Effect of the addition of biodiesel on the performance and opacity of a diesel engine

The main objective of this work is to evaluate the mechanical and opacity performance of diesel fuels and diesel/biodiesel mixtures in van vehicles at 2810 meters above sea level, by means of dynamometric tests. For the study, two van in which four mixtures were evaluated: B10 (10% biodiesel), B20 (20% biodiesel), B10A (10% biodiesel with additives), and B20A (20% biodiesel with additives). The impact on the mechanical performance of the vehicle from testing of power, torque and opacity were determined. It is obtained that the B10A mixture is the optimum one to replace the pure diesel, managing to maintain the torque and power without significant variations in relation to the pure diesel for a level of 95.0% confidence. It was concluded that as the percentage of biodiesel increases, engine torque decreases by 2.37% and the power by 1.37% in relation to pure diesel. In addition, fuels with biodiesel mixtures and with additives reduce soot emission under the opacity criterion up to approximately 37%. © 2019 Centro de Informacion Tecnologica. All rights reserved.