Performance study of using preheated biodiesel in a diesel engine

Abstract

The use of biodiesel in blended mode is holding a more significant potential in making diesel engines environment-friendly. Published work specifies an optimum blend of biodiesel with diesel oil as B20. Further, the literature indicates that preheating biodiesel in the temperature range between 60°C to 120°C helps to increase the blend percentage up to 50%.In this experiment an effort has been made to use 100% Waste cooking oil methyl ester (WCME) biodieselby employing two stage heating in the temperature range from 100°C to 250°C. In the first stage the heater is immersed in fuel tank that heats biodiesel up to 70oC that lowers the viscosity and eases pumping. In the second syage, an electric preheater is installed along the high-pressure fuel line for achieving higher temperatures. The performance and emission results are encouraging and indicates that Brake Specific Fuel Consumption decreases by 5.4%, Brake Thermal Efficiency increases by 6.15%, Carbon Monoxide (CO) and unburnt hydrocarbon (HC) emissions fall by 38% and 25.5%, respectively. NOx has increased marginally by 4-6%.