Liquefied Petroleum Gas Performance on 6,5 HP Engine as an Alternative Fuel in Small Motorized Fishing Boat.

Abstract

Fuel is the main commodity for fisherman who owns a motor boat to run the fishing venture. Fuel expenditure at this time became traditional fishermen problem that burden the operational cost of catching fish for the most part of the total cost to be spent and high operational cost for fishing activity, is the reason why fishermen are reluctant to sail. Therefore, reducing the fuel consumption by using Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as an alternative fuel on small motor boat can reduce daily operational cost. Converting the fishing boat from using sail and paddle to engine as the powertrain has benefited fishermen in time, effort and fishing ground scope. On the other hand dependency on subsidized fuel is very fundamental for them. Therefore, on the year 2006 the Indonesian government issued the President Decree no. 5 as a policy to develop alternative fuel so that the fishermen can reduce the subsidized fuel expenditure cost by switching to LPG which as a cheaper price on their engine boat. LPG is an unrenewable energy resource which derived from liquefied earth oil and one of the fuel that has the potential to replace or reduce the use of susidized fuel as it has been stated by some studies on LPG which can be used on land vehicles such as motorcycles, cars and watercraft such as traditional fishing boats that is using fuel and diesel motor. This can be done because the octane number of LPG is 120, this octane number is equivalent to fuel. The scope of this research was to analyze the technical and cost aspects. In terms of technical aspect was comparing the performance of LPG and fuel in the engine which was used as experiment object. The comparison was to found out how the fuel consumption and the engine and exhaust temperature difference when the engine run on LPG and fuel. Further analysis was about the cost of covering the operational costs in order to be considered for fishermen to use LPG as an alternative fuel. The objectives of this work were to analyze the technical effect of LPG compared to the fuel on 6,5 HP engine by measuring the engine and exhaust temperature and to calculate the fuel saving for a single trip by measuring measuring the specific fuel consumption, and to explicate the cost benefit from the use of LPG compared to the gasoline for fishing activity. During the experimental test, the engine speed was maintained at idling conditions of 1600, 2000, and 2500 rotation/minute throughout the experiment. In each rotation, time required by the engine to consume 50 cc of fuel and 200 gr of LPG was noted in three repetition. Similiarly for recording the engine and exhaust temperature. All collected data were collected in two phases. The engine and exhaust temperature were collected in the laboratory of Fishing Technology Development Center (BBPPI) Semarang. Fuel consumption test were performed in laboratory iv and experimental fishing trip from Tambaklorok fishing port to the fishing ground where the fisherman usually catch fish. Result showed the engine and exhaust temperature decrease when running on LPG and from the two paired samples test correlation resulted 0,899 and signification value (P<0.005). The use of LPG as an alternative fuel to gasoline can save on fuel consumption up to 26,35% and statistically, significant difference was observed in this fuel consumption test (P<0.05). LPG makes operational cost more efficiently due to the lower value of FC than that of gasoline. For a single trip, the LPG economic sfc value resulted Rp. 5.610 while the gasoline resulted higher cost as much as Rp. 9.632. With the difference of Rp 4.022, LPG can save cost as much as 41,76% where cost savings in fuel expenditure can be used to reimburse the purchasing cost of converter kit for 41,5 months or 3,46 years.