Performance analysis of Butanol and Waste Cooking Oil bio-diesels in VCR diesel engine

Abstract

Global energy crisis is the key reason for switching to alternate fuels without compromising with environmental standards. This paper focuses on assessing the performance parameters viz. brake thermal efficiency (BTE), brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), air/fuel ratio and torque against gradually increasing load (0-4 kg) for waste cooking oil (WCO) biodiesel, butanol biodiesel and neat diesel  in a variable compression ratio engine. Three different blends of WCO and butanol, separately, with diesel (WCD10/B10, WCD20/B20 and WCD30/B30) were prepared on percentage by volume basis, and were tested for physio-chemical properties. Characteristic graphs for diesel fuel suggested that brake thermal efficiency kept on increasing with increase in load and was highest for CR18 (compression ratio) at 4kg load. Specific fuel consumption and A/F ratio were lowest for compression ratio of 18 at zero loading. Performance analysis of all six blends concluded that waste cooking oil biodiesel showed comparable results to conventional diesel fuel at CR18. Also, both WCO and butanol blends show better results than diesel fuel at compression ratio 18.