Combustion, performance, vibration and noise characteristics of cottonseed methyl ester-diesel blends fuelled engine

An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the impacts of using cottonseed methyl ester as an additive into neat diesel fuel on the combustion, performance, vibration and noise characteristics of a single-cylinder, direct injection diesel engine at a constant engine speed (1500 rpm) and under different engine loads (2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 Nm). B-10, B-20 and B-50 fuel blends were prepared as the working fuels and compared to B-0 reference fuel (neat diesel fuel) in the study. The results indicated that the lowest average vibration value was also obtained in B-20 type fuel. It was observed that cottonseed methyl ester due to the high oxygen content improved the quality of combustion process. Additionally, the high viscosity value of the used biodiesel increased the ignition delay by adversely affecting the atomisation, evaporation and mixing ratio of the fuels. On the other hand, BSFC increased with the increment of the biodiesel ratio in the blends i.e. the maximum BSFC was observed in B50 fuel type. In all fuel blends except for B-50 type, IPmax values were achieved higher than B-0 for each engine load. In conclusion, the experimental results clearly reported that the presence of cottonseed methyl ester in the blends can alternatively be substituted for the neat diesel fuel without any modifications in diesel engines.