Performance Study of Preheated Mustard Oil Methyl Ester on Naturally Aspirated CI Engine

Many studies have confirmed that the use of transesterifed vegetable oil as a fuel in diesel engine has resulted in lesser efficiency and inferior combustion rate when compared with petroleum diesel. Of late research works are being carried out to discover the surplus information on effective utilization of vegetable oil in CI engine as a promising alternative fuel. The present work was aimed to investigate the effect of preheating the transesterified oil just before entering fuel injection system thereby making its physical and chemical properties much closer to diesel fuel. In the present work neat mustard oil methyl ester was preheated to 90°c (MO90) and used in single cylinder, four stroke, naturally aspirated, direct injection compression ignition engine and compared with un heated mustard oil methyl ester (MO) at ambient temperature and petroleum diesel. The effects of fuel preheating on engine performance with mustard oil were clarified. Experiments were conducted with MO90 (Mustard oil methyl ester preheated to 90° C) and MO (Mustard oil methyl ester) and are compared with conventional diesel. The experimental analysis revealed that the BTE (brake thermal efficiency) of an engine was lower and BSFC (brake specific fuel consumption) was higher with unheated mustard oil methyl ester as compared to diesel fuel. However, increase in BTE and reduction in BSFC was observed with increase fuel inlet temperature of methyl ester to 90°C. Thus by preheating the mustard oil methyl ester during the fuel injection can be a good alternate fuel for CI engines in near future.