Experimental investigation on performance and emission characteristics of a single cylinder DI diesel engine using a dual biodiesel and diesel

The use of methyl esters of vegetable oil is known as biodiesel. The biodiesels are increasingly popular because of their low impact on environment and full or partial substitute for fossil fuels. Biodiesel also has been receiving increasing attention because of its use does not require major modification in the engine. This paper reviews and highlights several aspects of non-edible oils which are termed as 2nd generation fuel. In addition, the present investigation is done to use dual biodiesel (i.e. Neem and Castor oil biodiesel) in a constant speed DI diesel engine with varied load condition to evaluate the effect on engine power, fuel economy and emissions parameters corresponding to fossil or diesel fuel are analyzed in detail. The various fuel blends are prepared as B10, B20, B30, B40 and B100. The fuel blend B10 has compositions of 100% Diesel, 5% Castor oil bio diesel, 5% Neem oil bio diesel and 1% Butanol, where as B20 has 100% Diesel, 10% Castor oil bio diesel, 10% Neem oil bio diesel and 1% Butanol on volume basis, likewise B30, B40 and for B100 is 50% Castor oil bio diesel, 50% Neem oil bio diesel and 1% Butanol. As the Butanol had no solubility or stability problems when blended with diesel fuel, therefore Butanol is used as additive for making proper mixture of blend. The blend B20 gives the break thermal efficiency of 24.88% and specific fuel consumption is 0.32 Kg/KW-hr which are nearer to diesel fuel. Also B20 blend has optimum emissions compared to other blends. The CO2 (Carbon dioxide), HC(Hydrocarbon), CO (Carbon monoxide) and NOx (Nitrogen oxide) emissions for B20 are 0.28%, 1 ppm, 0% and 32 ppm respectively Finally it is concluded that the blend of dual bio diesel B20 is the optimum blend for diesel engines for better performance and emissions. This review introduces a potential guideline on further research for improving engine performance and emission characteristics using different biodiesels and their blends.