Performance Evaluation of Agricultural Hand Tractor fuelled with Biodiesel (B100)
elita R Widjaya, Uning Budiharti, Harsono, Ni Putu Dian Nitamiwati

1Indonesian Center for Agricultural Engineering Research and Development (ICAERD), IAARD, Ministry of Agriculture Republic of Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia, the largest palm oil producer country, has succeeded in utilizing 20% and 30% Biodiesel (B20 and B30) and will continue to use biofuels to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. One of the consumers of biofuel is agricultural machinery whose population continues to grow along with the gradual change of Indonesian agriculture practice from labor-intensive to mechanized. Hand tractors powered with diesel engines of 8-15 HP have been widely used in Indonesia. The evaluation of hand tractor performances fuelled with B100 compared with fossil diesel oil (B0) has been conducted. The method of evaluation follows the Indonesian National Standard Procedure, SNI 0738:2014: 2 Agricultural Hand Tractor, Quality Requirements and Test Methods. Continuous loading tests were performed for up to 300 hours. Performance evaluations were made at 0 hours, 100 hours, 200 hours, and 300 hours of operation. The 300 hours continuous load tests show that in general there was a similar trend of decreasing performance for both tractors fuelled with the B100 and fossil B0. By the time of operation time, the performance resulted in the decrease of the power efficiency, the increase of specific fuel consumption and the decrease of maximum achievable power of the shaft. The performance of B100 at 300 hours of continuous load still meets the minimum performance standards as stated in SNI 0738:2014 (>80% power transmission efficiency and <360 g/kW-hour specific fuel consumption). The performance at the 300th hour shows the power efficiency of 82.5% for B100 and 88.7% for B0- specific fuel consumption of 323.44 g/kW-hour for B100 and 290.88 g/kW-hour for B100 and maximum shaft power of 5.2 kW for B100 and 5.6 kW for B0. B100, technically, has the opportunity to be applied in the small diesel engine. The development of additives or catalysts to biofuels may also enhance the performance of B100 fuel in diesel engines.

Keywords: Biodiesel, performance tests, B100, hand tractor

Topic: Renewable energy