A study on the Performance and Emission Characteristics of CI Engine using blends of Hydrogenated Rapeseed Biodiesel and neat Diesel as fuel

Abstract

Biodiesel is found to be an alternative fuel to conventionally available petro-diesels. Worldwide researchers are actively involved in the preparation of different types of biodiesel from edible and non-edible oils. The variety of the biodiesels is being tested for their performance and emission characteristics under actual conditions. As far as the performance of particular biodiesel is concerned, it largely depends upon the method of preparation and properties of the biofuel used. A detailed report on the preparation, performance and emission characteristics of CI engine using hydrogenated rapeseed oil methyl ester (HROME) and comparison of results of pure diesel with different blends of HROME in pure diesel has been presented in this report. Earlier reports suggested that hydro-treated vegetable oil can be easily transesterified to get superior quality biodiesel. Whereas, our investigations reveal that the biodiesel obtained after transesterification of rapeseed oil and subsequent hydroprocessing changes the properties remarkably. The rapeseed oil methyl ester has been prepared by alkali-catalysed transesterification by using Radleys Reactor for the reaction time of 2 hours at 78-80 °C by continuously stirring the sample at 650 RPM. The sample of hydrogenated rapeseed oil methyl ester is also prepared by hydrotreating biodiesel in a constant temperature and pressure reactor (CTPR) by passing hydrogen from rapeseed oil methyl ester at 360 °C (±2 ºC) temperature and varying pressure from 2 bars to 6 bars by continuously stirring the sample for the reaction time of 1 hour. The variable compression ignition, single cylinder four stroke diesel engine has been used to conduct the experiments at constant compression ratio to investigate the performance and emission characteristics of HROME as compared to pure diesel. Experiments are conducted on variable loads from 0 to 15 kg on the engine. Different blends @ of 10 %, 20 %, 30 % and 40 % have been formed by mixing the HROME with the pure diesel. The experiments are conducted on the CI engine to evaluate their performance and emission characteristics. The properties like; calorific value and viscosity of different biodiesel blends are measured as per IS standards. Different parameters such as BSFC, fuel Consumption per hour, BTh Eff, BP, Mech Eff, NOx, HC, CO and CO2 have been compared for HROME blends and pure diesel. From the results it is concluded that blending of HROME not only improves the performance of CI engines but also reduces harmful emissions as compared to pure diesel.