Performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine fueled with biodiesel obtained from a hybrid feedstock

Vegetable oils and animal fats are widely investigated as a alternative fuel for diesel engines because of their high cetane number. However, animal fats are highly viscous and mostly in solid form at ambient temperature that they need modifications before using them in diesel engines. Pre-heated, blending, transesterification and emulsification are well known to improve usage of animal fats in diesel engines. In this study, biodiesel was produced from a hybrid feedstock (60% crude canola oil/40% inedible animal tallow) by transesterification and tested in a DI diesel engine for determining exhaust emissions and comparing those of biodiesel from pure animal tallow. Biodiesel fuels were tested as blends in diesel fuel (50% biodiesel and 50% diesel fuel). The experimental results show that, compared with animal tallow biodiesel blend, hybrid feedstock biodiesel blend has higher viscosity, density, brake specific fuel consumption, CO and NO emissions and a lower cetane number, brake thermal efficiency.