Experimental investigation of internal combustion engine performance using biodiesel produced from used cooking oil

Abstract

Biodiesel allows people to burn a cleaner form of energy and it is sustainable, renewable, non toxic, and free from Sulphur and aromatics over petroleum fuels. The biodiesel production begins with a lipid source and it can be harvested from edible oil, non-edible oil, or animal fat. The lack of dissemination of knowledge has been caused for the reusing of waste cooking oil, and there is no alternative in the milieu of Sri Lanka. Therefore, experimental investigation on biodiesel production with waste cooking oil has been conducted with the aid of a modified mini biodiesel production plant with a transesterification method. This plant was capable of 20 litres of bulk production at once and the system comprises all processes to get purified biodiesel as final output. Then, the properties of produced biodiesel were tested and engine parameters were calculated under different mixing ratios with diesel (B0, B10, B20, B30, B40, B50, B75, and B100). The physical properties were compared with European standard EN14214. The flashpoint of B100 deviates from the standard whilst all other samples satisfy the standard. Further, the density of all blends lies between the standard range. Specially, the brake thermal efficiency and brake specific fuel consumption of B100 has remarkable deviation than other samples. Besides that, the exhaust temperature of the internal combustion engine increases with the applying load and tiny fluctuation appears with the standard exhaust temperature. Specifically, by considering each expense, it could be able to estimate the cost of the biodiesel per one litre, which was 84.5 LKR. The results promising that the produced biodiesel can use as a fuel to produce electrical power sustainably and alternatively over diesel.