Influence of Crude Sunflower oil on Performance and Emission Characteristics of Diesel Engine during Short Term Test

Abstract

Due to the worldwide effort to make renewable energy economically viable as well as to use cleaner fuels,
SVO (Straight Vegetable oil) can become an indispensable tool in global trade. Different types of vegetable oil are grown
locally and one way to use is to convert this vegetable oil into biodiesel but this conversion technique is not available or
accessible in remote and rural areas due to economical constraints. So use of locally available crude vegetable oil in
existing diesel engine without any modifications becomes an interesting option if performance, emission and
maintenance of an engine are comparable to diesel fuel. The results of the literature review have indicated that a
performance and emission characteristic of DI diesel engine fuelled with crude Sunflower oil is not investigated.
Therefore, the main purpose of the research is to evaluate the effectiveness of commercially available Sunflower oil on
the Performance and Emission characteristics of diesel Engine. This paper intends to compare the performance and
emission characteristics of diesel and Sunflower oil based on short term experimental results carried out on Cummins
two cylinder DI engine by varying brake load at constant speed. This study also shed light on comparison of physical
properties of diesel and Sunflower oil and correlates them with the test results. The test results showed that physical
properties like density, viscosity, surface tension and flash point of crude Sunflower oil were found higher whereas
calorific value was lower than diesel fuel. The Sunflower oil emitted lower NOx emissions and higher CO emission as
compared to diesel at lower load condition while the opposite trend was observed at full load condition i.e. higher NOx
emissions and lower CO emission as compared to diesel fuel. The Sunflower oil significantly increased brake thermal
efficiency at full load whereas reduced thermal efficiency at part load as compared to diesel fuel. However, Sunflower oil
was producing quite lower smoke emission than diesel throughout the load range. Thus, crude Sunflower oil performed
better at full load than at part load based on performance and emission characteristics of diesel engine during short term
load test.