Experimental investigation on performance and emission characteristics of a compression ignition engine fueled with biodiesel from waste tallow

摘要

Tallow oil being one of the non-edible oils can be explored for biodiesel production; however, limited information is available in literature regarding the use of tallow biodiesel as an alternate form of energy. This study deals with systematic characterization of tallow biodiesel to find its suitability for diesel engines. The chemical nature and composition of tallow biodiesel as determined by NMR, FTIR and GC analyses are closely related to established biodiesel properties. In this investigation, tallow biodiesel blends (B10, B20 and B100) were used to study the performance and emission of compression ignition engine at different loads (20, 40, 60, 80 and 100%), and the results were then compared with baseline results of conventional base diesel. The fuel properties of biodiesel and its blends were also determined which were comparable with that of diesel. Brake thermal efficiency for biodiesel blends were in comparable range with that of base diesel. The average reduction in carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and smoke emission for B100 blend of biodiesel was observed to be 16.04, 28.09 and 28.57%, respectively, compared to base diesel. However, there was an average increase in NOx emission (15.34%) for B100 blend compared to diesel. The overall results show that tallow biodiesel could be recommended as a diesel fuel alternate.