Thermal Studies on a Diesel Engine using Vegetable Oil Blends

Abstract

Vegetable oils can be used as an alternative fuel for diesel operations, but the higher viscosity of vegetable oil causes improper atomization of fuel during injection, resulting in incomplete combustion. The carbon residue of vegetable oil is also higher than that of diesel. This leads to more smoke density and particulate matter in the diesel engine exhaust. Vegetable oils have been gaining worldwide attention as an alternate energy source because they are environment friendly and renewable in nature. In this work, an attempt is made to reduce the viscosity by transesterification process and the resulting Biodiesel and its blends have been tested in an IC engines for thermal studies, while trying to assess its suitability as an alternate fuel.