Testing palm biodiesel and NPAA additives to control NOx and CO while improving efficiency in diesel engines

This paper presents experimental test results of a diesel engine using additive-added palm biodiesel (it is also known as palmdiesel) obtained from palm oil. The test results obtained are brake power, specific fuel consumption (SFC), exhaust emissions and anti-wear characteristics of fuel's contaminated lubricants. A computer-controlled dynamometer-engine test bed was used to measure engine brake power and SFC at half throttle condition with a speed range of 1000-4000 rpm. The emission test was done with a dynamometer fixed load of 50 Nm and constant engine speed of 2250 rpm. A total of three fuels, such as 100% diesel fuel (B0); 20% palm diesel and 80% B0 (1320); and B20 with X% additive (B20X), were selected for this investigation. The B20X is the additive-added biodiesel, where X is the parentage (in this investigation X = 1% of B20) of additive in B20 fuel. Anti-wear characteristics in terms of coefficient of friction, wear scar diameter (WSD) and flash temperature parameter (FTP) of fuel's contaminated lubricants were measured using a tribometer test. It was found that B20X fuel shows better overall performance such as improved brake power, reduced exhaust emissions and shows better lube oil quality as compared to other tested fuels. This is mainly due to the effect of fuel additive in the blended fuel of B20. The specific objective of this investigation is to develop the performance of B20 fuel by using an in-house-formulated fuel additive. Detailed results have been presented with discussions. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.