EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS ON VARIABLE COMPRESSION RATIO DIESEL ENGINE FUELLED WITH MAHUA OIL AND DIESEL BLENDS

Crude oil reserves assessed to continue going for couple of decades, ther been an dynamic scan for alternative fuels. The exhaustion of crude oil reserves would bring about an exceptional effect on transportation segment. Biodiesel blends are playing a promising role to overcome the present day situation. Among all the alternative fuels existing, mahua oil is additionally one. In this work mahua oil was used as an alternative fuel for diesel engine. This present paper results the investigation carried out on performance of biodiesel obtained from mahua oil and its blends with diesel. An additive named diethyl ether was added to the blends and were tested at different proportions and at various compression ratios like 14:1, 16:1, 18:1 and 20:1. Experimental results evidence that by using BD1 as fuel and at 16 CR slight increase in brake thermal efficiency and reduction in specific fuel consumption at 14 CR for BD1 compared to that of diesel. The expense of transesterified mahua oil is low contrasted with the expense of diesel. Henceforth, mahua oil blends with diesel is more economical. However, this is a partial solution to the growing diesel scarcity in developing nations.