Browsing by Author "Onuoha, Lovelyn Ngozi"

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    Production, characterization and si engine performance evaluation of palm bunch bioethanol
    (Federal University of Technology, Owerri, 2018-09) Onuoha, Lovelyn Ngozi
    This study investigates bioethanol production from waste palm bunch. This project falls under the focus category of waste to energy as it addressed issues relating to conversion of waste which poses a disposal burden to energy. Physical properties of the feedstock which was collected from Siat Nigeria Limited Ubima, Rivers State were determined to consist of 57.44 % cellulose, 16.89 % hemicelluloses, 15.87 % lignin and 5.57 % ash. The raw material was prepared by physical pretreatment, chemical hydrolysis, fermentation and distillation to obtain bioethanol fuel. The presence of bioethanol and its optimum preparation condition were established from a preliminary experiment in the laboratory. The physical pretreatment which is the most critical step being labour intensive reduced the feedstock size to 850 microns. Hydrolysis carried out with H2SO4 on 200 g of the pretreated raw material gave optimum yield of 27 g/L xylose and 49 g/L glucose with 1.2 % acid load for 30 minutes at 160 0C, giving a total sugar yield of 76 g/L. Fermentation of the optimum hydrolyzate with S. cereviasea for 72 hours at room temperature gave optimum bioethanol yield of 32 g/L. A charcoal fueled distiller of 20 L feed/h loading capacity, 8.95 kW reactor power rating was fabricated based on the preliminary data. The distiller was used to distill bioethanol from the optimum fermentate, at 75 % combustion efficiency. 817 ml of bioethanol was obtained in 115 minutes at actual combustion efficiency of 55 % and power rating of 12.2 kW. The distiller has high flexibility of handling various boiler feed using different biomass solid fuel in the reactor. The produced bioethanol elemental analysis conforms to ASTM D4806. Fuel blends of the bioethanol with pure petrol were characterized based on ASTM D4814. At 15 0C, density of pure petrol increased from 744.73 kg/m3 to 782.5 kg/m3 with increase in bioethanol while E100 has 791.13 kg/m3 . Octane number of pure petrol increased with increase in bioethanol in the blends. Flash point of all the blends is below 15 0C making them susceptible to ignition and has the chance of flammability hazard. The vapour pressure of pure petrol increased with 10 % bioethanol but decreased with increase in bioethanol from 20 %. Bioethanol content above 10 % increased viscosity of pure petrol. Calorific value of pure petrol was decreased with increase in bioethanol percentage in the blends. The suitability of the fuel blends as SI engine fuels were studied at full, 3/4 and 1/2 engine loads; and at 2500 rpm, 3000 rpm and 3500 rpm engine speeds. The performance evaluation was carried out in a single cylinder, four strokes, air cooled Petrol Engine. The performance characteristics observed showed that, blending pure petrol with the bioethanol increases the brake power, brake specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiencies. The engine performance results recommend blending pure petrol with 10 – 30 % of the bioethanol. Thus, the need of bioethanol for energy sector could be met by using Nigerian waste palm bunch as raw material.