Experimental investigations of performance and emission characteristics of single cylinder CI engine fueled with different blends of jatropha biodiesel with Metal based additive.

Abstract

The present investigation is focused on effect of CoCl2 as metal based additives on four stroke, single cylinder, air cooled direct injection diesel engine fuelled with various blends of jatropha biodiesel. Experiments were conducted to study performance and emission characteristics of CI engine operated at a constant speed of 1500 rpm at variable load from no load to full load in step of 25%. The Metal based additive (CoCl2) was added at a dosage of 50 ?mol/L of biodiesel in a jatropha biodiesel-diesel blend. Experimental results revealed that, when compared with blends without additive, significant improvement in brake thermal efficiency was observed by 1.24% for B20 and 1.52% for B40. From emissions profile, HC was lowered such as 18.18% reduction was observed for B40 with additive at 50% load condition also, other blends showed reductions in the range of 10% to 16% at various load conditions.NOx found to be lowered in the range of 10-12% for blends with additive compared to plain blends. Hence, CoCl2 added at a dosage of 50 ?mol/L is efficient in improving the performance and emission characteristics of jatropha biodiesel particularly for B20 and for B40. And they can be used as a suitable alternative to diesel fuel.