Influence of static injection timing on combustion, emission and performance characteristics of DI diesel engine fuelled with honne oil methyl ester

This study is aimed to investigate experimentally the combustion, exhaust emissions and performance characteristics of a direct injection (DI) diesel engine, typically used in the agricultural sector, when fuelled with neat diesel (ND), and abundantly available but untapped honne oil methyl ester (HOME) is used in diesel engines. The static injection timing (SIT) is varied from 23 crank angle (CA) (manufacturer's specified value) to 28 CA. The combustion parameters of HOME improved as SIT increased. The brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of HOME (SIT 27-28CA before top dead centre (bTDC)) is the highest; however, still it is less than ND. The emissions (smoke opacity (SO), CO, HC and NOx) of HOME (SIT 23-28CA bTDC), through out the entire load range, are dropped compared to ND. The reductions in exhaust emissions (SIT 27-28CA bTDC) together with increase in BTE made the HOME (SIT 27-28CA bTDC) a suitable alternative fuel for diesel fuel and thus could help in controlling air pollution.