Abstract
Keywords Alternative Fuel, Metyl Ester of Sunflower Oil, Dual Fuel Engine, Injection Timing, Performance.
Abstract
The sharp escalation in the petroleum prices and the rapid depletion of non-renewable fuels have stimulated the search for alternatives to petroleum based fuels specially diesel and gasoline. Biodiesel is one of the renewable fuels, which will be the good replacement to diesel. But as a sole fuel, it leads to slightly inferior performance and higher smoke emission due to high viscosity and carbon residue. Hence many researchers suggested that the biodiesel could be used as pilot fuel in dual fuel engine, for better performance and lower exhaust emissions. From the literature survey, it is observed that not much work has been done to use Methyl Ester (ME) of sunflower oil as pilot fuel in dual fuel mode of operation.
Hence, in the present work, ME of sunflower oil is chosen as a renewable pilot fuel to run the LPG-Biodiesel dual fuel engine. In dual fuel mode operation, LPG is used as the inducted gaseous fuel. LPG has been chosen as the inducted fuel on account of its easy availability in abundance in the present time. The existing compression ignition diesel engine was modified to work on dual fuel mode. Tests were carried out on a single cylinder, four strokes, water-cooled, direct injection compression ignition engine. To study the effect of injection timing, it is advanced and retarded from the standard injection timing recommended for diesel operation. From the tests results, it is observed that the advanced injection timing (30 °bTDC) results in better performance and lower emissions compared to other injection timings
(27°bTDC and 27° bTDC). The test results show that the injection timing of 30° bTDC gives 1% to 3% higher brake thermal efficiency compared to other injection timings. Also, the injection timing of 30° bTDC results in lower smoke emissions compared to other injection timings. Hence, ME of sunflower oil can be used as pilot fuel in dual fuel engine with the advanced injection timing of 30°BTDC.