Diesel engine characteristic studies on prepared alternative fuels of aloevera powder and aloevera biodiesel

ABSTRACT

Diesel engine combustion, performance and emission characteristics were extensively studied for the fuels viz., aloevera powder (100 nm size) as a supplementary fuel and aloevera biodiesel (B20) from aloevera gel through a transesterification process. Results were compared to diesel fuel. It revealed that the cylinder pressure and heat release rate were decreased by 3–3.5 bar and 2–4 J/deg CA respectively for B20 and aloevera powder as supplementary fuel than the diesel fuel. Performance for aloevera powder showed about 25% less fuel consumption with de-rating in brake thermal efficiency up to 2% but there is a substantial reduction in NOx emission up to 17% with an insignificant increase in emissions of HC, CO and smoke than diesel. B20 fuel test run exhibited improved combustion and reduced emission except for NOx with insignificant performance reduction than diesel fuel.

KEYWORDS:

• Aloeverapowder
• transesterification
• aloevera biodiesel
• performance
• combustion and emission characteristics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).