Performance, evaluation and gas emission of diesel and distilled biodiesel blends in IC engine

Abstract

The greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning fossil fuels are a global issue. Nowadays, biodiesel has been shown to be a good alternative to substitute totally or partially diesel to minimize GHG emissions formed during the combustion of diesel fuel in engines. This research investigates the usability of distilled biodiesel–diesel blends in a diesel engine. The distilled biodiesel was produced from soybean and coconut oil, and each fraction’s composition was characterized by gas chromatography–mass spectrometer. The soybean biodiesel light fraction was shown to be rich in compounds with up to 17 carbons, while the coconut biodiesel light fraction contained compounds with up to 13 carbons. All blends evaluated were within the density range of commercial diesel (0.82 to 0.85 g.cm−3). The consumption and emissions experiments were performed on a 1-cylinder, 4-stroke diesel engine at various loads to evaluate the influence of distilled biodiesel from soybean and coconut oil. For all blends, adding distilled biodiesel, both from soybean and coconut oil, increased the brake thermal efficiency up to 56.08% and reduced the specific fuel consumption up to 18.33% compared to diesel fuel. In addition, all distilled biodiesel–diesel blends reduced carbon monoxide emissions by up to 30%.