COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATIONS ON THE PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS OF TOBACCO SEED OIL BIODIESEL IN A LOW HEAT REJECTION DIESEL ENGINE

Aim: To evaluate the performance of a single cylinder, four–stroke, water cooled, 3.68 kW direct–injection diesel engine at a speed of 1500 rpm with different versions of the combustion chamber with tobacco seed oil biodiesel and to make comparative studies with data of pure diesel operation working on similar conditions. Study Design: Different versions of the low heat rejection (LHR) combustion chamber such as LHR–1 (ceramic coated cylinder head), LHR–2 (air gap insulated piston and air gap insulated liner) and LHR–3 (ceramic coated cylinder head, air gap insulated piston and air gap insulated liner); Various injector opening pressures such as 190 bar, 230 bar and 270 bar. Methodology; Performance parameters of brake thermal efficiency (BTE), brake specific energy consumption (BSEC), exhaust gas temperature (EGT), coolant load and volumetric efficiency at different values of brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) of the engine, Brief Results: At recommended injection timing of 27o bTDC and recommended injector opening pressure of 190 bar, conventional engine (CE) showed comparable performance, while different versions of LHR combustion chamber showed improved performance with biodiesel operation, when compared with conventional engine with pure diesel operation (standard diesel operation)