Performance and Emissions of Biodiesel Blends in an Automotive Diesel Engine

Biodiesel has advantages over conventional diesel fuel in terms of lesser pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions. It has the capability to partially replace diesel fuel and thereby reduces the dependence on dwindling crude oil resources. Biodiesel can be used in diesel engines with little or no modification. It is renewable and can be produced from non-edible oil seeds such as jatropha carcus and pongamia pinnata, which can be grown on wasteland. In this paper, results of a study on performance and mass emissions of an automotive diesel engine using jatropha curcus derived ethyl ester (JEE) blends are reported. The physico-chemical properties of the biodiesel, teseted as per ASTM methods, were within the standard limits. The mass emissions of NOx showed 4–9% increase with 10–20% JEE blends. PM emission for JEE-20 was almost same as that of diesel. There was no significant change in brake horse power (bhp) of both blends when compared to that of diesel.