Diesel engine performance and exhaust gas emissions using Microalgae Chlorella protothecoides biodiesel

Microalgae biodiesel has captured the attention as a clean renewable fuel for diesel engines due to their positive characterizations such as high productivity, fast growing rate and their ability to convert CO2 to fuel. This work investigates the use of microalgae biodiesel from Chlorella Protothecoides (MCP-B) as alternative fuel for Compression Ignitions (CI) engines. Engine performance and emissions along with the fuel properties of the MCP-B100, MCP-B50, and MCP-B20 were evaluated and compared with petroleum diesel (PD). Analysis of variance statistical test (ANOVA) was conducted to evaluate the significance of the differences between the parameters means. The results showed that MCP-B100 produces less emission compared to PD. Statistically significant differences were found in the engine brake power, torque, BSFC, exhaust gas temperature, CO, O2 and NOx when MCP-B100 and its blends were used compare to PD. MCP-B100 showed a reduction of 7, 4.9, 6.1, 28, 4.2 and 7.4% in brake power, torque, exhaust gas temperature, CO, CO2 and NOx, respectively. Contrarily, the use of MCP-B100 resulted in an increase of 10.2 and 15.8% in BSFC and O2, respectively compared to PD.