PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF RUBBER SEED OIL BIODIESEL

• E I BELLO

  3Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Federal University of Technology, Akure, PMB 704, Ondo State, Nigeria

• F I OTU

  Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Federal University of Technology, Akure, PMB 704, Ondo State, Nigeria

• T I OGEDENGBE

  3Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Federal University of Technology, Akure, PMB 704, Ondo State, Nigeria

• L LAJIDE

  Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State,Nigeria

In this study the engine performance evaluation of synthesized and characterized rubber seed oil biodiesel was carried out at varying engine speeds and different biodiesel blend levels using a four-cylinder, four-stroke Gardner diesel engine rated at 55.93 KW and 435Nm. The engine was operated on pure rubber seed oil biodiesel, biodiesel blends B10, B20, B30 and B40 with baseline diesel fuel as control. Experimental results showed that the brake torque decreased with increasing engine speed and biodiesel blend percentage while the power produced from the biodiesel blends was less than that produced from the diesel fuel. The power produced decreased as the biodiesel blend concentration increases. The  maximum power  for the biodiesel blended fuels are 55.14kW, 54 31kW, 54.48kW, 53.15kW, 51.17kW and 48.52kW corresponding to B0, B10, B20, B30, B40 and B100 respectively. The break mean effective pressure increased slightly with increasing engine speed and then sharply decreases with increasing engine speed and biodiesel blend concentration. The brake specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency increased with increasing engine speed and increasing biodiesel blend concentration. The results of this investigation can be used for partial replacement of diesel fuel using low concentration of biodiesel (maximum 30%) produced from rubber seed oil thereby reducing the dependence on petroleum- based diesel fuel.

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