Abstract
ABSTRACT
Developing countries like India depend heavily on oil import. Diesel being the main transport fuel in India, finding a suitable alternative to it is an urgent need. Bio-diesels are transesterified vegetable oils, which are found to be engine friendly. Bio-diesel based on rubber seed oil is a potential non-edible, renewable energy source for CI engines. In this work, performance, emission and combustion parameters of a single cylinder diesel engine running on bio-diesel from rubber seed oil (B100) and its diesel blends viz. B20, B60, B80 were evaluated and compared with diesel operation. Results indicated lower brake thermal efficiency for B100, mainly due to its high viscosity compared to diesel. However, its diesel blends showed reasonable efficiencies, lower smoke and comparable CO and HC. B100 indicated higher Smoke, CO, HC and lower peak power NO emission, compared to its blends and diesel. Significant changes in the combustion parameters were also observed for bio-diesel blends compared to base diesel fuel.