Performance characteristics and emission analysis of a single cylinder diesel engine operated on blends of diesel and waste cooking oil

Generally it is seen that vegetable oil cannot be used directly in a direct injection diesel engine for long period of time. Long-term endurance tests can show serious problems in injector coking, ring sticking, gum formation, and thickening of lubricating oil. These problems are correlated to the high viscosity and non volatility of vegetable oils, which cause inadequate fuel atomization and incomplete combustion. Fuel blending is one of the ways for reducing viscosity. This research work presents the results of an engine test on three fuel blends of waste cooking oil such as10%, 20%and 30% of waste cooking oil (WCO) - diesel blends. The performance characteristics and emission analysis of a single cylinder four stroke direct injection diesel engine, fueled with waste cooking in blends of 10%, 20% and 30% blends with diesel (on a mass basis) are investigated and compared with standard diesel results. The suitability of waste cooking oil been established in this study. Experiment has been conducted at a fixed engine speed of 1800 rpm, and then it was gradually loaded. The experiments were conducted at five loads, namely 0 kg (no load), 5 kg, 10 kg, 15 kg and 20 kg. For each load condition the engine was run for at least 5 min and at compression ratios of 17.5:1 and Injector Pressure of 210 bars. Results show that the basic engine performance such as power output and fuel consumption is comparable to diesel. When fueled with Waste cooking oil and its blends, Reduction of power-output was noted with the increased amount of Waste cooking oil in the blends and with reduced emissions such as HC and CO however of CO₂, NO_x and Smoke were increased.