Studies on the performance and emission characteristics of Mahua oil fuelled low heat rejection diesel engine

The world energy reserves are depleting day-by-day and the demand is increasing. This leads to search for suitable renewable alternative fuels. Among the available alternative fuels, biodiesel can be used as an immediate substitute for the diesel engine. However, the biodiesel fuelled diesel engine gives lower brake thermal efficiency due to higher viscosity and lower volatility of the biodiesel. Hence, in this work, an attempt was made to increase the performance of the biodiesel fuelled engine using ceramic coating on the engine combustion chamber components. In this experimental study, engine components such as cylinder head, piston, exhaust and inlet valves were coated with Nickel Chromium (NiCr) alloy and Yttria Stabilized zirconia (Y₂O₃ –ZrO₂) of thickness 250 μm using plasma spray coating. Since mahua oil has significant potential for the biodiesel production, it was used for the biodiesel production. In this work, the engine tests were conducted on a single cylinder four stroke direct injection diesel engineand different blends were used as the fuels. The engine performance and emission characteristics were analysed by varying the load under both coated and uncoated conditions of the engine and results were compared with neat diesel. From the engine test results, it was observed that the engine performance with biodiesel blends such as B10 and B20, was increased from 3 to 7% depends upon the load on the engine with thermal barrier coating as compared to the normal engine without coating.