Performance Evaluation of Biodiesel – Diesel Blends in Passenger Car

Biofuels derived from renewable plant sources (tree borne vegetable oil) hold immense potential for meeting India's future energy needs. The pure vegetable oils need chemical treatment to be ready as engine fuel. This chemically treated vegetable oil is called Biodiesel. This paper investigates vehicle performance of different blends of biodiesel as engine fuel. Biodiesel used for these studies was derived from Jatropha curcus. Blends of Biodiesel upto 15% did not affect the engine power while blends with higher proportion of Biodiesel showed tendency to decrease the engine power. Best fuel economy was observed with 10% biodiesel blended fuel. Oxides of Nitrogen (NO_x) emissions, increased under different operating conditions while smoke was reduced at all speed ranges in Road Load Simulation and Wide Open Throttle test modes. Other test data generated revealed that engine oil temperature tend to be less with biodiesel operation and exhaust gas contains more O₂ which is beneficial for the vehicles equipped with diesel oxidation catalyst.