Assessment of performance, combustion and emission characteristics of the diesel engine powered with corn biodiesel blends

The increased transportation and industrialisation sectors running on fossil fuels lead to depletion of petroleum resources and environmental contamination. In these days, biodiesel has turned into an emerging alternative for diesel fuel. The present investigation focuses on the exploration of various characteristics of a diesel engine fuelled with corn seed methyl ester (CSME) biodiesel blends such as B10 (10% biodiesel and 90% diesel), B15, B20 and B25. From the test results, it is found that the CSME B20 blend operated engine had shown improved thermal efficiency when compared to other corn biodiesel blends tested in this study. Also, combustion characteristics have shown competitive results with respect to diesel fuel at all load conditions. However, a slight increase in engine tailpipe emissions such as HC and CO is observed when compared to diesel fuel at full load. Overall, considering the positive impact shown by corn seed biodiesel blends on engine characteristics towards sustainable eco-environment, it is concluded that, CSME B20 can be considered as one of the promising fuels among the available alternative resources for diesel.