Performance and Emissions Characteristics of Diesel Engine Fuelled by Biodiesel Derived from Palm Oil

Abstract

Bio fuels based on vegetable oils offer the advantage being a sustainable, annually renewable source of automobile fuel. Despite years of improvement attempts, the key issue in using vegetable oil-based fuels is oxidation stability, stoichiometric point, bio-fuel composition, antioxidants on the degradation and much oxygen with comparing to diesel gas oil. Thus, the improvement of emissions exhausted from diesel engines fueled by biodiesel derived from palm oil is urgently required to meet the future stringent emission regulations. Purpose of this study is to explore how significant the effects of palm oil blending ratio on combustion process that strongly affects the vehicles performance and exhaust emissions. The engine speed was varied from 15003000 rpm, load test condition varied by Dynapack chassis dynamometer from 050% and palm oil blending ratio from 515vol% (B5B15). Increased blends of biodiesel ratio is found to enhance the combustion process, resulting in decreased the HC emissions with nearly equal of engine performance. The improvement of combustion process is expected to be strongly influenced by oxygenated fuel in biodiesel content.