Pradip Lingfa
With the limited reserves of fossil fuels coupled with global environmental pollution have stimulated the search for alternate fuel for diesel engine. In present study, non-edible vegetable oil such as Castor methyl ester were produced and blended with diesel fuel in different proportions. An experimental investigation was carried out to analyze the performance and emission characteristics of a compression ignition engine fuelled with blends of Castor biodiesel and diesel fuel. Engine performance and emission analysis were performed using biodiesel blends (2%, 5% and 10%) in 4.4 kW single cylinder air cooled four stroke compression ignition engine at different loads. It was observed that performance characteristics like brake thermal efficiency (BTE), brake specific fuel consumptions (BSFC) with 10% Castor methyl ester was closed to diesel fuel. The emission characteristics like CO, HC and smoke were lower compared to diesel fuel. However NOx emission was observed to be higher for Castor biodiesel blends.