Study of the performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine using cotton seed oil-based fuels

Abstract

In this research work, different parameters for the optimisation of biodiesel production were investigated and then experiments were conducted to study the performance and emission characteristics of a four-stroke, single-cylinder, direct-injection, naturally aspirated diesel engine using cotton seed oil (CSO)-based fuels. The blends were prepared with 20% CSO and 40% cotton seed oil methyl esters (CSOME) separately with neat diesel on volume basis as diesel fuels. A maximum of 77.5% biodiesel were achieved with 20% methanol in the presence of 0.5% sodium hydroxide. The experimental results showed that the reduction in smoke, hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions were observed for CSOME and its diesel blends along with increased NO x . However, a reduction in NO x , increase in smoke, HC and CO emissions were observed for CSO 100 and its diesel blends compared to those of neat diesel.