Evaluation of combustion, performance and emission indicators of canola oil-kerosene blends in a power generator diesel engine

Direct use of vegetable oils as fuel in diesel engines leads to some important engine operational problems that need to be solved in order to make their usability possible. Canola oil was blended with kerosene by percentages of 90% canola oil-10% kerosene (C90&K10), 75% canola oil-25% kerosene (C75&K25) and 50% canola oil-50% kerosene (C50&K50). These blend fuels were initially analyzed by means of physicochemical fuel properties and comparisons were made with standard diesel fuel. Blend fuels and standard diesel fuel (D2) were than tested in a diesel power generator with 4 cylinders in order to investigate the combustion, performance and emission characteristics of the blend fuels and compare them with the petroleum based diesel fuel (D2). All experiments were carried out at specified output power values of 3.6, 7.2 and 10.8 kW and 1500 rpm constants speed. The combustion characteristics of canola oil kerosene blends have found be quite similar to those of D2. Mass fuel consumption and brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc) were slightly increased for blend fuels. Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and exhaust smoke opacities were considerably reduced for blends while carbon monoxides (CO) and unburned hydrocarbon (HC) emissions were a bit increased. It can be concluded that kerosene blended vegetable oils can be used as fuel with improved combustion and performance characteristics compared to those of pure vegetable oils.