A study of performance and emission characteristics of computerized CI engine with composite biodiesel blends as fuel at various injection pressures

Transesterified vegetable oils are becoming increasingly important as alternative fuels for diesel engines due to several advantages. Biodiesel is a renewable, inexhaustible and green fuel. This paper presents the various properties of the oils derived from Jatropha and Pongamia, their mixes and biodiesels derived from the mixes. An innovative lab scale reactor was designed and developed for biodiesel production from mixed vegetable oils and used for the study of optimization of biodiesel yield [1]. Also, the analysis of data of experimental investigations carried out on a 3.75 kW computerized CI engine at injection pressures of 160 and 180 bar with methyl esters of mixed Jatropha and Pongamia in various proportions are also presented. The brake thermal efficiency for biodiesel blends was found to be higher than that of petrodiesel at various loading conditions. In case of Composite biodiesel blended fuels, the exhaust gas temperature increased with increase in load and the amount of composite biodiesel. The highest exhaust gas temperature was observed as 213 A degrees C for biodiesel among the five loading conditions. When petrodiesel was used the exhaust gas temperature was observed to be 220 A degrees C. The CO2, CO, HC and NOx emissions from the biodiesel blends were lower than that of petrodiesel.