An Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Performance, Combustion and Emission Characteristics of a Diesel Engine Fueled with Jatropha Biodiesel

Abstract

The effect of addition of jatropha biodiesel to mineral diesel on the performance and emission characteristics of a conventional compression ignition engine have been experimentally investigated and compared with simulated data using Diesel-RK software. The experiments were carried out using pure diesel (B0) and pure jatropha biodiesel (JB100) as fuels. The performance characteristics shows that brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) increases and brake thermal efficiency decreases with the use of jatropha biodiesel. Experimentally, pure diesel has maximum efficiency 29.6%, where as pure biodiesel has maximum efficiency of 21.2%. In the simulation, the pure diesel has maximum efficiency 30.3% where as pure jatropha biodiesel has the maximum efficiency of 27.5%. In respect of emission characteristics, NOx emission is found to increase with load as well as use of biodiesel in both experimental and simulation study. After the successful validation of the numerical study with the experimental, another simulation was done, where the performance, combustion and emission characteristics of the same engine fueled with pure diesel (B0), pure jatropha biodiesel (JB100) and 50% jatropha blend (JB50) were derived. In the numerical study it is found that, with the use of jatropha biodiesel the BSFC increases whereas brake thermal efficiency decreases. Combustion characteristics show an increase in peak cylinder pressure and a decrease in ignition delay period with the increase in biodiesel share in the blends; whereas the emission of NO_x and CO₂ increases; smoke and PM emission decreases for the same.