Effect of palm methyl ester - diesel blends performance and emission of a single-cylinder direct-injection diesel engine

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate engine performance and exhaust emission when using several blends of neat palm oil methyl ester (POME) with conventional diesel (D2) in a small direct injection diesel engine, and to compare the outcomes to that of the D2 fuel. Engine performances, exhaust emissions, and some other important parameters were observed as a function of engine load and speed. In addition, the effect of modifying compression ratio was also carried out in this study. From the engine experimental work, neat and blended fuels behaved comparably to diesel (D2) in terms of fuel consumption, thermal efficiency and rate of heat released. Smoke density showed better results than that emitted by D2, operating under similar conditions due to the presence of inherited oxygen and lower sulphur content in the biofuel and its blends. The emissions of CO, CO2, and HC were also lower using blended mixtures and in its neat form. However, NOx concentrations were found to be slight higher for POME and its blends and this was largely due to higher viscosity of POME and possibly the presence of nitrogen in the palm methyl ester. General observation indicates that biofuel blends can be use without many difficulties in this type of engine but for optimized operation minor modifications to the engine and its auxiliaries are required.