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Published:
Dec 29, 2014DOI:
10.4314/njt.v34i1.14Keywords:
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Main Article Content
Performance of Jatropha Oil Blends in RD270 Two Cylinders Four Stroke Diesel Engine
Abstract
The performance characteristics of RD270 two cylinder, four stroke diesel engine fuelled with jatropha oil and its blend with diesel are presented in this paper. The jatropha biodiesel was obtained from National Research Institutes for Chemical Technology, Zaria, Nigeria. The produced biodiesel was blended with neat diesel at a ratio of 20/80%, 30/70%, 40/60% and 50/50% of jatropha oil/diesel by volume. The biodiesel was within the EN, BIS and Brazil specification for biodiesel. To establish a baseline for comparison, the engine was first run on diesel and each blend was tested on a short term trial of one hour, it was found that, the exhaust gas temperature of the jatropha oil/ diesel blends were lower than that of diesel, signifying lower heat loss. The percentage heat losses were lower when operated on higher jatropha oil/diesel blends. Higher volumetric efficiencies were obtained for lower engine speeds of jatropha/diesel blend. Air/fuel ratio shows a decreasing trend with increase in jatropha oil content in jatropha oil/diesel blends. No long term assessment, emission characteristics or endurance tests including breakdown of jatropha oil biodiesel were carried out. The research found that, 20/80% blend of jatropha oil/diesel blend gave the best performance among all the blends.
