Experimental Investigation on Effect of Vegetable Oil based Lubricant for Diesel Engine

Objective: Vegetable oils are being investigated as a potential source of environmentally favorable lubricants, due to their unique combination of biodegradability, renewability and excellent lubrication performance. Methods/Statistical Analysis: In this testing, the thermocouple was mounted in the crankcase drain plus, gas outlet to exhaust and coolant outlet to conduct the experiments. Lubricants like SAE 40, palm oil and palm oil-castor oil blend were used in a conventional diesel engine. In this experiment, maintaining temperature plays a vital role, the temperature of crankcase oil, the coolant temperature and the exhaust gas temperature were compared at various conditions with different load conditions. And the crankcase oil temperature, coolant temperature, exhaust gas temperature was analyzed. Findings: The crank case oil temperature, coolant temperature and exhaust gas temperature was found at no load, 2.5 kg, 5 kg, 7.5 kg load conditions. The crankcase oil temperature, coolant temperature and exhaust gas temperature for palm oil and palm oil castor oil blend were found to be lower than SAE 40. Compared to the mineral-based commercial oils, palm oil-based lubricants exhibits superior tri-biological properties but offers no clear advantage on engine and emission performance.