Modified kerosene stove for burning high percentage non edible straight vegetable oil blends

The Earth´s limited reserves of fossil fuel are a matter of global concern as these are under threat of continuous depletion due to over exploitation. However, these finite reserves are concentrated in certain region of the world and would soon get exhausted. In view of the above problems, the search for alternative fuel has become extensively important. Thus the use of non edible vegetable oil comes into focus. These alternative fuels should be renewable and eco-friendly. The main advantages of vegetable oils as fuel are ready availability, renewability, lower sulphur and aromatic content, and biodegradability. The Vegetable oil is produced domestically which helps to reduce costly petroleum Imports. Development of the biofuel industry would strengthen the domestic, and particularly the rural, agricultural economy of agricultural based countries like India. It is biodegradable and nontoxic. It is a renewable fuel that can be made from agricultural crops and or other feed stocks that are considered as waste. However, the use of SVOs (straight vegetable oils) as a fuel is restricted by certain unfavorable properties, particularly their viscosity. In an agricultural based and petroleum importing country like India, there is a greater need to explore the use of vegetable oils as a fuel because of the possibility of large production capacity of these oils and producing it near the consumption points. Kerosene is most popular domestic fuel in rural parts of the country. Kerosene is meant to be used as a cooking, lighting or heating fuel that is heavily subsidized so it can be purchased more easily by India´s poor. However, with ever increasing cost of kerosene and huge subsidies by the government kerosene is fast disappearing from rural households. In the present experiment, horizontal type kerosene stove was modified to burn higher percentage cotton seed oil blends with kerosene. In normal kerosene stove the copper coil is incorporated to absorb the heat radiated thro- - ugh burner and heat up the blend to reduce its viscosity. The heat which is utilized to heat up the blend is the waste heat. To achieve higher thermal efficiency using blends the optimum pressure (i.e. 0.2kg/cm²) is identified on normal kerosene stove & the test are performed on same.The results are highly encouraging. The normal stove could burn with a maximum of 40% blend with kerosene. (40% cotton seed oil + 60% kerosene). However, in the modified kerosene stove 70 % blend could be easily burnt and with a thermal efficiency of almost same as kerosene operated stove. Thermal efficiency tests were carried out on various blends and a comparison of performance of regular and modified stove obtained.