by the air ow rate. Fig. 6 shows the NOx and CO emissions, (a) as a function of adiabatic ame temperature and (b) as a function of equivalence ratio. In this gure, the air ow rate is constant and the fuel ow rate is varied. It is found that there is no marked difference in the NOx concentration between the three fuels. However, the CO emission for JPO is higher than those for diesel fuel and JME at a low adiabatic temperature (at a low equivalence ratio). In particular, when the adiabatic ame temperature is below 1300 C, the CO emission for JPO increases steeply with decreasing adiabatic ame temperature, while there is almost no marked change in the CO emission for diesel fuel and JME above an adiabatic ame temperature of 1200 C. This is also considered to be caused by the extremely low evaporativity of JPO and/or the different reactivity of the fuel vapor from JPO. Although the SMD of JPO spray is larger than that of JME and diesel fuel sprays because of the high fuel viscosity, as indicated in Table 2, it is conjectured that the difference in SMD does not have a signicant effect on the NOx and CO emissions as discussed in the following. Fig. 7 shows the NOx and CO emissions as functions of the fuel viscosity. The average SMD as a function of the fuel viscosity obtained from the results of spray experiments carried out by Fan et al. [35] is also shown for comparison. It should be noticed that both the air and fuel ow rates are constants for each fuel, i.e., only the fuel temperature is varied in Fig. 7. As the fuel viscosity increases, the SMD once increases until taking the local

maximum around the viscosity of 6 mm2/s, and then decreases. After the taking the local minimum around the viscosity of 14 mm2/s, the SMD again increases with the increasing fuel viscosity. The decrease in the SMD with the increasing the fuel viscosity is considered to be caused by the effect of increase in the relative velocity between the assist air and the liquid fuel lm [35] (see the Eq. (5) in Ref. [35] for details). It is found that the NOx emission does not change signicantly with the fuel viscosity, although the average SMD is drastically changed upon changing the fuel viscosity. As shown in Fig. 5, the air ow rate has a major effect on the NOx emission. However, it is considered from Fig. 7 that the SMD does not have a signicant effect on the NOx emission under the experimental conditions in this research. It is also found that the CO emission does not change signicantly with the fuel viscosity except when the fuel viscosity is above 20 mm2/s. As shown in Figs. 5 and 6, the CO emission is strongly affected by the adiabatic ame temperature. In Fig. 7(a), however, there is no marked change in the CO emission below the fuel viscosity of 20 mm2/s, where the SMD drastically changes with the fuel viscosity, as observed in Fig. 7(b), although there are differences in the absolute value of the CO emission between the three fuels. The CO emission increases with the increase in the fuel viscosity above a fuel viscosity of 20 mm2/s for JPO. This is caused by the fact that the atomization of JPO does not progress in the vicinity of the nozzle in this fuel viscosity range as indicated in the following. Fig. 8 shows images of Jatropha oil sprays with viscosities of 24.47 and 7.46 mm2/s taken from the spray experiments carried out by Fan et al. [35]. Although the SMD measured 40 mm downstream from the atomizer for the fuel viscosity of 24.47 mm2/s is lower than that for the fuel viscosity of 7.46 mm2/s, as shown in

CO [ppm at 16

O2 ]

60

60

CO [ppm at 16

O2]

60

N. Hashimoto et al. / Fuel 126 (2014) 194201

199

O 2]

80

, , ,

: NOx, CO : NOx, CO : NOx, CO

JPO, : 0.39 JME, : 0.39 Diesel fuel, : 0.38

mair: 39.5 g/s Tad: 1300

NOx, CO [ppm at 16

60

40

20

10

Fuel viscosity [mm2/s]

(a) NOx and CO emissions as functions of fuel viscosity

: JPO : JME : Diesel fuel

Average SMD [m]

100

50

10
2

Fuel viscosity [mm /s]

(b) Average SMD as a function of fuel viscosity taken from Ref. [35]
Fig. 7. NOx and CO emissions and average SMD as functions of fuel viscosity.

Fig. 7, the atomization process for the fuel viscosity of 24.47 mm2/s progresses far from the atomizer exit, while that for the viscosity of 7.46 mm2/s progresses in the vicinity of the atomizer exit. Therefore, it is considered that the evaporation of fuel droplets and the subsequent mixing of fuel vapor and assist air do not proceed in the vicinity of the atomizer exit for the fuel viscosity of 24.47 mm2/s. It is considered that a ame front is formed near the recessed area of the burner where a stagnation area exists. Therefore, the extreme deterioration of the atomization in the vicinity of the atomizer exit, as shown in Fig. 8(a), can cause the ame instability due to the lack of fuel vapor-air mixing. The lack

of mixing is considered to be a cause of the increase in the CO emission for JPO in Fig. 7(a) for a fuel viscosity above 20 mm2/s. Fig. 9 shows the ame radiation intensity as a function of fuel viscosity. The measured SMD results from the spray tests carried out by Fan et al. [35] are also shown for comparison. Similar to the observation from Fig. 7, only the temperature of each fuel is varied in Fig. 9. It is found that the changes in the ame radiation intensity and the SMD with the change in the fuel viscosity are consistent, i.e., both the ame radiation intensity and SMD increase with increasing fuel viscosity in the fuel viscosity ranges of 0.85 and 1425 mm2/s, and decrease in the fuel viscosity range of 514 mm2/s. This consistency indicates that the SMD strongly affects the soot formation characteristics in the ame. Since an increase in the ame radiation intensity means an increase in the soot volume fraction in the ame, it is considered that the soot formation is enhanced by increasing SMD. This is due to the fact that the non-uniformity of the local equivalence ratio increases with increasing SMD, i.e., the volume of the local region with a high fuel vapor concentration increases with increasing SMD even if the overall equivalence ratio is constant. The strong correlation between the soot volume fraction and the SMD has also been reported by Hayashi et al. [38], who conducted combustion experiments employing a laminar counterow burner. From Fig. 9, it is claried that the strong correlation between the soot formation and the SMD consistently applies to a combustion eld with a strong swirl turbulent combustion eld as well as with a laminar combustion eld. In Fig. 9, local minima of the ame radiation intensity and SMD at a fuel viscosity of approximately 14 mm2/s are observed. The existence of the local minimum of the SMD is due to the aerodynamic interaction of the assist air and the fuel [35]. From these results, it is considered that the ame radiation intensity can be decreased by controlling the fuel temperature of JPO so that the SMD of JPO spray is minimized, as shown in Fig. 9, i.e., an optimum fuel temperature exists for JPO to minimize the ame radiation intensity. Fig. 10 shows the NOx and CO emissions as functions of the biofuel mixing ratio. The biofuel mixing ratio is dened as the ratio of the supply rate of JPO or JME to that of diesel fuel on the basis of the amount of heat. It should be noticed that the combustion load is constant in Fig. 10. It is found that the NOx emission for JPO/diesel fuel has a maximum at the biofuel mixing ratio of 0.6 or 0.8, while that for JME/diesel fuel increases linearly with the biofuel mixing ratio. This difference in the NOx emission behavior between JPO/diesel fuel and JME/diesel fuel is considered to be caused by the difference in the evaporation characteristics between JPO and JME, i.e., the evaporativity of JPO is extremely low compared to that of diesel fuel while that of JME is comparable to that of diesel fuel. It is also found that the CO emission for JPO/

Fig. 8. Images of Jatropha oil sprays taken from Fan et al. [35].

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N. Hashimoto et al. / Fuel 126 (2014) 194201

30

100 80

20

60 40

10 20 0 0

10

Fuel viscosity [mm2/s]

: Flame Rad. Int. : Flame Rad. Int. : Flame Rad. Int. mair: 39.5 g/s Tad: 1300 JPO, : 0.39 JME, : 0.39 Diesel fuel, : 0.38 : SMD (JPO) : SMD (JME) : SMD (Diesel fuel) measured by Fan et al. [35]

Fig. 9. Flame radiation intensity and average SMD as functions of fuel viscosity.

O 2]

, : NOx, CO(JPO, Tad: 1250, : 0.36-0.37, Q: 43) , : NOx, CO(JPO, Tad: 1390, : 0.43-0.44, Q: 51) , : NOx, CO(JPO, Tad: 1390, : 0.43-0.44, Q: 37) , : NOx, CO(JME, Tad: 1250, : 0.36-0.37, Q: 43) 60 Tad: Adiabatic flame temp. [ ], Q: Combustion load [kJ/s]

100

than 0.2. The ame radiation intensity, which indicates the soot volume fraction in the ame, also drastically decreases with increasing biofuel mixing ratio. This trend is considered to be caused by the fact that the sooting tendency of the biofuels is lower than that of the diesel fuel because both JPO and JME have oxygen but no aromatic ring in their molecules. Although the type of biofuel was different from that in this study, the same tendency was also reported by Allouis et al. [39] and Hashimoto et al. [26]. It was reported by Wang et al. [40] and Cignoli et al. [41] that the sooting tendency of a fuel containing aromatic rings in its molecules is higher than that of a fuel containing no aromatic ring. In addition, Song et al. [42] found that the soot from biodiesel has a high reactivity during combustion because of the inclusion of oxygen in the biodiesel molecules. From Fig. 11 and the previous results cited above, it is considered that the ame radiation intensity and the smoke from the combustor exit of a gas-turbine system fueled by a liquid fossil fuel such as diesel fuel or heavy oil can be reduced by mixing with a biofuel. The reduction of the ame radiation intensity has the benet of being able to extend the life of the combustor by avoiding high radiation heat transfer from the luminous ame. Another benet is being able to reduce the soot emission from the stack, which is strictly regulated by the law in many countries. 6. Conclusions In this study, combustion experiments were conducted on Jatropha pure oil (JPO), Jatropha methyl ester (JME) and diesel fuel at atmospheric pressure. The effect of the biofuel mixing ratio (the mixing ratio of JPO or JME to diesel fuel) on the combustion characteristics was also examined. The principal ndings are as follows. 1. The ame radiation intensity and the soot emission decrease with increasing biofuel mixing ratio for both JPO and JME. This is considered to be due to the low sooting tendency of the biofuel. 2. The ame radiation intensity has a strong correlation with the Sauter mean diameter (SMD) of the fuel spray for all fuels. Both the ame radiation and SMD for JPO have a local minimum at the same fuel viscosity. From these results, an optimum fuel temperature exists for JPO that minimize the ame radiation intensity. 3. The CO emission for JPO is higher than those for JME and diesel fuel at a low adiabatic ame temperature. One cause of this tendency is considered to be the extremely low evaporativity of JPO. 4. The NOx emission does not change signicantly with the change in the fuel ow rate or fuel viscosity. On the other hand, the air ow rate has a major effect on the NOx emission.

Flame radiation intensity [kW/m ]

NOx [ppm at 16

60 40

20 20 0 0

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

Biofuel mixing ratio JPO/(JPO+Diesel) or JME/(JME+Diesel) [J/J]

Fig. 10. NOx and CO emissions as functions of biofuel mixing ratio.

0.05 0.04

: FSN (JPO) : FSN (JME) : Flame rad. int. (JPO) : Flame rad. int. (JME)

60 50 40 30

FSN [-]

0.03 0.02

: 0.36-0.37
Q: 43 kJ/s

Tad: 1250

20 0.01 0.00 10 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 0

Flame radiation intensity [kW/m ]

CO [ppm at 16

40

O 2]

80

Average SMD [m]

Acknowledgements The authors are indebted to Dr. Y. Fan of Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry for helpful discussion. Appendix A. Supplementary material Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.02.057. References
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Biofuel mixing ratio JPO/(JPO+Diesel) or JME/(JME+Diesel) [J/J]

Fig. 11. FSN and ame radiation intensity as functions of biofuel mixing ratio.

diesel fuel at a low adiabatic ame temperature increases with increasing biofuel mixing ratio, while that for JME/diesel fuel does not increase with the biofuel mixing ratio. This is considered to be due to the CO emission for JPO at a low adiabatic ame temperature being higher than those for the other two fuels, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6. Fig. 11 shows the FSN and ame radiation intensity as functions of the biofuel mixing ratio. It is found that both the FSN and the ame radiation intensity decrease with increasing biofuel mixing ratio for both JPO and JME. The FSN for both JPO and JME is less than the lower detection limit for a biofuel mixing ratio greater

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