Methyl Ester of Cottonseed Oil Blended with Ethanol as a Renewable Fuel on a Multi-cylinder CI Engine

Abstract

A renewable fuel has advantages of saving the petroleum fuel and make environment pollution free when used on an engine. Different blends of the methyl ester of cottonseed oil with ethanol in the proportion of 100:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40 and 50:50 were prepared and compared with high speed diesel on the performance of a multi-cylinder CI engine. A 37.3 kW variable speed diesel engine was tested for performance on reference diesel fuel and selected blends. Engine performance on the blend containing 10 per cent ethanol in terms of brake power, indicated mean effective pressure, brake specific fuel consumption and exhaust gas temperature was almost equal or had better performance than diesel. On an average, brake thermal efficiency was increased up to 10% as ethanol blending ratio increased in the methyl ester of cottonseed oil (at 10% ethanol mix) at full load condition.