Stability, Performance and Emission Characteristics of Diesel-Ethanol Blend with Castor Oil as Additive in Variable Compression Ratio Engine

Experimental investigations are carried out to establish the stability characteristics of various diesel-ethanol blends with the use of neat castor oil and its methyl esters as additive. After a series of analysis, it is found that the blended fuel is stable with 10% castor oil up to E10 blends and with castor oil methyl esters; the stability is maintained up to E25. The performance and emission tests are carried out using the stable fuel blends on a computerised variable compression ratio engine and compared with neat diesel. The tests revealed that castor oil and its methyl esters can be used as an additive to prevent phase separation and the engine performance and emission reduction could be improved significantly by using the stable diesel-castor oil-ethanol and Diesel-COME-ethanol blends with suitable compression ratio.