EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON THE SUITABILITY OF KARANJA (Pongamia pinatta) BIODIESEL BLENDS FOR ENGINE APPLICATION

Abstract

It is now an established fact that bio-energy has the potential to augment a major part of the projected renewable energy provisions of the future. As the resources of petroleum are depleting with the increasing demand for fuels, bio-energy has come up as an effective means to supplement this energy demand as well as to mitigate the problem of environmental pollution. In respect of engine derived energy, biofuels viz. biodiesel is gaining prominence as alternative diesel fuel for its good quality exhaust, biodegradability and sustainability. Many feedstocks for biodiesel production have been investigated and experimented with. The feedstock characteristics, which are spatially varying, have a considerable effect on the biodiesel characteristics as well as the engine performance. In this study, fuel characteristics of bio-oil extracted from locally available Karanja (Pongamia pinnata) were evaluated and compared with petroleum diesel. Various fuel properties were evaluated according to ASTM standards. An experimental study was then undertaken to investigate the performance of a diesel engine using blends (B5, B20, B40, B60) of the extracted bio-oil. A comparative study of the engine performance, using different blends of the bio-oil and diesel, in terms of fuel power, indicated power, brake power, frictional power, brake thermal efficiency, indicated thermal efficiency, volumetric efficiency, relative efficiency, mean effective pressure, fuel consumption, specific fuel consumption, air consumption and specific output, was carried out. It was observed that the use of the biodiesel blends resulted in engine performance comparable to pure diesel, which suggests the suitability of Karanja biodiesel blends for engine application.