World of Sciences Journal; 2013-Apri l-Special Issue

ISSN 2307-3071

Brake Specific Fuel Consumption of Diesel Engine by Using Biodiesel from

Waste Cooking Oil

Alireza Shirneshan1*, Morteza Almassi2, Barat Ghobadian3, Ali Mohammad Borghei1, Gholamhassan
Najafi3
1

Department of Agricultural Machinery Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad
University, P.O.Box 14515-755, Tehran, Iran

Department of Agricultural Mechanization, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University,
P.O.Box 14515-755, Tehran, Iran

Department of Mechanics of Agricultural Machinery, Tarbiat Modares University,P.O.Box 14115111,Tehran, Iran

Corresponding Auther*: arshirneshan@yahoo.com

Abstract: In This research, the effects of biodiesel (from waste cooking oil) in fuel mixture (biodiesel
and diesel fuel No.2) on BSFC of a diesel engine. The experiments were conducted on a four cylinder
direct-injection diesel engine. Results showed that the use of biodiesel BSFC increases 18 to 24% by the
using net biodiesel. Also results showed that the reduction in engine load appeared to cause an increase in
BSFC which increase up to 15% by reducing the engine load.

Keywords: Engine performance, Biodiesel, Diesel engine, RSM, Engine Operating Conditions.

1. Introduction
Biofuels such as alcohols and biodiesel have been proposed as alternatives for diesel engines
(Agarwal, 2007; Demirbas, 2007; Ribeiro et al., 2007). Biodiesel can be produced from various vegetable
oils, waste cooking oils and animal fats. The fuel properties of biodiesel may be changed when different
feedstocks are used. If the fuel properties of biodiesel are compared to petroleum diesel fuel, it can be
seen that biodiesel has higher viscosity, density, pour point, flash point and cetane number, near-zero
aromatic compound, and no sulphur link (Canakci and Ozsezen, 2005; Knothe, 1997).
In particular, biodiesel has received wide attention as a replacement for diesel fuel because it is
biodegradable, nontoxic and can significantly reduce toxic emissions and overall life cycle emission of
CO2 from the engine when burned as a fuel (Cvengro and Povaanec, 1996; USEPA, 2002). Biodiesel
can form blends with petroleum diesel fuel at any ratio and thus have the potential to partially, or even
totally, replace diesel fuel in diesel engines.

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World of Sciences Journal; 2013-Apri l-Special Issue

ISSN 2307-3071

Biodiesel fuel has many effects on diesel engine performance. There has been a lot of research on the
regulated performance characteristics of diesel engines with biodiesel/diesel blends.
Many researches compared the blends with different content biodiesel For BSFC. Most of them
(Aydin and Bayindir, 2010; Raheman and Phadatare, 2004; Meng et al., 2008; Ramadhas et al., 2005;
Godiganur et al., 2010; Raheman and Ghadge, 2007; Qi et al., 2010) agreed that the fuel consumption of
an engine fueled with biodiesel becomes higher. In (Armas et al., 2010; Zhu et al., 2010; Godiganur et
al., 2010; Labeckas and Slavinskas, 2006) authors believed that, with increasing the content of biodiesel,
engine fuel consumption will increase. Raheman and Phadatare (2004) tested karanja methyl ester (B100)
and its blends (B20, B40, B60 and B80) on a single-cylinder, 4-stroke, DI, WC diesel engine, and

observed the same trend. Reyes and Seplveda

(2006) found that B40 has the minimum SFC (specific
fuel consumption) of all the blends (B20, B40, B60, B80 and B100) tested on a 6-cylinder, 4-stroke and
WC diesel engine. Of course, there are very few researches that showed an opposite trend (Pal et al.,
2010; Mahanta et al., 2006].
On the contrary, it was reported in (Mahanta et al.,2006; Ozgnay et al., 2007; Song and Zhang,
2008; Pal et al., 2010) that fuel consumption was decreased for biodiesel compared to diesel. For
instance, Ulusoy et al. (2004) observed that the fuel consumption of frying oil biodiesel was 43% less
than that of diesel on a 4-cylinder, 4-stroke 46kW diesel engine. And it was observed by Sahoo et al.
(2007) that BSEC is slightly higher for B100 at lower loads and remains same at higher loads.
The objective of this research work is to investigate the effects of biodiesel percentage of in fuel
mixture (biodiesel and diesel fuel No.2) as fuel parameter on changes in BSFC. In addition, using
diagrams, the interaction effects of process parameters on the parameters are analyzed and discussed.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1 Biodiesel preparation and fuel properties
Biodiesel from waste vegetable cooking oil is a more economical source of the fuel, so biodiesel was
produced from this source in the present investigation. In the present research, biodiesel was produced by
transesterification process TMU biofuels laboratories. The important properties of biodiesel and No. 2
diesel are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Properties of diesel and biodiesel fuels used for present investigation

Property

Method

Units

Flash point
Pour point
Cloud point
Kinematical viscosity, 40C
Density

ASTM-D92
ASTM-D97
ASTM-D2500
ASTM-D445
---------

C
C
C
mm2/s
Kg/m3

Biodiese
l
150
-5
-1
4.3
875

Diesel
61
0
3
4.15
830

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World of Sciences Journal; 2013-Apri l-Special Issue

ISSN 2307-3071

2.2 Test engine experimental setup and procedure

The engine tests were carried out on a 4-cylinder, four-stroke, turbocharged, water cooled and
naturally aspirated DI diesel engine. The engine speed was measured by a digital tachometer with a
resolution of 1 rpm. The engine was allowed to run for a few times until the exhaust gas temperature, the
cooling water temperature, the lubricating oil temperature, have attained steady-state values and then the
data were recorded.

3. Analysis and Results

The experiments at design matrix (Table 3) were performed and the experimental data for BSCF of
the diesel engine are shown in Table 4.

Table 4. The experimental and predicted data for the three responses

Experimental data
Experiment
BSFC(gr/(Kw.hr)
number
Y
1
230.6
2
258.7
3
248.8
4
288.5
5
217
6
236.3
7
235.2
8
266
9
213.1
10
262.7
11
242.7
12
283
13
256.4
14
226
15
241.2

3.1. Brake specific fuel consumption

Figures (10 to 13) show the effects of biodiesel percentage and engine speed on the predicted brake
specific fuel consumption of the engine at various load condition. As the Figures show the maximum
brake specific fuel consumption is more than 330 (gr/Kw.hr) for fuel blends included more than 95%

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World of Sciences Journal; 2013-Apri l-Special Issue

ISSN 2307-3071

biodiesel at 25% engine load and engine speed between 2700 to 2800 rpm. Also the minimum brake
specific fuel consumption (less than 208 (gr/Kw.hr)) happens at full engine load and engine speed
between 1500 to 1700 rpm for fuel blends included less than 10% biodiesel.
According to the results, the BSFC initially decreased with increase in speed up to 1300 rpm and
then BSFC remains approximately constant between 1300 rpm and 1900 rpm. For the range more than
1900 rpm, the BSFC increased sharply with speed (Xue et al., 2011).
The predicted values for the brake specific fuel consumption increase with the increasing amount of
biodiesel in the fuel blend. The heating value of the biodiesel is lower than that of diesel fuel No.2.
Therefore, if the engine was fueled with biodiesel or its blends, the BSFC will increase due to the
produced lower brake power caused by the lower energy content of the biodiesel (Aydin and Bayindir,
2010; Ozsezen et al., 2009; Karabektas, 2009; Murillo et al., 2007; Kaplan et al., 2006; Choi and Oh,
2006; Ramadhas et al., 2005; Canakci et al., 2009). At the same time, for the same volume, more
biodiesel fuel based on the mass flow was injected into the combustion chamber than diesel fuel No.2 due
to its higher density. In addition to these parameters, viscosity, the atomization ratio and injection
pressure should be considered since they have some effects on the BSFC and brake power values (Lin et
al., 2009; Song and Zhang, 2008).
As the figures show with increase in load, the BSFC of biodiesel decreases. One possible explanation
for this trend could be the higher percentage of increase in brake power with load as compared to fuel
consumption (Raheman and Phadatare, 2004; Meng et al., 2008; Ramadhas et al., 2005; Godiganur et al.,
2010; Raheman and Ghadge, 2007; Qi et al., 2010).

Fig 10. Effect of Percentage of biodiesel in fuel mixture and engine speed on BSFC at 25% engine load.

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World of Sciences Journal; 2013-Apri l-Special Issue

ISSN 2307-3071

Fig 11. Effect of Percentage of biodiesel in fuel mixture and engine speed on BSFC at 50% engine load.

Fig 12. Effect of Percentage of biodiesel in fuel mixture and engine speed on BSFC at 75% engine load.

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World of Sciences Journal; 2013-Apri l-Special Issue

ISSN 2307-3071

Fig 13. Effect of Percentage of biodiesel in fuel mixture and engine speed on BSFC at 100% engine load.

4. Conclusions
1- The brake specific fuel consumption increases with the increase of biodiesel in the blends, due to the
lower heating value of biodiesel. Results showed that the brake specific fuel consumption of diesel
No.2 fuel is 18 to 24% more than the brake specific fuel consumption of net biodiesel at various
engine loads.
2- The brake specific fuel consumption at 25% engine load was around 15% more than this
characteristic at full engine load for all fuel blends.
3- These results are similar to those found in the literature and support that waste cooking oil methyl
esters have similar properties with diesel fuel.
4-

Also the results of the study show that use of biodiesel blends with diesel had not significant change
on performance of the diesel engine.

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