Experimental Investigation of Performance and Emission Characteristics of Rice Bran Biodiesel and It's Blends on Lhr Engine

Diesel is a fossil fuel that is getting depleted at a fast rate. So an alternative fuel is necessary and a need of the hour. Rice bran oil, which is cultivated in India at large scales, has a high potential to become an alternative fuel to replace diesel fuel. Direct use of rice bran oil cannot be done, as its viscosity is more than the diesel fuel, and hence affects the combustion characteristics. The rice bran oil is esterified to reduce the viscosity and it is blended with diesel on volume basis in different proportions. The use of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) to increase the combustion temperature in diesel engines has been pursued for over 20 years. Increased combustion temperature can increase the efficiency of the engine. However, TBCs have not yet met with wide success in diesel engine applications because of various problems associated with the thermo-mechanical properties of the coating materials. Although, the in-cylinder temperatures that can be achieved by the application of ceramic coatings can be as high as 850-9000C compared to current temperatures of 650-7000C. The increase in the in-cylinder temperatures helped in better release of energy in the case of biodiesel fuels thereby reducing emissions at, almost the same performance as the diesel fuel. Here the effort has been made to determine the performance and emission characteristics of RBOME blend with diesel in conventional engine and LHR engine.