Study on the performance and emission characteristics of a CI engine using diesel-calophyllum inophyllum blends

The limited supply of fossil fuels and modern emission norms necessitates the use of mixture of alternate fuels with fossil fuels. Bio-diesel is a renewable source of energy obtained from agro-wastes or agro-based products. Oils obtained from these products maybe edible or non-edible. In this study, the suitability of Calophyllum inophyllum oil (CIO), a non-edible oil, as a bio-diesel source is studied. The bio-diesel fuel is first synthesized from the oil obtained through various stages, including transesterification. The performance characteristics such as brake thermal efficiency (BTE), specific fuel consumption (SFC) and emission variables such as CO2, NOx, HC, CO and smoke are studied. The blend percentage by volume used in the investigation are 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 100%. It is observed that HC and CO emissions are less for B10 blend. B10 blend has 20.3% less NOx emissions when compared to that of diesel fuel. BSFC is decreased by 8% and BTE is increased by 9.5% in B10 blend. Among all blends used, the lowest soot concentration is obtained with B10 blend. B10 blend provides the most suitable combination of characteristics to be used as an alternate fuel blend.