Impact of antioxidant additives on the performance and emission characteristics of C.I engine fuelled with B20 blend of rice bran biodiesel

This manuscript presents the impact of addition of antioxidant additives to rice bran biodiesel blend on the performance and emission characteristics of compression ignition (C.I) engine. Rice bran methyl ester (RBME) was produced from rice bran oil by transesterification using sodium hydroxide as catalyst. An experimental investigation was conducted on a single-cylinder four-stroke C.I engine to analyze the performance and emission characteristics of rice bran methyl ester (RBME) blended with diesel at 20% by volume (B20) with and without addition of 1000 ppm of two monophenolic antioxidant additives, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). The results showed that the BHA- and BHT-treated B20 blend decreased the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) by 2.1 and 1.2% and increased the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) by 1.04 and 0.5% compared to B20. The BHA- and BHT-treated B20 blend produced mean reductions in NOx emission of 12.2 and 9.6%, respectively, compared to B20. The carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions of BHA- and BHT-treated B20 were increased by 14.8-16.6% and 10.6-11.2%, respectively, compared to B20. However the emission levels were lower than those of diesel.