INFLUENCE OF INJECTION PRESSURE ON PERFORMANCE, EMISSION AND COMBUSTION CHARACTERISTICS OF ANNONA METHYL ESTER OPERATED DI DIESEL ENGINE

Diesel fuel has a limited resource, and concerns over environmental pollution are leading to the use of 'bio-origin fuels' as they are renewable and environmentally benign. Annona methyl ester, an esterified biofuel, has an excellent cetane number and a reasonable calorific value. It closely resembles the behaviour of diesel. However, being a fuel of different origin, the standard design limits of a diesel engine is not suitable for Aruaona methyl ester (AME). Therefore, in this work, a set of design and operational parameters are studied to find out the optimum performance of Annona methyl ester run diesel engine. This work targets at finding the effects of the engine design parameter viz, fuel injection pressure (IP) on the performance with regard to specific fuel consumption (SFC), brake thermal efficiency (BTHE) and emissions of CO, CO2, HC, NOx with A20 as a fuel. Comparison of performance and emission was done for different values of injection pressure to find best possible conditions for operating engine with AME. For small sized direct injection constant speed engines used for agricultural applications, the optimum injection pressure was found as 240 bar. Methyl esters from Annona, with properties close to diesel show better performance, combustion and emission characteristics. Hence, Annona (A20) blend can be used in existing diesel engines without compromising the engine performance.