Significance of Ethanol Blended Biodiesel Powered Diesel Engine

In recent years, energy consumption is increasing due to increase in the demand for the energy due to industrialization and increase in number of automobiles. This leads to depletion of fossil fuels and hence researchers concentrate on alternative fuels which reduce the engine emission and are environmentally friendly. This leads to biodiesel produced from non-edible as an immediate substitute to the fossil diesel. In this work, we used Kenaf oil for the production of the biodiesel as it has considerable potential for the production of the biodiesel. In this work, biodiesel was produced from the Kenaf oil using transesterification and we found that the properties of the biodiesel are close to diesel.The engine performance with higher biodiesel blend is not comparable to the diesel due to higher viscosity and lower volatility of the biodiesel. Hence, in this work, we have used ethanol as an additive to improve the combustion and flow properties of the biodiesel blend. The engine tests were carried out and the performance parameters like BTE, BSFC, ME were analyzed. Emission of CO, CO2, and NOx is examined through experimentation. These parameters are checked for the blends B10, B15, B20.Performance characteristic of blends having different percentage of ethanol additive are experimented. From this work, we conclude that the ethanol can be used as an additive to improve the performance of the engine operated with B20blend.