Experimental investigation of performance characteristics of compression ignition engine fuelled with Punnai oil methyl ester blended diesel

Abstract

Biodiesel is a renewable substitute to conventional diesel and offers cleaner performance. This paper deals with performance characteristics of four stroke, water cooled Compression Ignition (CI) engine fuelled with four different oils: diesel, diesel-punnai oil biodiesel 10% (B10), diesel-punnai oil biodiesel 20% (B20) and diesel-punnai oil biodiesel 30% (B30). The present research, experiments were conducted to study the effect of viscosity, cetane number, flash point, calorific value and density on performance characteristics of diesel, Punnai oil biodiesel and its different blends (B10, B20, B30). The experimental results of this study showed that the diesel has 2.6% and 4.6% higher brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) as compared to B10 and B20, respectively at full load, whereas BSFC of diesel was same as B30 at higher load. Volumetric efficiency and mechanical efficiency of B10 was 1.2% and 7.5% higher as compared to diesel at full load condition. Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTE) and indicated thermal efficiency of B20 was 8.12% and 7% higher as compared to diesel at full load. From this study, it is concluded that Punnai oil biodiesel could be used as a viable alternative fuel in a single cylinder, four stroke, water cooled direct injection diesel engine.