The development of production materials of bioenergy from coconut trees to reduce petroleum energy dependence and environmental protection

¹ Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Air Force Officer’s College, Nha Trang, Vietnam
² Faculty of Transportation Engineering, Nha Trang University, Nha Trang, Vietnam
³ Faculty of Information Technology, Yersin University, Da Lat, Vietnam

^⁎ Corresponding author: tuanhd@ntu.edu.vn

Abstract

Coconut is a popular plant and is often concentrated mainly in coastal and river areas in the southern provinces of Vietnam. That is a tree with economic value and preventing erosion in river areas. Coconut tree grows very well on sandy soil with high salt tolerance, specific it is suitable for places with lots of sunshine and average rainfall as the climate in Vietnam Therefore, in Vietnam, coconuts are an abundant raw material used to produce biomass and bioenergy. This paper mainly presents the research process of applying coconut oil as a fuel to reduce environmental pollution from internal combustion engines, replacing a part of traditional fuel. Research results by experimental methods have shown that coconut oil does not need to be synthesized into biodiesel but mixed directly into diesel oil with different ratios that can be used as fuel to reduce emissions pollution, mainly soot. However, the combustion pressure of the engine tends to decrease when the proportion of coconut oil in the diesel-coconut oil mixture exceeds 20% coconut oil (20% coconut oil - 80% diesel oil).