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An Experimental Investigation on the Effect of Cetane Improver with Biodiesel in CI Engine

P.R. Ayyappan, P.Karthikeyan

Biodiesel developed from non-edible oils promise to be a very important prospective alternative fuel for diesel engines in India. Vegetable oil has slightly lower calorific value than diesel fuel. This can be attributed to presence of oxygen in the molecules of vegetable oils. Vegetable oil has cetane number about 35 to 40 depending upon the composition where as diesel fuel has a cetane number around 45. Certain functional groups and poor volatility is responsible for their comparatively low cetane number. Increasing the cetane number of diesel fuel, either by lowering aromatic content of the fuel through hydro treating and by addition of chemical cetane improvers, is a costeffective option to reduce diesel engine emissions. Jatropha - curcas as a non-edible methyl ester biodiesel fuel source is used to run single cylinder, four-stroke diesel engine. An attempt has been made in this paper to give an overview by comparing its performance and emission characteristics with diesel – biodiesel blend by adding with cetane improver & diesel – biodiesel blend of B50. The blends of Jatropha methyl ester and diesel with EHN could be successfully used in diesel engines without any modification with acceptable performance and better emissions.