Effect of injection parameters and EGR on performance and emissions in a CRDI engine fuelled with cashew nut shell biodiesel blend

Stringent emission norms and requirement of energy security facilitate researchers to explore the use of alternate fuels and work on methods to optimise fuel injection parameters. The effects of injection timings (ITs), split injection and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on performance and emission characteristics of diesel engine fuelled with cashew nut shell biodiesel blends are investigated. Initially, experiments are conducted with diesel, B5 and B10 with original IT of 14.2 degrees bTDC with direct injection and are considered as base reading. The fuel injection is optimised (at 10.2 degrees bTDC and 15% split injection), and the effect of EGR rate at this optimised condition is analysed. Experiments are conducted with diesel, B5 and B10 with EGR rates of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% at optimised injection condition for various loads. NOx reduced by 67%, 68% and 56% for diesel, B5 and B10 at full load compared to base readings. Smoke emissions reduced by 3-3.5%, and CO emissions reduced by around 50% for diesel and biodiesel blends at full load.