Performance study of using preheated biodiesel in a diesel engine

The use of biodiesel in blended mode is holding a more significant potential in making diesel engines environment-friendly. Published work specifies an optimum blend of biodiesel with diesel oil as B20. Further, the literature indicates that preheating biodiesel in the temperature range between 60 degrees C to 120 degrees C helps to increase the blend percentage up to 50%.In this experiment an effort has been made to use 100% Waste cooking oil methyl ester (WCME) biodieselby employing two stage heating in the temperature range from 100 degrees C to 250 degrees C. In the first stage the heater is immersed in fuel tank that heats biodiesel up to 70 degrees C that lowers the viscosity and eases pumping. In the second syage, an electric preheater is installed along the high-pressure fuel line for achieving higher temperatures. The performance and emission results are encouraging and indicates that Brake Specific Fuel Consumption decreases by 5.4%, Brake Thermal Efficiency increases by 6.15%, Carbon Monoxide (CO) and unburnt hydrocarbon (HC) emissions fall by 38% and 25.5%, respectively. NOx has increased marginally by 4-6%.