Performance and emission analysis of a diesel engine fuelled with Juliflora biodiesel: a simulation and experimental study

The simulation was performed using Diesel RK software, specifically designed to analyse and optimise the performance of diesel engines. Injector design, piston bowl design, stroke length, and fuel properties like cetane rating were used as the input data for the simulation. A simulation study revealed that the lower blend ratio of B20 closely resembled the performance of diesel fuel. At the rated speed of 1500 RPM, the brake torque and brake power decreased by up to 2.5% and 4% for B20 than diesel. The volumetric efficiency and mass flow rate were found to be increased for B20 than diesel by 1% and 2.17%. The trend of BSFC for B20 closely resembled diesel's outcomes. At full load, the emission characteristics of nitrogen oxides (NOx) for diesel, B20, and B100 were measured as 622.66 ppm, 613.12 ppm, and 627.01 ppm. B20 demonstrated better emission performance. These simulation results were validated with the experimental study. The experiments were carried out with the juliflora biodiesel blended with diesel at various proportions B20, B30, B40, and B100 using the Kirloskar TV1 engine. Both simulation and experimental values were almost similar with lesser error and a standard deviation of 1. Based on these findings, it was finally concluded that B20 was the most suitable blend among the tested mixtures and can serve as a feasible alternative to diesel fuel because of the better performance emissions characteristics.