Investigation of Adaptabilities of Biodiesel for Agricultural Tractor

Biodiesel of 20% (BD20) and 100% (BD100), alterative fuels for tractor, were tested for its power and competitiveness in the various farm operations including plowing and rotary tilling in the paddy fields. No troubles such as engine ignition or abrupt stopping were monitored during the works of plowing, rotary tilling and travelling on the road. According to the tractor PTO test in accordance with OECD tractor PTO test codes, no significant PTO output difference was found between the three fuels. However, fuel consumption rates were different between the biodiesels and diesel fuel in the paddy works, where as biodiesel percentage increased more fuels were spent than the diesel fuel. The reason for this phenomenon seems came from density difference of the three fuels. Maximum fuel consumption difference occurred between BD100 and diesel fuel was about 10% in the plowing. More energy was spent on the rotary tilling operations than the plowing, where 35~40 % more fuel needed on rotary tilling than plowing. Of the exhaust gases, more was discharged from diesel fuel than biodiesels, but more NOx from biodiesels and CO was hard to determine which fuel produce more amount.