Experimental Investigation on Effect of Biodiesel and its Blends with Additives in VCR Engine

Abstract

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel derived from the fats of animals and plants. As energy demands increase and fossil fuels are limited, research is directed towards alternative renewable fuels. The main advantages of using this alternative fuel are its renewability, biodegradability and better quality of exhaust gases. The aim of this experiment investigation is to optimize biodiesel production from waste grape seed oil followed by transesterification process. As per consideration of maximum biodiesel yield, the optimum parameters were 4:1 molar ratio, 0.5% KOH catalyst concentration, 60 minutes reaction time at 60° C. The yield and viscosity of grapeseed oil methyl ester corresponding to optimized process parameters was 98.41% and 4.14 cSt respectively. Three types of blended fuels B10, B20 and B30 of grape seed methyl ester and with diethyl ether as an additive have been studied and all tests were carried out in variable compression ratio (VCR) engine at 1500 rpm at different compression ratio 14:1, 16:1 and 18:1 under different load conditions. The various performance, emissions and combustion characteristics like brake power (BP), brake thermal efficiency (BTE), brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), mechanical efficiency (MEff), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC), nitrogen oxide (NOx), exhaust gas temperature (EGT) are evaluated. It was observed that the performance of all blended fuels of grape seed oil methyl ester almost same to the diesel fuel. The emissions of CO and NOx decreased by increased percentage proportion of biodiesel in blend fuel. Apart from that HC emissions was found to be slightly higher than diesel fuel. It was concluded that GSOME10%DEE10% (80% diesel, 10% grape seed biodiesel and 10% diethyl ether) blend fuel showed better performance among all other blends and diesel fuel at compression ratio 18:1.