Influence of injection timing on DI diesel engine characteristics fueled with waste transformer oil

Abstract

This research work targets on the effective utilization of WTO (waste transformer oil) in a diesel engine, which would rather reduce environmental problems caused by disposing of it in the open land. The waste transformer oil was compared with the conventional diesel fuel and found that it can also be used as fuel in compression ignition engines since the WTO is also a derivative of crude oil. In this present work, the WTO has been subjected to traditional base-catalyzed trans-esterification process in order to reduce the high viscosity of the WTO which helps to effectively utilize WTO as a fuel in DI diesel engine. The objective of the work is to study the influence of injection timing on the performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a single cylinder, four stroke, direct injection diesel engine using TWTO (trans-esterified waste transformer oil) as a fuel. Experiments were performed at four injection timings (23°, 22°, 21°, and 20° bTDC). The results indicate that the retarded injection timing of 20° bTDC resulted in decreased oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbon by 11.57%, 17.24%, and 10% respectively while the brake thermal efficiency and smoke increased under all the load conditions when compared to that of standard injection timing.