AN EXPERIMENTAL COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF DIESEL ENGINE OPERATING ON LINSEED AND NEEM METHYL ESTERS BLEND

Rapid depletion of Petroleum fuels and their demand lead man to search for alternatives fuels. At present the world is highly dependent on petroleum fuels and this results in a major drain of our foreign exchange recourses. Diesel engines are the most efficient power plants available today. Hence they are used for commercial transportation, agriculture and industrial power plants. The consumption of diesel is several times higher than petrol. Moreover the exhaust gases of these engines will cause considerable environmental pollution too. Vegetable oils are promising alternatives to diesel since their properties are very close. They are renewable and can be very easily produced in rural areas. In the present context of fossil fuel crisis, the importance of alternative fuel research for the internal engines needs no emphasis. Vegetable oils can be used as an alternative to diesel since their properties are very close to diesel fuel. They are also renewable. In the present work, experiments have been carried out to assess the suitability of linseed oil and neem oil as fuels in a diesel engine. Current investigations revealed that the performance of neem oil and linseed oil are very close to diesel.