The aim of this study was to investigate the thermal conductivity of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites (NFRP) as potential structural materials. As a natural fiber, Bermuda grass seeds, conifer cones and pinecones are selected. The matrix comprised Vinyl ester resin. The mechanical properties (tensile strength and Young’s modulus) and fractography analysis were investigated in our previous study (Dikici B. M. S.-H., 2019). In the current study, the thermal conductivity was probed using transient plane source technique implemented in the TPS 2500S Thermal Constants Analyzer. The addition of 9% Bermuda fibers yielded a decrease of approximately 19.3% in thermal conductivity compared to that of the neat epoxy. With the addition of 9% nano cellulose fibers, a decrease of approximately 40.7% in thermal conductivity was observed in the nanocellulose/vinyl ester resin composite compared to the neat vinyl ester samples.

The rapid growth of eco-friendly biomass derived fuels in transportation requires a fundamental understanding of the uniqueness of their oxidation and combustion characteristics. This paper focuses on one specific class of biofuels, namely Fatty Acids Ethyl Esters (FAEE). A counterflow configuration was employed to measure the extinction limits of the diffusion flames of four ethyl esters (ethyl-butanoate, pentanoate, heptanoate, and nonanoate). The results were compared to that of methyl esters (Diévart et al., 2012, Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, 34). It was observed that both methyl esters and ethyl esters exhibit similar high temperature reactivity against extinction. The use of the transport-weighted enthalpy metric has revealed that all esters share similar chemical kinetics in the near extinction conditions of the present study. A previous detailed kinetic model has been extended to include the oxidation chemistry of ethyl esters, and used to interpret the experimental observations. Good agreement between the computed and experimental extinction limits was observed. The rates of consumption pathway analysis have shown that ethyl esters exclusively decomposed into ethylene and a carboxylic acid through an endothermic six-centered unimolecular decomposition reaction, while methyl esters oxidation preferentially progresses through H abstraction reactions. However, the growth of the radical pool was observed to be driven indifferently between ethyl and methyl esters, therefore resulting in similar global flame reactivity.

The autoignition of fatty-acid methyl ester biodiesels and methyl ester biodiesel components was studied in gas-phase shock tube experiments. Ignition delay times for two reference methyl ester biodiesel fuels, derived from methanol-based transesterification of soybean oil and animal fats, and four primary constituents of all methyl ester biodiesels, methyl palmitate, methyl stearate, methyl oleate, and methyl linoleate, were measured behind reflected shock waves for fuel/air mixtures at temperatures ranging from 900 to 1350 K and at pressures around 10 and 20 atm. Ignition delay times were determined by monitoring pressure and chemiluminescence from electronically-excited OH radicals around 310 nm. The results show similarity in ignition delay times for all methyl ester fuels considered, irrespective of the variations in organic structure, at the high-temperature conditions studied and also similarity in high-temperature ignition delay times for methyl esters and n-alkanes.

Transportation is one of the major contributors to the world’s energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions. The need for increased efficiency has placed diesel engine in the spotlight due to its superior thermal efficiency and fuel economy over gasoline engine. However, diesel engines also face the major disadvantage of increased NO x emissions. To address this issue, three types of emulsion fuels with different water concentrations (5%, 10% and 15% mass water) are produced and tested. Novel organic materials (glycerin and ployethoxy-ester) are added in the fuel to provide extra oxygen for improving combustion. NP-15 is added as surfactant which can help to reduce the oil and water surface tension, activates their surface, and maximizes their superficial contact areas, thereby forming a continuous and finely dispersed droplets phase. The stability of the emulsion fuels is tested under various environmental temperature for one year, and no significant separation is observed. It is better than normal emulsion fuel which can only maintain the state for up to three months. The combustion process and performance of the emulsion fuels are tested in a four-stroke, four cylinder diesel engine. The results indicate that the water droplets enclosed in the emulsion fuel explode at high temperature environment and help to break up the big oil droplets into smaller ones, thereby significantly increase the surface area of the oil droplets and enhance the heat transfer from hot gas to the fuel. As a result, the fuel evaporation is improved and the combustion process is accelerated, leading to an improved brake thermal efficiency (up to 14.2%). Meanwhile, the presence of the water causes the peak temperature of the flame to drop, thereby significantly bringing down the NO x emissions by more than 30%.

The use of Jojoba Methyl Ester as a pilot fuel was investigated for almost the first time as a way to improve the performance of dual fuel engine running on natural gas or LPG at part load. The dual fuel engine used was Ricardo E6 variable compression diesel engine and it used either compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as the main fuel and Jojoba Methyl Ester as a pilot fuel. Diesel fuel was used as a reference fuel for the dual fuel engine results. During the experimental tests, the following have been measured: engine efficiency in terms of specific fuel consumption, brake power output, combustion noise in terms of maximum pressure rise rate and maximum pressure, exhaust emissions in terms of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, knocking limits in terms of maximum torque at onset of knocking, and cyclic data of 100 engine cycle in terms of maximum pressure and its pressure rise rate. The tests examined the following engine parameters: gaseous fuel type, engine speed and load, pilot fuel injection timing, pilot fuel mass and compression ratio. Results showed that using the Jojoba fuel with its improved properties has improved the dual fuel engine performance, reduced the combustion noise, extended knocking limits and reduced the cyclic variability of the combustion.