Chemical reaction of dry lantana camara leaves powder with diesel

Replies

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  barath rajamani

  it is like normal petrol and octane rich petrol.. you are adding additives in one or other way.. as long as it is combustible it will provide some minor efforts to the engine output..
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  gdchethan

  Thank you for your valuable reply sir........
  I would like to know more about chemical reaction occurring......
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  Ramani Aswath

  There are many of these plants in my garden. The leaves are aromatic and have an essential oil.
  The chemical constituents are:
  quote:Six compounds were isolated from leaves of Lantana camara. On the basis of chemical and spectral (UV, IR, EI-MS, 1HNMR 13CNMR) analysis, they were identified as oleanonic acid (I), lantadene A (II), lantadene B (III), lantanilic acid (IV), icterogenin (V) and 4',5-dihydroxy-3,7-dimethoxyflavone-4'-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (VI). VI is a new compound named camaroside.
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  Endquote
  
  If you sundry the leaves you are bound to lose some of this. Some may also get oxidised. Better dry in the shade. You may use a solar heated warm air to accelerate the drying.
  Diesel is a mixture of hydrocarbons. This may act as solvent for some or all of the essential oil in the leaves.
  To my knowledge none of the above constituents of Lantana have any IC fuel enhancing properties. The other problem is that a lot of diesel will be absorbed by the leaf powder and lost. One can use the waste powder as boiler fuel.
  It is very unlikely that there is any chemical reaction of the leaf oil with diesel.
  
  A better option may be to steam distill the oil (just like sandal wood oil is extracted) and add it to the diesel assuming that there is any advantage in the first place.
  Where did you come across this idea. Why only lantana? Many other plant leaves also have essential oils.
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  gdchethan

  hello sir thanks for your reply............. actually my idea was to concentrate on solid fuels in an ic engine for my academic project but designing a fuel injecting system is difficult and i was afraid of success of project.. coming to this idea lantana plants cause the fast burning of forest area i thought it would be better solid fuel for an engine.......... then while searching about this i found a paper in which he uses dry orange skin powder mixed with diesel and allows it to react chemically with diesel for 15-20 days and then he filters the powder and uses as a fuel and conducted an experiment then i thought of using same idea with lantana....... looking forward for your valuable reply sir
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  barath rajamani

  wow... brilliant lateral thinking dude...
  hmmm.. as far asi understand you want the solid fuel (dried leaves which has absorbed the diesel) to be used as fuel right?
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  gdchethan

  no sir i want to use that diesel which is chemically reacted with the lantana dried powder ........ i will filter all those solid particles from the solution and use that reacted diesel as a substitute of diesel in an engine........as it is difficult to design a fuel injection system and other equipments for the using a solid fuel i have chosen this
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  Ramani Aswath

  I have worked with extraction of various plant material for quite long at an industrial level. It is my considered opinion that this Lantana project may be a lot of misdirected effort. As I mentioned a lot of diesel will get absorbed by the powder, which cannot be salvaged. Dry leaves may have at the most 4 to 5% oil. You will lose about a half to one litre diesel for every KG of dry leaves. How do you know that the constituents of Lantana oil will enhance the diesel performance?
  
  I suggest that you seriously look at other options especially if some grades are involved. It is good that you are thinking of bio fuels. However, youmay be better off by first do a solvent extraction of the oil for proving the concept and then think of optimizing the process of oil extraction.
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  gdchethan

  yes sir i consider your suggestion and rethink about this idea.......... could you please explain the method of solvent extraction of oil from lantana......and in the earlier reply also u told about steam distill the oil (just like sandal wood oil is extracted),........... could u please get me some ideas about these 2 methods sir????????
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  Ramani Aswath

  #-Link-Snipped-#
  Methods of Extracting Essential Oils - History or Modern Technology?
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  Even assuming that you do get the oil out how do you propose to check the performance of this modified diesel in a diesel engine? Do you have access to an IC engine lab with instrumented IC engines?
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  gdchethan

  i have one in my college but it is not a computerised engine and without an gas analyser...... but my project guide says better to search for a computerised engine sir where do i get the permission to do this experiment sir i belong to karnataka .....anywhere in karnataka will be ok for me..........
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  Ramani Aswath

  Have you considered NIT Suratkal?
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  ( Why not avoid 'sir'ring so much. We are all CEans)
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  gdchethan

  yeaah 😁 ................... i w il check wit dat😁