IEEE Africon 2011 - The Falls Resort and Conference Centre, Livingstone, Zambia, 13 - 15 September 2011

Comparative Performance Analysis of Marula comparable to that of conventional diesel fuel while reducing
Oil and Petrodiesel fuels on a Variable
Compression Ratio Engine
Jerekias Gandure, Clever Ketlogetswe
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Botswana
Gaborone, Botswana
gandurej@mopipi.ub.bw, ketloget@mopipi.ub.bw
Abstract - The quest for biofuel production and use in
Botswana is driven by factors including volatile oil prices,
need for fuel security, potential for job creation, potential
reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and economic
diversification. In line with national efforts to come up with
energy sources that are both environmentally friendly and
sustainable, this work was carried out to compare
performance properties of native marula seed oil and
petrodiesel fuels on a variable compression engine test rig with
automatic data acquisition set up. Parameters such as engine
torque, brake power and specific fuel consumption were
measured at different loads for the two fuels. The results
indicated that engine performance when powered with marula
oil as fuel was very close to that when powered with
petrodiesel. The engine performance was also analysed for
same parameters of engine torque, brake power and specific
fuel consumption when powered by the same two fuels over
varying compression ratios at a fixed load of 80%. The results
indicated that compression ratio of 16:1 yields optimum
performance in terms of engine torque and brake power for
both petrodiesel and marula oil fuels; marula oil fuel has a
smooth rising performance profile across all compression
ratios which out-performs petrodiesel on lower compression
ratios for engine torque and brake power, and is largely better
than petrodiesel on fuel consumption.
Key words: Performance, marula oil, petrodiesel
engine emissions of particulates, hydrocarbons and carbon
monoxide [1]. Other advantages include reduced emission of
carbon monoxide, particulate matter and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons; physical and chemical properties that are very
similar to those of petroleum based diesel fuel in terms of
operation in compression ignition engines (diesel engines);
biodegradability; non-toxic and essentially free of sulphur and
aromatics, making it safer to handle and transport; ability to
run in any conventional, unmodified diesel engine; improved
lubricity and high cetane number. The best advantage is the
fact that biodiesel is a renewable fuel source, while petroleum
fuel is limited. This alone will be the reason for its ever
increasing popularity. Biodiesel, however, has its disadvantage
and these include lower energy content, Engine operation
problems such as fuel filter plugging, injector coking (carbon
deposits), piston ring sticking and breaking, and severe engine
lubricant degradation. Biodiesel can be produced from any
material that contains fatty acids, be they bonded to other
molecules or present as free fatty acids. As a result various
vegetable fats and oils, animal fats, waste greases, and edible
oil processing wastes can be used as feedstocks for biodiesel
production. The choice of feedstock is based on such variables
as local availability, cost, government support and performance
as a fuel [2].
This work sought to establish performance properties of
marula oil as a potential feedstock for biodiesel production
in Botswana. The results are expected to provide indicators
which can be used to stimulate rapid development of
biodiesel using indigenous feedstocks in Botswana. Marula
tree is indigenous to most parts of the Southern African
Development Community. In Botswana, for example, it is
widely distributed all over the country, but it is
concentrated in the north eastern part of the country.The
tree grows in warm and dry climatic conditions, and
produce oval fruits that turn pale yellow when ripe.

1. Introduction

• The expedition for biofuel production and use in Botswana is

driven by factors including volatile oil prices, need for fuel
security, potential for job creation, potential reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions, and economic diversification. The
ambition to establish national energy self-reliance and to
develop alternatives to finite fossil fuel resources have resulted
in the development of fuel technologies that are based on the
use of renewable agriculture based materials as feedstocks. In
the case of renewable fuels for compression ignition (diesel)
engines, the majority of efforts to date have focused on
biodiesel, which consists of alkyl esters of fatty acids found in
agricultural acylglycerol - based fats and oils. Biodiesel has
been shown to give engine performance that is generally Figure 1: Ripe marula fruit

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 IEEE Africon 2011 - The Falls Resort and Conference Centre, Livingstone, Zambia, 13 - 15 September 2011

The fruit consists of a hard woody seed covered by pulp
and juice which makes the fleshy part of the fruit.The hard
seed contains mostly two oil rich nuts (kernel) which can be
eaten as a snack. The kernel oil is currently being used to
make cosmetic ointments. The fact that the marula tree
grows in drier parts where common oil seeds cannot thrive
has stirred interest in it as a valuable source of oil. This has
led to the evaluation of marula nut oil as a potential source
of vegetable oil for biodiesel production. In evaluating the
potential of oil for use, the fatty acid profile plays an
important role. Oil with a high content of oleic acid makes
ideal frying oil because of the stability offered by the acid
[3].
2. Materials and methods
680C to remove water. The fuel was then used to power a
variable compression ignition engine to test the engine
performance prior to transesterification. The results were
compared with the results for petroleum diesel under
similar conditions on the basis of engine torque, engine
brake power, and specific fuel consumption for
compression ratio 16:1. The experimental data were
collected as discussed in section 2.2, leading to the results
presented in figures 2 to 4.
Engine Torque (Nm)
30

Engine Torque (Nm)

2.1 Marula oil 20

The marula oil for the current study was purchased from 10
B100
Kgetsi Ya Tsie, a Community Trust promoting the 0 D100
economic and social empowerment of rural women in the
Tswapong Hills of Eastern Botswana, who extracts marula 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
oil mostly for cosmetic markets in Europe and America. Load (%)
2.2 Engine performance analysis
Legend: B100 = Marula oil fuel; D100 = Petrodiesel
The engine performance test was conducted on a TD43F
engine test rig. The test rig is water cooled, four-stroke Figure 2: Engine torque profile for marula oil and
diesel engine that is directly coupled to an electrical petroleum diesel fuel.
dynamometer. In addition to the conventional engine
design, the engine incorporates variable compression design
feature which allows the compression ratio to be varied
from 5:1 to 18:1.
Brake Power (W)
To establish that engine operating conditions were 8
Brake Power (W)

reproduced consistently as any deviation could exert an

6
overriding influence on performance and emissions results,
the reproducibility of the dynamometer speed control set 4
points were maintained within ±4 revs/min of the desired 2 B100
engine speed. The experimental work began with engine D100
0
run on pure petrodiesel fuel. This was done to determine the
engine’s operating parameters which constitute the baseline 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
that was compared with the subsequent case when the Load (%)
marula oil was used as fuel. At the point of fuel change, the
engine was left to operate with the fuel under test for about
15 minutes to stabilize at its new condition before readings Legend: B100 = Marula oil fuel; D100 = Petrodiesel
were recorded.
Figure 3: Engine brake power profile for marula oil and
3. Results and discussions petroleum diesel fuel.

3.1 Engine performance analysis with varying load

The viscosity of crude marula oil was found to be in the

range specified by international biodiesel standards. As
direct results, the oil was neutralised using NaOH to
remove acidity and minimise chances of corrosion of
engine parts. The oil was also heated to a temperature of

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 IEEE Africon 2011 - The Falls Resort and Conference Centre, Livingstone, Zambia, 13 - 15 September 2011

3.2 Engine performance analysis with varying

Specific Fuel Consumption (g/kWh) compression ratio
1
Consumption (g/kWh)

0.8 The engine performance analysis with varying load carried

0.6 out included collection of data for engine torque, brake
Specific Fuel

0.4 power and specific fuel consumption for compression ratios

0.2 B100
0 D100
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90100
Load (%)
Legend: B100 = Marula oil fuel; D100 = Petrodiesel
Figure 4: Engine specific fuel consumption profile for
marula oil and petroleum diesel fuel.
13:1 through 17:1 though results in this manuscript are for
compression ratio 16:1 only. This section presents results
for engine performance at a fixed load of 80% with
compression ratio varying from 13:1 through 17:1 as shown
in figures 5 to 7. The results are a comparison between
petroleum diesel and marula oil fuel under similar
conditions on the basis of engine torque, engine brake
power, and specific fuel consumption. The experimental
data were collected as discussed in section 2.2, leading to
the results presented in figures 5 to 7.

There are several clear findings to be drawn from the data

presented in figures 2 to 4. Firstly, the results indicate that
Engine Torque (Nm)
the engine torque, brake power, and specific fuel
consumption recorded for D100 and B100 for operation 28
condition (compression ratio 16:1) compares favorably 27
Engine Torque (Nm)
well. The data in figure 2 show a steady increase in engine 26
torque for both D100 and B100 with increase in engine load 25
between 30 and 60%. However between the same operating 24 B100
23
window, B100 recoded relatively high engine torque 22 D100
compared with D100. However, it is clear from the data
presented in figure 2 that as the engine load increase from 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
60% the data recorded for D100 shows a steady increase in Compression Ratio
engine torque while the data for B100 shows a slight
decrease with increase in engine load.
Legend: B100 = Marula oil fuel; D100 = Petrodiesel
The results in figures 3 and 4 also show that the data
recorded for B100 compares favorable well with that for Figure 5: Engine torque profile for marula oil and
D100. The maximum variation in brake power of 0.63W petroleum diesel fuel.
was recorded at 90% engine load, while the minimum
variation of 0.06W was recorded at 60% of engine load,
with D100 recording 5.06W. The trends shown in figure 3
suggest that the optimum compression ignition engine
performance using raw marula oil occurs at 60% engine Brake Power (W)
load. The data shown in figure 4 reinforces this observation,
Brake Power (W)

which shows the specific fuel consumption recorded for 3.7

D100 and B100. One of the most discernible trends 3.5
connected to figure 4 is that the variations in specific fuel
consumption recorded for D100 and B100 between 30% 3.3 B100
and 60% do not show any significant difference for the D100
3.1
fuels under review. The minimum variation of specific fuel
consumption between 30% and 60% engine load is 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
0.01g/kWh, while a maximum of 0.17g/kWh was recorded
Compression Ratio
at the engine load of 90%. Overally, the result in figure 4
points out that marula oil is a potential feedstock for
biodiesel production in Botswana. Legend: B100 = Marula oil fuel; D100 = Petrodiesel

Figure 6: Engine brake power profile for marula oil and

petroleum diesel fuel.

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 IEEE Africon 2011 - The Falls Resort and Conference Centre, Livingstone, Zambia, 13 - 15 September 2011

b) The compression ratio of 16:1 yields optimum

performance results for engine torque and brake
power for petrodiesel and marula oil fuels.
Specific Fuel Consumption (g/kWh)
0.7 c) The performance of variable compression diesel
Consumption (g/kWh)

engine using raw marula oil is close to that using

0.6
petrodiesel fuel, suggesting that marula oil is a
Specific Fuel

0.5 potential indigenous feedstock for biodiesel

0.4 B100 production in Botswana.
0.3 D100
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Acknowledgements
Compression Ratio
We acknowledge support of the University of Botswana,
and the Ministry of Wildlife, Tourism and Environment
Legend: B100 = Marula oil fuel; D100 = Petrodiesel who granted a research permit for this work.
Figure 4: Engine specific fuel consumption profile for
marula oil and petroleum diesel fuels.
The results indicate that profiles for engine torque and References
brake power are largely similar. The best performance for
marula oil fuel was found to be at compression ratio of 17:1 [1] Graboski, M.S., McCormick, R.L. Combustion of
for engine torque with a value of 26.3 Nm, and fat and vegetable oil derived fuels in diesel
compression ratio of 16:1 for brake power with a value of engines. Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 24, 1998,
3.61W. Similarly, best performance for petrodiesel was 125–164.
found to be at compression ratio of 16:1 for both engine [2] Haas M. J, McAloon A. J., Yee W. C., Foglia T.
torque and brake power with a values of 27.2 Nm 3.7 W A. A process model to estimate biodiesel
respectively. These results imply in part that compression production costs; Bioresource Technology 97
ratio 16:1 yields optimum performance results for engine (2006) 671–678
torque and brake power for petrodiesel and marula oil fuels. [3] Haumann B. F. Frying fats. INFORM, 1996,
Petrodiesel is marginally better than marula oil at this pp320-334.
compression ratio. For lower compression ratios
particularly 14:1 and 15:1, marula oil fuel is significantly
better than petrodiesel for both engine torque and brake
power. Moreover, unlike petrodiesel, marula oil fuel has a
smooth rising performance profile across all compression
ratios which ensures smooth running of the engine at any
set compression ratio. Figure 4 indicates that engine
specific fuel consumption of marula oil fuel is largely lower
than that of petroleum diesel. The fuel consumption at the
optimum compression ratio of 16:1 is almost the same for
the two fuels, with petrodiesel being very marginally better
by 0.1g/KWh.

4. Conclusions

A comparative experimental study to analyse the

performance of marula oil fuel and petroleum diesel was
carried out. From the experimental results, it can be
concluded that:

a) Marula oil has properties that can enable it to

function as a biofuel in variable compression
diesel engines. This implies that transesterifying
marula oil under standard conditions may produce
biodiesel of international quality standard.

978-1-61284-993-5/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE