Performance evaluation of diesel engine using rice bran biodiesel

The consumption of fuels in the world is increasing rapidly and it affects the global economy of all the countries so this factor forced all the countries to find the alternative fuel to reduce and even replace the usage of petroleum. Thus use of biodiesel from non-edible oil sources serves as an alternative to this problem. The present study focuses on impact assessment of rice bran and crude rice bran biodiesel and its blends with diesel on diesel engine performance. The experimental investigation provides in depth detail of the biodiesel production process, evaluation of fuel properties and impact on engine performance. The study also investigates the optimization of the Compression ratio (CR) of a compression ignition engine fueled with blends of biodiesel. In order to find out the optimum CR of the engine, experiments were conducted at different CRs ranging from 12 to 18. Then the experiments were conducted using B10, B20 and B40 blends of crude rice bran bio-diesel and diesel at CR of 12 and 14 and these results were compared with the results obtained when the same engine was tested on conventional diesel fuel. Similarly the experimental results of B10, B20 and B40 blends of rice bran bio-diesel at CR 14 were investigated and analyzed. Based on the experimental investigation the blends of crude rice bran bio-diesel can be used as fuel in diesel engine without making any modification to the diesel engine.