Castor oil, a source for biodiesel production and its impact on the diesel engine performance

Environmental concerns caused by the burning of fossil fuels have led countries to serious attention, the production and the use of alternative fuels. In this case, biodiesel fuel is leading the way to other technologies. In the present study, biodiesel (ethyl ester) of castor oil was produced during the transesterification process, then its physical properties were measured through ASTM standards and the effect of its various blends (B5 and B20) were studied in a four-cylinder, direct injection OM-314 engine on four engine loads (25, 50, 75 and 100%) and two engine speed of 1500 and 2000 rpm. The physical properties including density, viscosity, HHV, cloud point and flash point of castor ethyl ester were measured by 0.93 g/cm(3), 14.79 cSt, 37.9 Mj/kg, -23 degrees C and 120 degrees C, respectively. The results of the engine performance test indicated that the brake power in all samples had approximately similar value for each load and in the range of 40-80% of load and engine speed of 2000 rpm, the lower BSFC was related to use of Diesel fuel. Generally, the emission related to use B5 was lower than that for B20 and Diesel fuel.