Performance Study of 4-Stroke Diesel Engine Using Soybean Oil Blend

Abstract

The rate of fossil fuel consumption is soaring with population growth but the fossil fuel reserves are finite in nature. It is only a matter of when they run out - not if. Every year, billions of tons of fossil fuel oil is consumed globally. So it is high time we contemplated over other alternative fuels. One such alternative is the use of Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO) or its blend in diesel engine if performance, emission and maintenance of an engine are comparable to diesel fuel. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of commercially available Soybean oil and diesel blends on the performance characteristics of Kirloskar single cylinder diesel engine. This study also sheds light on comparison and measurement of physical properties of diesel and test fuels i.e., the blends, and correlates them with the performance test result. It is concluded that the tested blends can be used safely and effectively in the diesel engine, at least in small blending ratios with normal Diesel fuel.