Performance testing of a diesel engine running on varying blends of jatropha oil, waste cooking oil and diesel fuel

Abstract

The high cost of fossil fuels and the fact that the world has arguably reached its peak oil production, has driven the need to seek alternative fuel sources. The main objective of the current study is to determine the performance of a laboratory-mounted diesel engine when fuelled with varying laboratory prepared biofuel and biodiesel and whether the advancement of the injection timing parameters will improve the engine power output and improve the smoke effect of these different fuel blends. The laboratory prepared biofuels used in this project range from 100% bio-fuel (BF100) to 50%, 30% and 10% biodiesel blends (BF50, BF30 and BF10, respectively). It should be noted that these blends are not commercially available, since they were blended in the laboratory specifically for these tests. The overall results of the study show that there is a distinct opportunity for using certain bio-fuel blends in specific applications as the power outputs are no more than one quarter less than that of base diesel. Concomitantly, the smoke opacity in all of the blends is lower than that of base diesel, which is a significant benefit in terms of their overall air emissions.