Assessment of performance, exhaust, and combustion-related parameters of unheated and preheated RBME on diesel engine

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this work, unheated and preheated rice bran methyl ester (RBME) is investigated for performance, combustion, and exhaust parameters against diesel on CI engine. Investigation of performance parameters revealed that break power variation is independent of the type of the fuel used while maximum break thermal efficiency, at full load, is achieved with diesel (28.24%) followed by preheated RBME (26.11%) and unheated RBME (24.92%). At full load, maximum exhaust gas temperature was observed for preheated RBME (335.87°C) while least was observed for unheated RBME (320.43°C). Brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) of preheated RBME (0.3487kg/kWh); at full load, improved in comparison to unheated RBME (0.3652 kg/kWh) while BSFC for diesel (0.3034 kg/kWh) was recorded minimum. Combustion analysis shows that maximum cylinder pressure occurs for diesel (70.5 bar) while cylinder pressure for preheated RBME (66.75 bar) is improved in comparison to unheated RBME (65.17 bar). Furthermore, heat release rate for preheated RBME (66.86 J/deg.) is better in comparison to unheated RBME (58.35J/deg.); however, both are significantly lower compared to diesel (81.42J/deg.). In emission analysis, highest NOx emissions were recorded for preheated RBME while the highest emissions of CO2, HC, and CO were observed for unheated RBME.