Performance and emission analysis of enriched biodiesel and its combined blends with petrodiesel

ABSTRACT

Biodiesel is a renewable fuel that is non-petroleum-founded and has lower carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions. The aim of this work is to study the engine performance and exhaust emission of a diesel engine that is fueled with an enriched biodiesel (B100) and its combined blends with diesel fuel of 20, 50 and 75%. Palm oil methyl esters (PME) with methyl oleate (MO) were blended at PME50:MO50 (vol/vol %) to form enriched biodiesel. Furthermore, various physico-chemical properties were tested for the investigated fuels. In this study, a single-cylinder diesel engine was used under full load. Results indicate that increasing enriched biodiesel in the blend could not lead to improving the engine performance when compared with diesel fuel, likely because of the high kinematic viscosity and low calorific value of the enriched biodiesel. However, with the effective reduction in exhaust emissions, a slight increase in NO_x emissions was observed because of high viscosity and short ignition delay. In addition, experimental results showed that a smaller percentage of PME50:MO50 (up to 20%) could be mixed with petrodiesel fuel and used in the diesel engine without any changes.

KEYWORDS:

• Palm-methyl oleate blend
• blended fuel
• engine performance
• engine emissions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.