JATROPHA PONGAMIA STRAIGHT VEGETABLE OILS AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO DIESEL AS A FUEL

摘要

With the fossil fuel depleting very fast, researchers have concentrated on developing new agro-based alternative fuels, which will provide sustainable solution to the energy crisis. Presently, bio-diesels, which are obtained from trans-esterification of straight vegetable oil (SVO), are being used along with diesel in blends. The transesterification process, which is a costly, time consuming and oil quality dependent process is eliminated in the present study. The straight vegetable oils, namely, Jatropha and Pongamia have been analyzed in details. The trial was conducted on a 4-stroke, single cylinder diesel engine, having compression ratio 17.5:1. The experiments were carried out for fuel consumption and emission levels at various loads and without any engine modifications. The results obtained were comparable to and better than diesel. The CO and NOx emission was found less for Jatropha as well as for Pongamia. The specific fuel consumption (SFC) was found to be low for both Jatropha and Pongamia oil at moderate loads. The brake thermal efficiency was also found to be better for both Jatropha and Pongamia oil as compared to diesel.