Effect of Injection Pressure on the Performance and Emission of Diesel Engine using Blend of Methyl Esters of Karanja Oil and Diesel as Fuel

There is an increasing interest in India to search for suitable alternative fuels that are environment friendly. This led to the choice of karanja oil as one of the main alternative fuel to diesel oil. Karanja Oil Methyl Ester (KOME) was prepared by transesterfication method. In the present work, blend of diesel and karanja oil methyl ester (B20) were used as fuel and the effect of injection pressure on the performance and emissions of a direct injected, four stroke, single cylinder diesel engine was studied. Results showed that for the B20 blend, the injection pressure of 200 bar results in better performance and lower emissions than other injection pressures. The brake thermal efficiency of karanja methyl ester at 200 bar was comparable with diesel. The engine emissions such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen and smoke emission were lower than diesel operation. Based on this study, it is observed that the B20 blend can be used as fuel in diesel engine with the injection pressure of 200 bar.