Performance and Emission Characteristics of Biodiesel Fuels

Abstract

The researchers are much interested to find a suitable alternative fuel which should compensate both in power and efficiency. Recent survey reveals that the diesel fuel consumption is several times higher than that of gasoline fuel. The alternative fuels chosen for this need are vegetable oil and biodiesel. The fuel should be chosen in such a way that it should be adaptable with the conventional engines with very little or no modification. Wide research has been done in this field with various biodiesels. Hence in this paper two different biodiesel fuels were used as the test fuels and the performance results were compared with the standard fuel (Diesel). The engine chosen for this research was a constant speed Kirloskar engine with eddy current loading. The performance and emission parameters chosen for comparison are Brake thermal Efficiency, Specific fuel Consumption, unburnt hydrocarbon, CO and NOx. The tests are been carried out with two different biodiesel fuels. The performance and emission parameters these fuels were compared with standard fuel (Diesel). Compromising performance and emission results were obtained expect NOx. The suggestions were discussed for the reduction of NOx emission.