Experimental Investigation on Performance and Emission Characteristics of Non Road CI Engines Operated With Cardanol Biodiesel Blends

Abstract

Diesel engines dominate the field of commercial transportation and agricultural machinery because of their superior fuel efficiency. There is a limited reserve of the fossil fuels and the world has already faced the energy crisis of the seventies concerning uncertainties in their supply. Import of petroleum products is a major drain on our foreign exchange sources and with growing demand. Research has shown that, these vehicular emissions are the source of air pollution and have adverse implications on health and air quality. Lead, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and hydrocarbons together with the unavoidable production of carbon dioxide are the harmful components of exhaust gases from internal combustion engines [4]. Energy is considered as a critical factor for economic growth, social development and human welfare. More than 6.5 million diesel engines are being used in the Indian Agricultural sectors for various activities. With increasing trend of modernization and industrialization, the world energy demand is also growing at a faster rate. India, facing the challenge of meeting a rapidly increasing demand for energy, and ranks sixth in the world in terms of energy demand. Its economy is projected to grow 7%- 8% over the next two decades and there will be a substantial increase in demand for oil to manage transportation and also to meet various other energy needs. The primary problem associated with straight vegetable oils as a fuel in diesel engines is caused by high viscosity and low volatility, which, in turn cause improper atomization of fuel during injection and lead to incomplete combustion and result in formation of deposits on the injectors and cylinder heads, leading to poor performance, higher emissions and reduced engine life. The high viscosity of vegetable oils can be reduced by using transesterification process. The concept of transesterification process of non-edible oil with an alcohol provides a clean burning fuel (commonly known as biodiesel) having less viscosity. Its main advantage is that many of its properties are quite close to those of diesel and it can be grown and processed in rural areas. Keeping in view the plight of the energy crisis, in this work cardanol biodiesel has been used for investigation in various single and multi-cylinder diesel engines.ii A single cylinder diesel engine was used to evaluate the performance and emission characteristics of cardanol biodiesel. A single cylinder VCR (variable compression ratio) engine was fuelled with volumetric blends of cardanol biofuel and the performance and emission characteristics were compared with petro diesel and PE characteristics were evaluated for 18:1 and 17:1compression ratios. An extended experimental study was conducted on a Kirloskar double cylinder CI engine to evaluate the performance and emission characteristics. The cardanol biodiesel volumetric blends like 0 %, 5% ,10% ,15% ,20% , 25% and base fuel (Petro diesel) were tested at various loads like 0 %, 25 %, 50%,75% and full load, and at a constant speed of 1500 rpm. From the results, it is found that the brake specific energy consumption decreased by 30 to 40% approximately with increase in load conditions. Brake thermal efficiency increased with increase in load. The brake specific energy consumption decreased by 30 to 40% approximately at higher CR and 25 to 30% at lower CR with increase in brake power. The HC emissions are nominal up to B20, and more at B25, the reason for this being the incomplete combustion. The Nox emissions (ppm) increased with increased proportion of blends and with higher EGT. The Carbon monoxide emissions increased with higher blends, and increased slightly more after 20% blends. From this investigation it is observed that up to 20% blends of cardanol biodiesel may be used in CI engines without any hardware modifications.