Performance and Emission Experimental Evaluation and Comparison of a Regenerative Gas Microturbine Using Biodiesel From Various Sources as Fuel

This study aims at carrying out an emission/performance experimental analysis to evaluate and compare the use of pure Biodiesel obtained from different sources: castor, soybean, and palm oil, in a 30 kW regenerative Diesel one shaft gas microturbine engine installed in the laboratories of the Federal University of Itajubá—UNIFEI, Brazil, at steady state condition and at different level loads. A comparison study with the obtained results for Biodiesel and Diesel was carried out for all cases. There were no significant changes in the performance of the microturbine that reached thermal efficiency levels of about 26%. The minimum heat rate obtained at full load was for the Biodiesel fuel from palm oil and the maximum was for castor oil, with a value 8.38% higher than the Diesel fuel. In addition, a slight rise in CO and a reduction in the NO_x concentrations were observed.