STUDY OF THE PERFORMANCE, EMISSION AND

COMBUSTION CHARACTERISTICS OF A COMPRESSIONIGNITION ENGINE USING BIODIESEL BLENDS

PROJECT
Submitted by
SARTHAK ROUT
(711ME4080)
NIT ROURKELA

Under the guidance of

Prof. L.M. Das
Dr. Lalit Prasad
Centre for Energy Studies, IIT Delhi
energy studies, IIT Delhi

May- June 2013

Centre for

Acknowledgement

I would like to sincerely thank Prof. L.M. Das Sir, Dept. of Centre for Energy Studies, IIT Delhi
for his able guidance on this summer project. I would also convey my sincere thanks to Dr. Lalit
Prasad Sir for providing many research papers in the course of this project. This project would
not have been possible without the kind support of Mr. G.P. Singh, Mr. Rakesh Kumar and Mr.
Kaushik Rai for helping me with the experiments done in the lab. I also acknowledge help
extended by the research scholars and technicians of the Engines and unconventional fuels lab,
IIT Delhi.

Sarthak Rout,
Mechanical Engg., 3rd Year,
NIT Rourkela

ABSTRACT

The alternative fuel biodiesel is produced from the transesterification

of vegetable oils and animal fats to fatty acid methyl esters. Engine
and unconventional fuels lab, Centre for energy studies, IIT Delhi has a
biodiesel reactor that can be used to run this reaction and produce
biodiesel. Keeping in mind, the growing energy consumption in the
world and the demand for better and cleaner fuels, biodiesel provides a
very good alternative.
Presently Petroleum constitutes the maximum percentage of meeting
the energy demand. But these are fossil fuels which cannot be
renewed and are going to be exhausted in the near future. Biodiesel
has many important technical advantages over petrodiesel, such as
inherent lubricity, low toxicity, derivation from a renewable and
domestic feedstock, superior flash point and biodegradability,
negligible sulfur content, and lower exhaust emissions and can be used
in diesel engines without significant modifications. Important
disadvantages of biodiesel include high feedstock cost, inferior storage
and oxidative stability, lower volumetric energy content, inferior lowtemperature operability, and in some cases, higher NOx exhaust
emissions.
This report analyses the different methods of preparation of biodiesel,
different types of catalysts that may be used for biodiesel production,
different types of alcohol used for biodiesel production, effect of the
reaction variables in transesterification, kinetics of the

transesterification reaction, different by-products of transesterification

reaction, their treatment and separation.

In this study, the biodiesel produced from Pongamia Pinnata (Karanja)

oil was prepared by a method of alkali-catalysed transesterification.
The effects of biodiesel addition to diesel fuel on the performance and
emissions of a naturally aspirated single cylinder compression ignition
engine were examined. The significant improvement in reduction of
Carbon monoxide were found for biodiesel and its blends at higher
engine loads. Hydrocarbon had no evident variation for all tested fuels.
Nitrogen oxides emissions were slightly higher for biodiesel and its
blends. The use of transesterified Pongamia Pinnata crude oil can be
partially substituted for the diesel fuel at most operating conditions in
terms of the performance parameters and emissions without any
engine modifications.

CONTENTS
1.Introduction
2. A brief summary of the Global and Indian scenario in
biodiesel production
2.1. Global Scenario
2.2. Indian Scenario
3. Importance of alternate feedstock sources
4. Different methods of production of biodiesel
4.1.
4.24.3.
4.4-

Pyrolysis
Micro-emulsification
Dilution
Transesterification
4.4.1. Mechanism of

transesterification
4.4.2. Transesterification
Process Variables
4.4.3. Different catalytic
process employed in
Transesterification
4.4.4. Different types of
alcohols employed in
Transesterification
4.4.5. Kinetics of the
transesterification reaction
5. Biodiesel production and characterization
5.1. Biodiesel production procedure
5.2. Physical properties of biodiesel
5.3. Biodiesel production flowchart

5.4. Purification of glycerol phase

after transesterification
6. Experimental apparatus and text conditions
6.1. Experimental Apparatus
6.2. Engine test procedure
7.Results and discussions
7.1. Combustion characteristics
7.1.1. Peak pressure
7.2. Performance characteristics
7.2.1. Brake specific
fuel consumption
7.2.2. Brake thermal
efficiency
7.3. Emission characteristics
7.3.1. NOX emissions
7.3.2. CO emissions
7.3.3. CO2 emissions
7.3.4. Unburnt HC
emissions
8. Conclusions
9. Appendix
10. References

6.EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS AND TEST

CONDITIONS
6.1.Experimental Apparatus
The engine used was a single cylinder, naturally aspirated, 4-stroke, water cooled,
direct injection diesel engine. The basic data of the engine used is given in the table
below.

Sr.
No
1

Description

Data

Name of the Engine manufacturer

Kirloskar Oil
Engines Ltd.
Vertical, 4-stroke
cycle, singleacting, totally
enclosed, highspeed compression
ignition diesel
engine
1
4.41 KW or 6.0 bhp

Type of engine

3
4

Number of cylinders
IS Rating at 1500 rpm

Direction of rotation

Bore

CW/ACW when
looking at flywheel
end
87.5mm

7
8

Stroke
Cubic Capacity

110mm
0.662 litres

Nominal compression ratios

17.5:1

10

Fuel timing by spill(BTDC)

23 degree

11

12

Valve Timing
Inlet valve opens BTDC
Inlet valve closes closes
ABDC
Exhaust valve opens BBDC
Exhaust valve closes ATDC
Valve clearance-in cold condition
Inlet
Exhaust

4.5 degree
35.5 degree
35.5 degree
4.5 degree

0.18mm
0.20mm

Gaseous emissions were measured by using the AVL Digas 4000 gas analyzer. To
ensure that the accuracy of the measured values was high, the gas analyser was
calibrated before each measurement using reference gases. A Tecktronix TDS 2014
four channel digital storeage oscilloscope attached to AVL Piezo Amplifier A03 was
used to measure the peak pressure of the piston during a cycle with the help of a
piezoelectric sensor.

6.2- Engine test Procedure

The experiments were carried out by using B0 (100% neat diesel), B2(2% biodiesel
and 98% diesel), B5(5% biodiesel and 95% diesel), B10(10% biodiesel and 90%
diesel), B20(20% biodiesel and 80% diesel) and B100(100% neat biodiesel) at
different engine loads. Before running the engine to a new fuel, it was allowed to
run for sufficient time to consume the remaining fuel from the previous experiment.
To evaluate the performance parameters, important operating parameters such as
engine speed, power output, fuel consumption, exhaust emissions and cylinder
pressure were measured.

7. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

7.1-Combustion Characteristics
7.1.1- Peak Pressure
The variations of peak cylinder gas pressure was with brake power for different
blends of biodiesel are given in the figure below.

Peak Cylinder Pressure vs Load

66
64
62
60

Peak Cylinder Pressure (in bar)

58
56
54
52
50

2.5

Load (in KW)

Diesel

B2

B5

B10

B20

B100

3.5