A Study on Performance and Emission Characteristics of Diesel Engine for Lower Blends of Karanja Biodiesel

Abstract

Increased number of vehicles are causing higher consumption of petroleum fuels leading to depletion of conventional fuel reserves. Hence, there is a need for alternative fuel, which will fulfil the demand. Biodiesel is one of the environment-friendly, renewable alternative biofuel which can be obtained from vegetable oils. Blends of various biofuels were used by researchers but there are limitations on the percentage of vegetable oil in diesel as emission norms are becoming stringent. Recently, the Government of India has announced that country is going to implement BS VI emission norms by 2020 and higher blends, i.e. B20 and above B20 are not satisfying these norms. Presently, very limited information is available on the use of lower biodiesel blend as a fuel in diesel engines. In this work, efforts are made to study the effect of lower blends of Karanja biodiesel as a fuel in a diesel engine to evaluate its performance and emission characteristics. The engine performance test was conducted on single cylinder four stroke diesel engine with lower blends of Karanja biodiesel (B5, B7, B10), B20 and diesel fuel to find brake thermal efficiency and BSFC. HC, CO, CO2 and NOx emissions also have been monitored. Results showed the brake thermal efficiency of all lower blends (B5, B7, B10) is high compared to diesel fuel at full load of the engine. BSFC of all lower blends (B5, B7, B10) is low at part load and almost the same as that of diesel fuel for maximum load. HC and CO emissions were less compared to diesel fuel. Also, a significant reduction of NOx was observed for B5, B7, B10.