Experimental evaluation of direct injection diesel engine performance and emissions with acacia biodiesel

Bharath’s sixth stage emission benchmark norms are stringent as per the global Emission norms, and their implementation is a great concern. The current Bharath stage VI emission norms were implemented on 1 April 2020. The aim of this work is to study the engine performance and emissions when the engine is fuelled by a new and unique bio-diesel. The engine selected for this experimentation is a Kirloskar, single-cylinder, 4-stroke and water-cooled, common rail direct injection (CRDi) diesel engine. The biodiesel was drawn from the Acacia seeds, which are available in plenty most of the places in South India, especially like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The oil was extracted from the dry acacia seeds and sent through a motorised expeller. The oil expelling efficiency is 19%, the available oil content is 220 ml, out of it 190 ml of oil was extracted, whereas with a hand-operated expeller, it was 16%; hence there is an improvement of 3%. The oil has been verified with FFA content and had 1.0%. FFA content single-step transesterification process is selected, which has yielded 97%. Experiments were conducted at 500 bar with a single injection, 500 bar with the main injection 15 degrees b TDC, pilot injection 23 degrees b TDC and 500 bar with B10 a single injection and 200 bar with the main 15 degrees b TDC, pilot injection 23 degrees b TDC. The results were observed when the engine was running with 15 degrees main injection and 23 degrees pilot injection strategy. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.