Palm oil is one of the vegetable oil, which is converted to biodiesel through a transesterification process using methanol as the catalyst. Palm oil biodiesel or palm methyl ester (PME) can be used in diesel engines without any modification, and can be blended with conventional diesel to produce different proportions of PME-diesel blend fuels. The physical properties of PME were evaluated experimentally and theoretically. The effect of using neat PME as fuel on engine performance and emissions was evaluated using a commercial four-cylinder four-stroke IDI diesel engine. The experimental results on an engine operated with PME exhibited higher brake specific fuel consumption in comparison with the conventional fuel. With respect to the incylinder pressure and heat release rate, these increased features by over 8.11% and 9.3% with PME compared to conventional diesel. The overall results show that PME surpassed the diesel combustion quality due to its psychochemical properties and higher oxygen content.

Carbonaceous compounds being conductive in nature have proved themselves as the best conductive network assembly material with Poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) polymer matrix which forms dielectric medium. Carbon based compounds are conductive in nature and are being used  to form conductive channels for the flow of charge for the application of health as soft electronic devices and smart flexible conducting thin films in the form of sensors and actuators. Carbon nano fibers (CNF) play role of conductive filler to form conductive networks for the flow of charge in the polymer matrix. The interesting thing about CNF is its tailorable concentration. It influences the mechanical and electrical properties with different weight percent. In the present study solvent casting technique is used for the development of composite membrane, which is easy to fabricate and less costly. An increase in CNF content leads to deterioration of young’s modulus in comparison with pure PVDF, while with the infiltration of CNF in different quantities increases toughness and overall mechanical strength of the polymer composite of PVDF-CNF. CNF helped in increasing the electrical conductivity of the samples by entrapping in between the matrix and helping in bridge formation for the charge flow. The obtained conductive membrane showed low resistance, good electrical properties and high conductivity. The conductive film can be utilized as a conductive medium as it was able to glow the LED bulb at very low voltage of 2 V with drop of 1.8 V.

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The Strength of pervious concrete is as important as its permeability characteristics. Studies indicate that pervious concrete has lower compressive strength capabilities than conventional concrete and will only support light traffic loadings. This thesis investigated prior studies on the compressive strength of pervious concrete as it relates to water-cement ratio, aggregatecement ratio, aggregate size, quantity of admixture and compaction and compares those results with results obtained in laboratory experiments conducted on samples of pervious concrete cube casted for this purpose. Since voids are supposed to reduce the strength of concrete 1% for every 5% voids the goal is to find a balance between water, aggregate, and cement in order to increase strength and permeability, two characteristics which tend to counteract one another. The end result of this research will be a recommendation as to the water-cement ratio, the aggregatecement ratio, aggregate size, quantity of admixture and compaction necessary to maximize compressive strength without having detrimental effects on the permeability of the pervious concrete system. This research confirms that pervious concrete does in fact provide a lower compressive strength than that of conventional concrete. Researches indicate that the minimum compressive strengths of acceptable mixtures reached in to 2.8 Mpa-and maximum compressive strength reached to 28 Mpa. Extremely high permeability rates were achieved in most all mixtures regardless of the compressive strength.

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