Experimental Investigation on the Performance and Emission Characteristics of Edible and Non-Edible Oil

Biodiesel is a fatty acid alkyl ester which is renewable, biodegradable and non-toxic fuel which can be derived from any vegetable oil and animal fats. Vegetable oils and animal fats in their raw form have high viscosity that makes them unsuitable as fuels for diesel engines. Transesterification is one of the well-known process by which fats and oils are converted into biodiesel. The reaction often makes use of acid/base catalyst. The process of transesterification is affected by the mode of reaction condition, molar ratio of alcohol to oil, type of alcohol, type and amount of catalysts, reaction time and temperature and purity of reactants. The present study consists of the production of biodiesel from Dairy scum oil and Waste Vegetable oil with the use of sodium hydroxide as a catalyst. Experiments has been conducted to estimate the performance and emission characteristics of a single cylinder four stroke diesel engine fuelled with mixture of two biodiesel blends with standard diesel. By varying the compression ratio and constant injection pressure tests has been conducted using the fuel blends of B10, B20, B30 biodiesel with standard diesel. It is evident from the experiment that additive will improve the thermal efficiency of the engine and also it influence on emission characteristics.