Performance and Emission Analysis on a Direct Injection Diesel Engine Using Biodiesel From Palm Oil With Exhaust Gas Recirculation

Abstract

At present, there is a hunt for an alternative source of fuel which should also cause less pollution. Vegetable oil is one such source, which is both renewable and biodegradable. But using straight vegetable oil lead to the clogging of the fuel injectors and there is a problem of starting especially when the engine is cold. Hence straight vegetable oils can be chemically treated to enhance its properties, after which the vegetable oil is known as biodiesel. In this work, biodiesel is prepared from Palm oil and then various tests (load test, Heat balance test and Emission test) are carried out on a Kirloskar engine (single cylinder D.I. diesel engine) by varying the percentage of biodiesel. It has been inferred from the test that performance of the engine decreases and also the various emissions (except NOx) decreases. It has also been inferred that the emissions reduction is maximum when biodiesel is blended with 60% diesel. To decrease NOx, hot EGR (15%) is adopted. Again the above tests are performed with EGR and it has been found that NOx decreases but at the same time the performance of the engine decreases further.