Performance and Emission Characteristics of Diesel Engine Fueled with Mahua Oil Methyl Ester Blended Diesel with Methanol Additives

Objectives: This work investigates the emission and performance characteristics of compression ignition engine fuelled with Mahua oil biodiesel blended with commercial diesel fuel with additives as methanol. At first, the fuel was prepared by blending 10%, 20% and 30% of Mahua oil biodiesel with diesel on volume basis after that in the same fuel mixture 5%, 10% of methanol is added as additive in volume basis. Methods: Experiment was conducted in water cooled, 4 stroke single cylinder naturally aspirated CI engine, ata continual speed of 1500rpm by changing the load from 0% to 100% and performance and emission characterises has been obtained. Findings: The result shows that the performance of the engine is improved marginally with 5% methanol in biodiesel (B10) in comparison with diesel fuel and 10% of Mahua biodiesel with 5% of methanol has higher Brake thermal efficiency (BTE). As compared to diesel fuel, the Mahua diesel blends leads to reduced NOX emission of the aspired diesel engine. With the high amount of methanol in the Mahua biodiesel blends the HC and CO emissions are increased. Novelty: As the engine performances increases with Mahua blended oil in low blended fuels and also the low emission proves that the Mahua oil blended biodiesel can be an alternative fuel for the CI engine.