Performance Comparison of Four-Stroke Diesel Engine Fuelled by Various Biodiesel Blends and Diesel

Abstract

The objective of this study is to compare the performance of diesel engines, fuelled with biofuel blends extracted from corn, sunflower, and palm oils, against pure diesel. The experiments were performed using Lister LVI, single-cylinder, direct injection, four-stroke engines, with a compression ratio of 17:1. The following parameters were analysed: brake torque, brake mean effective pressure (BMEP), brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), brake thermal efficiency (BTE), and exhaust gas temperature (EGT). The findings indicate that the characteristics of biodiesels are close to diesel fuel. Therefore, biodiesel becomes a viable alternative to diesel fuel without any modifications. Pure diesel has higher brake thermal efficiency and lower BSFC than all the biodiesel blends tested in this study. In addition, the engine consumes less fuel for biodiesel blends than pure diesel. High exhaust temperatures are conducive to nitrogen oxides (NOx) generation; hence, this study reveals that the exhaust temperature is reduced when utilizing biodiesel compared to pure diesel. According to several tests, palm biodiesel provides greater torque and BMEP than the rest of the biodiesel blends, and pure diesel due to emitting less NOx. Therefore, it stands to reason that it would be utilized in a diesel engine.

Keywords

• biodiesel
• diesel engine
• performance
• comparison
• vegetable oils