Analysis of Performance and Emission of Diesel Engines Operating on Palm Oil Biodiesel

Fast consumption of fossil fuels is demanding researchers to find few potential alternative fuels that meet sustainable energy demand in the near future with least environmental impact. Future energy system needs to be cost-efficient, renewable, and safe to handle. Biodiesel is expected to be the future energy source that meets all the environmental norms. The use of biodiesel in Internal Combustion (IC) engines represents an alternative clean energy source compared to hydrocarbon fuels that generate emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NO_X), Sulfur Oxides (SO) and particulate matters (PM). This paper describes the importance of Palm Oil Diesel (POD) as an alternative fuel source for diesel engines. Simulations are carried out with ANSYS FORTE software with POD. The engine chosen is a 26-kW diesel-gen-set. The engine geometry is drawn in SOLIDWORKS using dimensions of the actual diesel engine. Then, the geometry is imported in ANSYS FORTE and simulations are carried out with diesel and compared with the experimental data which shows around 97% accuracy. Then, a CHEMKIN file is created to use POD in ANSYS FORTE. Thereafter, simulations are carried out with POD with standard engine settings and compared with diesel. The engine performances are lower with POD due to lower calorific value, higher viscosity, higher density and heavier molecules present in POD. POD has a higher cetane number which is beneficial from the combustion point of view. In-cylinder pressure, temperature and accumulated heat release vs. crank angle are plotted to find out the combustion characteristics of POD and compared with diesel. The liquid and vapor penetration length, droplet size and mass are also plotted and compared with diesel.