Evaluation of animal fat based biodiesel blends and effects of exhaust gas recirculation on the suitable blend in single cylinder four stroke diesel engine

ABSTRACT

An experimental study is carried out to evaluate the effects of animal fat biodiesel blends with diesel and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) for the suitable biodiesel blend selected on performance, emission, and combustion characteristics in single cylinder four-stroke diesel engine. Animal fat biodiesel (AFB100) is prepared through the transesterification process. Diesel fuel is mixed with animal fat biodiesel and the animal fat-based biodiesel blends are prepared such as AFBB20, AFBB40, and AFBB60. Few important properties for the prepared blends are found and tabulated in table 1. In this investigation, AFBB20 yields better performance and emission characteristics compared to other tested biodiesel blends. Increasing NOx emissions is not good for the environment and creates health issues. To reduce the NOx emission for the selected blend AFBB20, the EGR technique is applied by 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30%, and investigates in the same engine. In the EGR investigation, lower brake specific fuel consumption and higher BTE are found in 10% EGR. Lowered CO and UHC emissions are found in EGR 10%. Compared to 0% EGR, drastic reduction in NOx emission is found by 16.5% and 17.5% reduced smoke emission is found in 10% EGR rate compared to AFBB20.

Abbreviations: BSFC: Brake specific fuel consumption; BTE: Brake thermal efficiency; CO: carbon monoxide; UHC: unburned hydrocarbons; NOx: nitrogen oxides; EGT: Exhaust gas temperature; CP: Cylinder Pressure; HRR: Heat release rate; bTDC: Before top dead center; aTDC: after top dead center; ppm: parts per million; IC: internal combustion engine; CI: compression ignition; EGR: exhaust gas recirculation; DAQ: data acquisition system; PD 100: Petro diesel; AFBB: Animal fat biodiesel blends; AFB100: animal fat biodiesel; AFBB20 (PD 80% + AFB 20% by volume),; AFBB40 (PD 60% + AFB 40% by volume) AFBB60 (PD 40% + AFB 60% by volume)

KEYWORDS:

• Diesel
• animal fat biodiesel
• transesterification
• biodiesel blends
• exhaust gas recirculation
• performance
• emission and combustion