Experimental assessment of performance, combustion and emissions of a compression ignition engine fuelled with Spirulina platensis biodiesel

The investigation was conducted with an aim to explore the potential of novel, less explored biodiesel from Spirulina platensis algae, which can be used as an alternate fuel for conventional diesel. The effect of biodiesel on performance, combustion and emission characteristics of diesel engine was experimentally investigated. The ignition delay period declined to 7.3 degrees CA for B100 blend compared to 10 degrees CA for diesel. The heat release rate with biodiesel-diesel blends was lower than base diesel. The duration of combustion for base diesel, B10, B20 and 8100 algae biodiesel-diesel blends was found out to be 37.5 degrees CA, 38 degrees CA, 38 degrees CA and 40 degrees CA respectively. The carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC) and smoke emissions were reduced significantly as the percentage of biodiesel in fuel blend is increased. The CO emission decreased from 3.10 g/kWh with diesel to 1.20 g/kWh for B100 at full load. The HC emission showed the decrease from 0.06 g/kWh with diesel to 0.04 g/kWh for B100 whereas smoke emission reduced from 0.7% with diesel to 0.6% for B100 at full load. NOx emission with biodiesel and its blends increased significantly. NOx was 16.19 g/kWh and 13.3 g/kWh with B100 and base diesel. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.