An experimental investigation of performance characteristics of a compression ignition engine using sunflower oil methyl-ester and its diesel blends

ABSTRACT Due to increased environmental awareness and scarcity of conventional fuels and the crude oil, the price was going up day by day and there will be no more conventional fuels in future, also increasing the environmental pollution by the usage of crude oils, there is a need for the search of alternative fuel sources for the automobile applications. Biodiesel from vegetable oil is the best alternative fuel as concern of less emission characteristics compare to conventional petroleum fuel. Therefore, in the present investigation the oil taken is the sunflower bio-diesel made by transesterification process. The performance characteristics of a single cylinder direct injection diesel engine test rig when running on Sunflower biodiesel of 20%, 30% and 40% blends with diesel fuel are investigated at varying loads and compared with standard diesel fuel. The suitability of sunflower biodiesel as a biofuel has been established in this study. Experiment has been conducted at a constant engine speed, operating on compression ratio of 17.5:1. It was found that B20 gives 7.37% higher Thermal efficiency and 6.25% lower Brake specific fuel consumption was found than diesel fuel. It was concluded that Sunflower Oil Methyl Ester can be used as an alternative for diesel fuel.