Comparative Performance, Emission, and Combustion Characteristics of Rice-Bran Oil and Its Biodiesel in a Transportation Diesel Engine

The methyl esters of vegetable oils known as biodiesel are becoming increasingly popular because of their low environmental impact and potential as a green alternative fuel for diesel engines. Methyl ester of rice-bran oil (RBOME) is prepared through the process of transesterification. In the present investigation, experiments have been carried out to examine the performance, emission, and combustion characteristics of a direct-injection transportation diesel engine running with diesel, 20% blend of rice-bran oil (RBO), and 20% blend of RBOME with mineral diesel. A four-stroke, four-cylinder, direct-injection transportation diesel engine (MDI 3000) was instrumented for the measurement of the engine performance, emissions, in-cylinder pressure-crank angle history, rate of pressure rise, and other important combustion parameters such as instantaneous heat release rate, cumulative heat release rate, mass fraction burned, etc. A careful analysis of the performance, emissions, combustion, and heat release parameters has been carried out. HC, CO, and smoke emissions for RBO and RBOME blends were lower than mineral diesel while NO(x) emissions were almost similar and brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) was slightly higher than mineral diesel. Combustion characteristics were quite similar for the three fuels.