Performance and emissions characteristics of CI engine fueled with blends of diesel and Polanga biodiesel

Abstract

Globally, people are trying to counter the effects of global warming and climate change, as the burning of fossil fuels is one of the biggest challenges. Biodiesel as an alternative fuel source can help solve these problems. Since the use of edible oil would affect the food industry and leads to the increase in cost of food and fuel, hence the production of biodiesel is more beneficial when non-edible oil is used as a fuel source. Polanga oil is considered a better non-edible oil source because it contains more oil and has the highest heating value among non-edible oils. In this study, a simulation software called Diesel-RK is used to analyze the combustion, performance, and emission characteristics of a single-cylinder four-stroke diesel engine running at variable speed. Tests were conducted on a diesel engine using diesel and five different blends of Polanga biodiesel, namely 5 % (B5), 10 % (B10), 15 % (B15), 20 % (B20), and 25 % (B25), respectively. It was found that the brake-thermal efficiency initially increased up to an engine speed of 1900 rpm, where the maximum values of BTE for B5, B10, B15, B20, and B25 were 33.257 %, 33.322 %, 33.263 %, 33.24 %, and 33.121 %, respectively, while for diesel fuel, it was 33.31 % and then started to decrease on increase in the engine speed. According to the current study, increasing speed has a positive effect on NOx and PM, while BTE decreases and SO2 increases. In case of BSFC, at 1900 rpm B5 has a BSFC of 254.55 g/kWh, which is pretty good when compared to diesel fuel (253.82 g/kWh) and B25 (256.49 g/kWh). Before 1900 rpm, BTE increased slightly while BSFC and SO2 decreased slightly, but after 1900 rpm, BTE started to decrease, and BSFC and SO2 increased rapidly. In our study, we found that Polanga is promising biodiesel for future applications because the performance (B10) is similar to diesel, and the emissions are lower.