Comparision of Diesel Engine Performance and Emissions from Neat and Transesterified Cotton Seed Oil

There is an increasing interest in India to search for suitable alternative fuels that are environmental friendly. Environmental concerns and limited amount of petroleum resources have caused interests in the development of alternative fuels for internal combustion (IC) Engines. As an alternative, biodegradable, renewable and sulphur free biodiesel is receiving increasing attention. The use of biodiesel is rapidly expanding around the world, making it imperative to fully understand the impacts of biodiesel on the diesel engine combustion process and pollutant formation. Biodiesel is known as the mono-alkyl-esters of long chain fatty acids derived from renewable feedstock, such as, vegetable oils or animal’s fats, for use in compression ignition engines. Therefore, in this study, different parameters for the optimization of biodiesel production were investigated in the first phase, while in the next phase of the study performance test of a diesel engine with neat diesel fuel and biodiesel mixtures was carried out. Biodiesel was made by the well known transesterification process. Cottonseed oil (CSO) was selected for biodiesel production. The transesterification results showed that with the variation of catalyst, methanol, variation of biodiesel production was realized. However, the optimum conditions for biodiesel production are suggested in this paper. A maximum of 76% biodiesel was produced with 20% methanol in presence of 0.5% sodium methaoxide. The engine experimental results showed that exhaust emissions including carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM) and smoke emissions were reduced for all biodiesel mixtures. However, a slight increase in oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emission was experienced for biodiesel mixtures.