A Comparative Study of Performance and Emission Characteristics of Four Stroke Diesel Engine with Jatropha and Cotton Seed Biodiesel blended with Diesel

The demand and price of petroleum based fuels are increasing at an alarming rate. If this situation continues there is every chance for the scarcity of petroleum products. A major solution to reduce this problem is to search for an alternative fuels. One of the best alternatives is Biodiesels obtained from different vegetable oils. The present study focuses on comparison of performance and emission characteristics of a single cylinder four stoke diesel engine with two different biodiesels namely Jatropha and Cotton seed biodiesels blended with diesel separately. The performance of the engine with biodiesel blend B20 as fuel is compared with the diesel fuel on the basis of brake specific fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency, exhaust gas temperature and emissions of hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen. This study reveals that the performance of the engine with these biodiesel blends differ marginally from diesel and hydrocarbon emissions are less than diesel. It is also observed that the cotton seed biodiesel blends are showing better performance and emission characteristics as compared with jatropha biodiesel blends.