Performance Emission Characteristic Of Diesel Engines with Coconut Oil based Biodiesel

Recent trends towards usage of diesel engines and depleting fossils fuels. There has been a worldwide interest in searching for alternatives to petroleum-derived fuels due to their depletion as well as due to the concern for the environment. The work done on one of the promising diesel alternative is described. The literature reviewed most of the vegetable oil and its methyl ester and their performance characteristics are also studied from literature. The properties of CME thus obtained are comparable with ASTM biodiesel standards. One such CME has been used as the test fuel for the experiment. The performance of diesel engine on CME and its blend with diesel were compared with diesel. Tests are conducted on a 7.4kw, computerized single cylinder 4-stroke stationery diesel engine to evaluate the feasibility of CME and its diesel blends as alternative fuels. The test was conducted with the different loads. The result shown that the CME can be used as an alternative fuel compared to mineral diesel. CME blends give somewhat same brake thermal efficiency as conventional diesel. As the amount of CME in the blend increase the HC, CO, and NOx concentrations in the exhaust decreased when compared to mineral diesel. However this resulted in an increase in the BSFC. This was attributed to the lower calorific value of CME.