Straight vegetable oils usage in a compression ignition engine-A review

The ever increasing fossil fuel usage and cost, environmental concern has forced the world to look for alternatives. Straight vegetable oils in compression ignition engine are a ready solution available, however, with certain limitations and with some advantages as reported by many researchers. A comprehensive and critical review is presented specifically pertaining to straight vegetable oils usage in diesel engine. A detailed record of historical events described. Research carried out specifically under Indian conditions and international research work on the usage of straight vegetable oils in the diesel engine is separately reviewed. Many researchers have reported that straight vegetable oils in small percentage blends with diesel when used lower capacity diesel engines have shown great promise with regards to the thermal performance as well exhaust emissions. This has been explained in detail. Finally based on the review of international as well as Indian research a SWOT analysis is carried out. The review concludes that there is still scope for research in this area. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.