Fuel scarcity and environmental pollution associated with global warming are the major threats encountered by the operation of off-road vehicles, such as agricultural tractors and construction equipment. Biofuels from locally available resources and waste materials can contribute toward handling this ecological issue. In this work, an attempt has been made to study the performance, combustion, and emission characteristics of a Simpson S217, twin-cylinder tractor diesel engine using soapnut oil methyl ester as fuel. Soapnuts were purchased from organic shops, and oil was extracted by the cold-press method from soapnut kernels. The extracted oil was further subjected to the transesterification process with the presence of KOH and methanol to separate glycerin and fatty acids. Various proportions of soapnut oil methyl ester and diesel were blended on a volumetric basis. The properties of resulting blends SNB10, SNB20, and SNB30 satisfied ASTM biodiesel standards. Experimental investigations were carried out to study the effect of these blends on fuel consumption, thermal efficiency, cylinder pressure, exhaust gas temperature, and tail pipe emissions. The results revealed that the use of biodiesel blends reduced carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, and smoke emissions with a slight increase in the NO x emission compared to diesel.
The exhaust emissions from automotive diesel engines are successfully controlled over the years by adopting different combustion strategies and after treatment devices. Whereas, the combustion induced vibration and noise which is one of the major polluting source in off-road vehicle engines were not yet optimized. In the present study, a twin cylinder, Simpson’s S-217 tractor diesel engine was used to evaluate the performance, combustion, vibration and noise characteristics using biofuel blends. For this study, the blends of pine oil - soapnut oil biodiesel (P75SNB25), diesel - soapnut oil biodiesel (SNB20) and diesel were used as fuel. The pine oil used in the research was purchased and used in its neat form. The soapnut oil was extracted from the soapnut seeds by cold pressing method and trans-esterified in two stages using methanol and catalysts. The performance and combustion characteristics of the blend P75SNB25 was superior to diesel and the blend SNB20 was slightly inferior to diesel. For the blend P75SNB25 the amplitude of acceleration with respect to time was reduced by 19.48% and 11.58% at no load and full load respectively. For the blend SNB20 the amplitude of acceleration showed a reduction of 14.27% and 9.46% at no load and full load respectively in comparison with diesel operation. The noise emission for the blends P75SNB25 and SNB20 was decreased by a maximum of 2.34% at different engine loads compared to diesel operation.
The exhaust emissions from automotive diesel engines are successfully controlled over the years by adopting different combustion strategies and after treatment devices. Whereas, the combustion induced vibration and noise which is one of the major polluting source in off-road vehicle engines were not yet optimized. In the present study, a twin cylinder, Simpson's S-217 tractor diesel engine was used to evaluate the performance, combustion, vibration and noise characteristics using biofuel blends. For this study, the blends of pine oil -soapnut oil biodiesel (P75SNB25), diesel -soapnut oil biodiesel (SNB20) and diesel were used as fuel. The pine oil used in the research was purchased and used in its neat form. The soapnut oil was extracted from the soapnut seeds by cold pressing method and trans-esteri ed in two stages using methanol and catalysts. The performance and combustion characteristics of the blend P75SNB25 was superior to diesel and the blend SNB20 was slightly inferior to diesel. For the blend P75SNB25 the amplitude of acceleration with respect to time was reduced by 19.48% and 11.58% at no load and full load respectively. For the blend SNB20 the amplitude of acceleration showed a reduction of 14.27% and 9.46% at no load and full load respectively in comparison with diesel operation. The noise emission for the blends P75SNB25 and SNB20 was decreased by a maximum of 2.34% at different engine loads compared to diesel operation.
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