PREDICTION OF PERFORMANCE AND EMISSION OF CASTOR OIL BIODIESEL IN DIESEL ENGINE

The resources of petroleum as fuel are dwindling day by day and increasing demand of fuels, as well as increasingly stringent emission regulations, pose a challenge to science and technology. This aspect has drawn the attention to conserve and stretch the oil reserves by conducting research on alternative fuels. Therefore, in this paper the prospects and opportunities of using methyl esters of castor oil as fuel in an engine are studied. In the present work tests were conducted on a four stroke, single cylinder, D.I. diesel engine with Diesel and various blends of castor oil biodiesel. The results of performance and emission tests are compared for various blends of castor oil biodiesel with that of neat diesel. The results indicate that at blend B60, Brake Specific Energy Consumption (BSEC) is lowest with highest exhaust gas temperature and lowest smoke opacity as compared to other blends Keywords-Brake specific energy consumption, smoke density, exhaust gas temperature.