Flame Characteristics of Vaporized Renewable Fuels and Their Blends with Petroleum Fuels - Novel Combustion Concepts for Sustainable Energy Development - page 292

results of different phases, the delineation of the effects of different variables was
possible.
The studies of the

cant since they dealt with the
effects of chemical molecular structure and properties of fuels. A comparison of the
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first phase were highly signi

flame characteristics of biofuels and their counterparts of petroleum fuels yielded

first-order projections of the effects on performance and emissions of combustion
devices when the latter were replaced by the drop-in biofuels, of course if the other
parameters such as device design and operational characteristics were kept constant.
This phase was also designed to facilitate the requirement of small quantities (of the
order of 150 ml) of fuels produced in the research stages of fuel production and to
rapidly yield results on a comparative basis (Love et al. 2009b ). The data could be
provided as feedback to the fuel production researchers to help them modify the
chemical structure and fuel production process algorithms.
The fuels that have been tested so far in this program include canola methyl
ester, soy methyl ester, palm methyl ester, their counterparts of petroleum fuels,
Jet A fuel and ASTM No. 2 diesel fuel, and their blends with different concentration
of biofuel. The recent work on palm methyl ester (PME) in the first phase of the

research program is presented in this paper which consists of the literature pertinent
to the combustion of PME, materials and methods, results and discussion, summary
and conclusion comparing the

flames of Jet A fuel and PME. The fatty acid
composition of PME was 1.9 % meristic acid, 44.2 % palmitic acid, 4.5 % stearic
acid, 39.6 % oleic acid, and 9.8 % linoleic acid by weight.

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3 Flame Studies of Vaporized Biofuels (Jet A and Palm
Methyl Ester)

3.1 Relevant Literature

The study by Masjuki et al. ( 1995 ) focused on the use of palm oil for its lubricant
properties. Masjuki and co-workers targeted Malaysian crude palm oil which when
successfully converted to methyl esters, also known as palm oil diesel (POD), was
readily combustible in diesel engines. The addition of POD to commercial lubri-
cating oils was found to enhance the performance of such oils. Results obtained
from this study showed that the power output and brake speci c fuel consumption

of the engine lubricated with commercial SAE 40 oil blended with POD were
comparable to those obtained with 100 % SAE 40 oil. Wear debris analysis showed
that blends of POD and SAE 40 commercial lubricating oil increased the anti-wear
characteristics of the engine when compared to those with 100 % SAE 40 lubri-
cating oil.
Karavalakis et al. ( 2009 ) studied regulated and unregulated exhaust emissions
and fuel consumption with diesel fuel and palm-based biofuel blends at proportions
of 5, 20, and 40 % in a Euro 3 compliant light duty vehicle and documented the