Effect of engine load and higher blends of pongamia methyl ester on engine behavior

The diesel demand in the country is growing at an annual rate of 8%. It’s also predicted that the supply of fossil fuels will not be able to meet this demand. The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the transportation sector had increased 16.4% from 1990 to 2013. In biofuels, the country has a ray of hope in providing energy security and the use of higher biodiesel blends offer considerable GHG emission benefits over standard diesel. Therefore, the biodiesels become compelling in view of the tightening automotive vehicle emission standards to curb air pollution.

The main objective of these experiments is to attempts the use of commercially available pongamia biodiesel blends; hence the effect of increased engine load and the biodiesel proportion in the blend on engine performance and emissions in comparison with diesel fuel is most required. The various engine performance and emission parameters evaluated are BTE, BSFC and emission parameters like; O2, CO2, CO, UBHC, NOx, EGT and smoke opacity. The results revealed that, the lower blends results closer performance and emissions in comparison to diesel. The higher NOx emissions observed at higher loads for POME blends and diesel due to higher peak temperatures.  Further, the increased biodiesel percentage in the blend with diesel increases the O2, EGT and NOx emissions at all engine operating conditions.