Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Bio-diesel is one of the most promising alternatives for diesel needs. Use of edible oil may create shortage of oil seeds for daily food, which necessitates identification of new kinds of non-edible vegetable oil. With this objective, the present work has focused on the performance of castor non-edible vegetable oil and its blend with diesel on a single cylinder, 4 stroke, naturally aspirated, direct injection, water cooled, eddy current dynamometer Kirloskar Diesel Engine at 1500 rpm for variable loads. Initially, castor neat oil and their blends were chosen. The physical and chemical properties of Castor oil were determined. In general, viscosity of neat vegetable oil is high, which can be reduced through blending with diesel and heating them. The heating temperature of the blends increases with the increase in the percentage of neat oils with diesel ranging from 700 C to 1200 C before entering into the combustion chamber. The suitability of neat Castor oil and their blends are evaluated through experimentation. The performance and emission characteristics of engine are determined using Castor neat oil and their blends with diesel. These results are compared to those of pure diesel. These results are again compared to the other results of neat oils and their blends available in the literature for validation. By analyzing the graphs, it was observed that the performance characteristics are reduced and emission characteristics are increased at the rated load compared to those of diesel. This is mainly due to lower calorific value, high viscosity and delayed combustion process. From the critical analysis of graphs, it can be observed that 25% of neat Castor oil mixed with 75% of diesel is the best suited blend for Diesel engine without heating and without any engine modifications. It is concluded that castor non-edible oil can be used as an alternate to diesel, which is of low cost. This usage of neat bio-diesel has a great impact in reducing the dependency of India on oil imports. Keywords: Castor oil, alternate fuel, biofuel, emissions, non edible oils, performance characteristics.