Study of the performance and emission characteristics for a dual fuel powered single cylinder diesel engine

Abstract

In the present study, the performance of a new combination of biofuels jatropha biodiesel and turpentine oil for a diesel engine with a view to eliminate dependency on fossil fuel was observed. Jatropha biodiesel and turpentine oil are a high and low viscosity fuel combination with comparable heating values to that of diesel; this makes them conducive for in a diesel engine. The extensive experimental work was carried out on a Kirloskar make-single cylinder, constant speed, four strokes, 661cc diesel engine to examine the combustion performance and emission characteristics using the jatropha methyl-ester with turpentine oil and pure diesel. The engine was fuelled with the jatropha methyl-ester with turpentine oil (50% - 50% on a volume basis) blend run on different loading conditions from no load, 35%, 65%, and full load. The blend of a dual biofuel was prepared with the help of a magnetic stirrer at 40°C in the presence of a surfactant span 80. The dual fuel blend was found to be superior to the diesel fuel in all aspects such as performance and emissions. In a further full load condition, a decrease of 2.9% in the brake thermal efficiency and reduction of 41.6%, 3%, and 4.43% in CO, NOx and CO₂ respectively were recorded while HC was found to increased 29.31%.