Effect of Biodiesel on the Performance and Emission Characteristics of Diesel Engines

Abstract

Biodiesel has become one of the main sources of renewable energy. Their positive impact on the environment has earned a lot of attention in past few decades. Biodiesel has several effects on emission and performance attributes of a CI engine. This paper deals with those effects of biodiesels derived from various sources like Jatropha, Mahua, Karanja, soybean, palm, waste cooking oil (WCO) and many other edible and nonedible oils. It has been noticed that excessive use of biodiesel will lead to food shortage and therefore blending of biodiesel with conventional diesel has been suggested by various researchers. In blending, biodiesel and petro-diesel is mixed in a proper ratio to give a mixture of diesel-biodiesel. It has been stated that, blending up to 20% has no effect on properties and is same as that of diesel and provides better results. The emissions like CO, UHC and PM, reduced and was significantly lesser than that of diesel but NOx emission was found to have much higher value when compared with diesel. When BSFC and BTE of diesel and biodiesel were compared, it was found that, BTE reduced but BSFC increased with blending. By considering all these factors and from this review, it can be said that biodiesel and its blend with diesel can be used in CI engine without any major tempering when blending is done up to a certain limit.