GAINS IN PERFORMANCE OF DIESEL CYCLE ENGINE USING B10

Abstract

Studies to develop renewable fuels, such as biodiesel, as substitutes for petroleum diesel are of great environmental importance. However, to be effectively incorporated into the energy mix, satisfactory performance of a diesel cycle engine under the effect of this biofuel must be ensured. The objective of this study was to evaluate the specific fuel consumption, effective power and torque of a diesel engine with respect to resistive loads under varying volumetric proportions of soybean biodiesel in diesel mineral oil (5% (B5), 10% (B10), 25% (B25) and 50% (B50)) under varying applied loads (1.5, 3.0, 4.5, 6.0, 7.5 and 9.0 kW). For the test, a 7.36 kW engine coupled to a 28.8 kW three-phase electric generator was used. The loads were elevated up to 9.0 kW via a three-phase resistive bench. In terms of power and torque, the performances of the B5 and B10 mixtures were not significantly different, whereas the B25 and B50 mixtures displayed lower performances. The B10 mixture showed better performance in terms of consumption because the remaining mixtures had results similar to those of the B5 mixture.