Performance and Emission Characteristics of a CI Engine Fuelled with Palm and Sesame Oil Blended Diesel

Biodiesel can be considered as a clean, renewable and domestically produced diesel fuel. At present, a lot of research is being carried out to make biodiesel more efficient so that it can be substituted for conventional diesel. In the present investigation, biodiesel is extracted from palm and sesame oil by transesterification method. The different properties of biodiesel like flash point, fire point, density, viscosity, pour point, cloud point and calorific value are measured. The obtained values are meeting the standards of biodiesel. This dual biodiesel was blended (0-40%) with diesel and was tested in a 4 stroke single cylinder diesel engine at different loads. The performance characteristics like thermal efficiency and BSFC are compared. BSFC increases and thermal efficiency decreases with the percentage increase in the blends at higher loads. At part loads, biodiesel blends are more efficient. Emission contents like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbon, oxides of nitrogen and smoke density are recorded. For B10 and for B20 blends these contents are more comparable to diesel fuel.