Effects of Palm–Coconut Biodiesel Blends on the Performance and Emission of a Single-Cylinder Diesel Engine

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effects of palm or coconut biodiesel blend and their combination on the performance and emissions of a single-cylinder diesel engine. A 20% v/v blend of palm biodiesel (PB20) or coconut biodiesel (CB20) and varying percentage mixtures of these two feedstocks (PB15CB5, PB10CB10, and PB5CB15) were used in the experiments. Biodiesel was produced using one-step transesterification. Physicochemical analysis showed that both palm and coconut biodiesel met the specifications of ASTM D6751. A 10 kW, horizontal, one-cylinder, four-stroke direct injection diesel engine was used to carry out tests under full load conditions at varying speeds from 1400 to 2400 rpm with an interval of 200 rpm. Burning of CB20 reduced break power by 1.72% and increased brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and NOx emission by 4.07% and 4.49%, respectively. Conversely, burning of PB20 negligibly reduced brake power and increased NOx emission by only 1.79%. Meanwhile, combined palm–coconut biodiesel at a constant final blend reduced NOx emission by 0.54% to 1.85% and slightly improved brake power and BSFC. Thus, the advantages of the high cetane number of coconut and the high ignition quality of palm biodiesel were aggregated in the combined blends.

Improving oxidation stability and NOX reduction of biodiesel blends using aromatic and synthetic antioxidant in a light duty diesel engine

“…The experimental test was conducted three times repeatedly and the variation of test data was calculated to measure the uncertainty level by using the linearized approximation method of uncertainty using equation 4 (Habibullah et al, 2015a;Kalam and Masjuki, 2011). A sample calculation has been provided in Appendix A.…”

Evaluation of single and multi-feedstock biodiesel – diesel blends using GCMS and chemometric methods

“…Multidimensional GC (GCxGC) has been employed to successfully characterize a limited number of biodiesel and biodiesel-diesel blends (B5) from multiple feedstocks [22] and chemometric methods have been utilized to examine various fuel blends [23]. The effects of using multifeedstock mixtures in diesel engines in terms of fuel properties, engine performance, and emissions has also been investigated [24,25,26], thus showing an increased interest in multifeedstock biodiesel mixtures. However, these techniques are complicated and expensive.…”

Friction and wear characteristics of Calophyllum inophyllum biodiesel

“…The demand for biofuel is tremendous because of environmental factors and the depletion of crude oil reserves (Asadauskas and Erhan, 1999;Habibullah et al, 2015b). The use of biodiesel as an alternative to diesel has increased remarkably in Europe, specifically France, Germany, and Austria.…”