Effect of biodiesel blending with diesel fuel on CI engine performance and energy availability

This paper discusses the effect of blending used/waste cooking oil biodiesel with petrodiesel on the performance, emissions and engine availability of direct injection diesel engine. This was done using both experimental and analytical methods. The software used was diesel-RK. The engine used was the tempest 4-stroke, 4-cylinders, water-cooled, direct injection compression ignition engine. It was connected to a dynamometer test-bed with all necessary temperature and flow rate measurement devices. The test was carried out at full engine throttle. At first, waste cooking oil was collected from the university cafeteria and converted to biodiesel. Then, the engine was tested using locally available diesel in Jordan to set the performance for comparison and then was run using other fuels and blends. Finally, the first and second law parameters were calculated and compared. It was found that a 5-10% biodiesel blend gave an average of 5% improvement in the performance from power, torque, fuel consumption and thermal efficiency point of view. Further, it was clear from the second law analysis that biodiesel fuel and its blends higher than 10% failed to utilise the available energy of the fuel compared with diesel fuel.