Agricultural & Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
†Paper presented at 4th International Biofuels Conference, Feb. 1–2, 2007, New Delhi, Organized by Winrock International India.
The production process for obtaining biodiesel from crude mahua oil having high free fatty acid content (19%) and its performance in a Ricardo E6 engine have been presented in this paper, together with its fuel properties. These properties were found to be comparable to diesel and confirming to both the American and European standards. Engine performance (brake specific fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency and exhaust gas temperature) and emissions (CO, smoke density and NOx) were measured to evaluate and compute the behaviour of the diesel engine running on biodiesel. The reductions in exhaust emissions, and brake specific fuel consumption, together with increased brake power and brake thermal efficiency made the blend of biodiesel (B20) a suitable alternative fuel for diesel and could help in controlling air pollution.
