Performance Evaluation of Diesel-Jatropha Biodiesel-Methanol Blends in CI Engine

Abstract

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel which is obtained from vegetable oils or animal fats. In recent time Jatropha biodiesel shows excellent performance as an alternative fuel and appears as one of the most encouraging renewable energy source. In this paper result of an experiment which was conducted with Jatropha biodiesel–diesel blends as a fuel with the 5–10% methanol by volume as an additive are presented. The experiment is conducted on a single cylinder direct injection 7 BHP, constant speed of 1500 rpm diesel engine. The various performance parameters of engine like brake power, brake thermal efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption, volumetric efficiency, mechanical efficiency and exhaust gas temperature were found out. For determining the improvement, modified jatropha blends were tested and their performance parameters were compared with conventional diesel fuel engine operation. For diesel-Jatropha biodiesel and diesel-Jatropha biodiesel-methanol blends there is a little improvement in Brake power, Brake thermal efficiency, Mechanical efficiency and volumetric efficiency observed. Exhaust gas temperature found to be lower for all the blends. However, overall, the investigation revealed that methanol can be added successfully to the blends of Jatropha biodiesel and diesel to improve the performance parameters of the engine.