PERFORMANCE AND EMISSION CHARACTERISTICS OF MAHUA BIODIESEL IN A DI- DIESEL ENGINE

This work is focused to determine the performance and emissions characteristics of a naturally aspirated direct ignition diesel engine fueled with diesel fuel (DF), mahua biodiesel (MBD) and preheated mahua biodiesel (MBD-PH). The fatty acid composition of MBD is determined and its properties like density, viscosity, cetane number, calorific value and iodine value are also determined. Engine performance tests showed that brake specific fuel consumption of MBD is higher than that of DF. The emission results from experimentations supported that MBD has substantially decreased the carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and smoke emissions. It is observed that MBD-PH has further reduced the emissions. Thus, mahua biodiesel can be used as an alternative fuel in automotive diesel engines.