Investigation on performance and emission characteristics of a variable compression multi-fuel engine fuelled with argemone mexicana biodiesel–diesel blend

Abstract

ArgemoneMexicana biofuel is extracted from Mexican vegetable oils and quite promising alternative fuels for diesel engines. It has observed that higher viscosity of biodiesel leads to higher exhaust gas emissions and intern slightly inferior performance of the engine. Transesterification process improves the performance of biofuel by reducing the viscosity of biofuel. Present work investigates the performance and exhaust emission characteristics of single cylinder water-cooled compression ignition diesel engine using various blends with Argemone mexicana biodiesel as fuel. Fuel properties Density, kinematic viscosity, calorific value, specific gravity, flash point, and cetane number were studied. Experimental results revealed that B18 has similar performance characteristics such as brake power, brake means effective pressure, brake thermal efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption and lower emissions characteristics such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, and carbon dioxide. B18 and other blends showed higher emissions of nitrogen oxide mainly due to its high viscosity compared to diesel.