Influence of Injection Pressure on Performance and Emission Characteristics of Nerium Methyl Ester Operated DI Diesel Engine

Nerium 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 Nerium methyl ester (NME). Therefore, in this work, a set of design and operational parameters are studied to find out the optimum performance of Nerium 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 N20 as fuel. Comparison of performance and emission was done for different values of injection pressure to find best possible condition for operating engine with NME. For small sized direct injection constant speed engines used for agricultural applications, the optimum injection pressure was found as 240bar. Methyl esters from Nerium, with properties close to diesel; show better performance and emission characteristics. Hence Nerium (N20) blend can be used in existing diesel engines without compromising the engine performance. Diesel (25%) thus saved will greatly help the interests of railways in meeting the demand for fuel, as diesel trains are operated at maximum load condition.