Properties and performance of cotton seed oil–diesel blends as a fuel for compression ignition engines

Abstract

This paper presents the evaluation of properties of straight vegetable cotton seed oil (CSO) and its blends with diesel fuel in various proportions to evaluate the performance and emission characteristics of a single cylinder compression ignition (CI) engine at constant speed of 1500rev∕min. Diesel and CSO oil fuel blends (10%, 30%, 50%, and 70%) were used to conduct engine performance and smoke emission tests at varying loads of 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% of full load in addition to their straight CSO and diesel fuel. The performance parameters of brake specific energy consumption (BSFC), brake thermal efficiency (BTE), mechanical efficiency (ME), exhaust gas temperature (EGT), and exhaust emission (smoke) were evaluated to find the optimum CSO and diesel fuel blend. From the experimental results, the CSO10D90 blend fuel showed 3.7% reduction in BSFC, 1.7% increase in BTE, 6.7% increase in ME, and 21.7% reduction in the smoke emissions in comparison with conventional diesel operated engine. Finally, it is concluded that CSO10D90 can be used straight away in CI engines without any major modifications to the engine as it showed good performance and improved emission compared to all other fuels tested for the entire range of engine operation in comparison with diesel.