An Experimental Investigation on Performance and Emission Studies of a Single Cylinder Diesel Engine Fuelled with Blends of Diesel and Mahua Oil Methyl Ester

Ever increasing consumption of petroleum derived fuels has been a matter of grave concern due to rapidly depleting global reserves and alarming levels of emissions leading to global warming and climate change. Exhaustive research has been carried out globally to evaluate the suitability of variety of renewable fuels for internal combustion engine applications. Amongst them, vegetable oil methyl esters or biodiesel seem to be a promising alternative for diesel in vital sectors such as transportation, industrial and rural agriculture. For quite some time, the focus for production of biodiesel has shifted towards non-edible oil feedstock from the edible ones, mostly due to food security issues. One such non-edible oil, locally known as Mahua in Indian subcontinent, is a very promising feed stock for biodiesel production. In the present investigation, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% (v/v %) blends of mahua oil methyl ester (MOME) and diesel were prepared. Results of engine trial suggest that the full load brake thermal efficiency was increased by a range of 3.9-23% as compared to diesel baseline. Similarly full load brake specific energy consumption was found to decline with increase in MOME composition in the blend. CO emission was insignificant at part loads for all the blends, however, at full load, blends of MOME showed reduction in CO emission. Emissions of HC were reduced with increase in MOME percentage in the blend confirming better combustion due to the oxygenated fuel. Smoke opacity was also found to decrease with increase in MOME concentration in the blend. However, a marginal increase in NOx was obtained with higher blends.