Fuel 87 (2008) 2659–2666

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Fuel
j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . f u e l fi r s t . c o m

Performance of diesel engine with biodiesel at varying compression

ratio and ignition timing
H. Raheman *, S.V. Ghadge
Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The performance of Ricardo E6 engine using biodiesel obtained from mahua oil (B100) and its blend with
Received 29 June 2007 high speed diesel (HSD) at varying compression ratio (CR), injection timing (IT) and engine loading (L)
Received in revised form 6 March 2008 has been presented in this paper. The brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and exhaust gas temperature
Accepted 7 March 2008
(EGT) increased, whereas brake thermal efficiency (BTE) decreased with increase in the proportion of bio-
Available online 3 April 2008
diesel in the blends at all compression ratios (18:1–20:1) and injection timings (35–45° before TDC) tested.
However, a reverse trend for these parameters was observed with increase in the CR and advancement of IT.
Keywords:
The BSFC of B100 and its blends with high speed diesel reduced, whereas BTE and EGT increased with the
Mahua biodiesel
Engine performance
increase in L for the range of CR and IT tested. The differences of BTEs between HSD and B100 were also
Varying compression ratio not statistically significant at engine settings of ‘CR20IT40’ and ‘CR20IT45’. Thus, even B100 could be used
Injection timing on the Ricardo engine at these settings without affecting the performance obtained using HSD.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction 2.1. Experimental set-up

The growing concern on environmental pollution caused by the
extensive use of conventional fossil fuels has led to search for more
environment friendly and renewable fuels. Among various options
investigated for diesel fuel, biodiesel has been reported to be one of
the strong contenders for reductions in exhaust emissions. Several
countries including India have already begun substituting the con-
ventional diesel by a certain amount of biodiesel. It was reported
that engine parameters such as CR, IT and L were found to have sig-
nificant effect on performance and emissions of diesel engine when
run with biodiesel and its blend with diesel [1–3]. Hence, a study
was undertaken at IIT Kharagpur, India to gather information on
behavior of diesel engine when operated with biodiesel and its
blend with diesel at varying L, CR and IT.
2. Experiments
Constant speed (1500 rpm) short term engine performance
(STEP) tests were conducted in a 9 kW single cylinder, naturally
aspirated, four stroke, water cooled Ricardo E6 engine at varying
compression ratio (18:1–20:1), injection timing (35–45° before
TDC) and load (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% load corresponding
to load at maximum power) using biodiesel (B100) and its blends
with high speed diesel (B20, B40, B60, B80) to determine how each
fuel would perform under identical engine and load conditions.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 3222 283160; fax: +91 3222 282244.
E-mail address: hifjur@agfe.iitkgp.ernet.in (H. Raheman).
The major specifications of the Ricardo engine are presented in
Table 1. The CR of this engine was varied from 18:1 to 20:1 by raising
or lowering the cylinder relative to the crankshaft by means of a
worm wheel. The movement of the cylinder was measured by
means of a micrometer fitted on the cylinder. The IT of this engine
was varied with the help of a hand control lever provided with injec-
tion pump assembly. The timing could be varied between 30° and
45° before TDC while the engine was running. With the comet type
cylinder head, a CAV type BDN12SD12 injector was provided.
The engine was coupled to a swinging field electric dynamom-
eter for application of variable load and it was applied by closing
the load switch with the rheostats in the weak field position. It
was increased by strengthening the field by increasing the amper-
age and was measured as a torque (Nm) through a microprocessor
based digital indicator. The maximum load, which the engine could
take at 1500 rpm was found to be 24 Nm. This was taken as 100%
load for the present investigation. Accordingly, intermediate loads
were calculated as 0, 6, 12 and 18 Nm to represent 0%, 25%, 50%
and 75% loading conditions.
2.2. Biodiesel
The biodiesel obtained from mahua oil and its blend with diesel
were considered in this study. The various fuel properties of mahua
biodiesel (B100) and its blends with high speed diesel (HSD) were
determined as per the ASTM standards and procedures and are
summarized in Table 2. It can be seen from this table that the fuel

0016-2361/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2008.03.006
2660 H. Raheman, S.V. Ghadge / Fuel 87 (2008) 2659–2666

Table 1 consumption of B20 as compared to pure HSD might be due to

Specifications of the Ricardo E6 test engine
Particulars Details
Type IDI with the pre combustion chamber
Number of cylinders 1 However, as the blending proportion was increased to B40 and
Bore  stroke (mm) 76.2  111.1
Cycle 4-stroke
Maximum power (kW) 9, naturally aspirated
Speed (rpm) 1000–3000
Compression ratio 5–20
Injection timing (° before TDC) 30–45
properties of B100 are comparable with those of HSD and are well
within the latest American (ASTM D 6751-02) and European (DIN
EN 14214) standards for biodiesel [4,5].
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Engine performance
After the engine reached the stabilized working condition for
each test, fuel consumption, torque applied and exhaust tempera-
ture were measured from which BSFC, BTE were computed. The
variations of these parameters with respect to load are presented
in Figs. 1a–c to 3a–c, where a–c refer to compression ratio of 18,
19, 20, respectively. The three graphs in each figure correspond
to three different injection timings on the engine. The six lines
forming a band in each graph represent all the six fuel blends
tested, i.e. HSD, B20, B40, B60, B80 and B100.
3.1.1. Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC)
It can be seen from Fig. 1a–c that the BSFC lines for different
blends came closer to each other in a narrow band as CR was in-
creased from 18 to 20 and IT advanced from 35° to 45° before
TDC; indicating a comparable performance of the blends at higher
CR and advanced IT.
3.1.1.1. Effect of blend. The mean BSFCs of HSD, B20, B40, B60, B80
and B100 were found to be 421, 437, 478, 503, 539 and
583 gkW 1 h 1, respectively. For every 20% additional blending of
biodiesel in diesel, the mean BSFC was found to be 3.6%, 13.5%,
19.4%, 27.9% and 38.3% higher than HSD. Such a high mean values
of BSFC for the blends, especially for B80 and B100, may be attrib-
uted to the poor combustion characteristics of these blends at low-
er CRs and retarded ITs. However, the BSFC of B20 was not
significantly higher than that of HSD.
The lowest BSFC values obtained using HSD, B20, B40, B60, B80
and B100 at any combination of CR, IT and L were 236, 225, 247,
249, 250 and 280 g kW 1 h 1, respectively. It can be noticed that
this value for B20 was 4.7% less than that of HSD. This lower fuel
the possible synergy effect of biodiesel with diesel in various ways,
e.g. the oxygen present in biodiesel might have helped in improved
combustion of the blend.
beyond, this effect was probably negated due to reduced calorific
value and higher densities of these blends. As the BSFC was calcu-
lated on weight basis, obviously higher densities of B100 resulted
in higher values for BSFC. The higher densities of biodiesel blends
caused higher mass injection for the same volume at the same
injection pressure. The calorific value of B100 was lower than
HSD by about 12%. Due to these reasons, the other blends, namely
B40, B60, B80 and B100 resulted in 4.7%, 5.5%, 5.9% and 18.6% high-
er values of BSFC than that of HSD. Moreover, though the biodiesels
have similar fuel properties, they are different from diesel in their
chemical structure. Hence, the combustion of biodiesel blends in
the engine may not be similar to that of diesel. Therefore, any addi-
tional increase in BSFC of B100 might be ascribed to the improper
combustion of biodiesel blends inside the cylinder.
The variation in BSFC of different blends was less at full load
conditions than at part load; possibly due to increased tempera-
tures and consequently increased efficiencies of the engine. At full
load conditions, the mean BSFC of B100 was about 30% higher than
that of HSD while at lower loads this variation was as high as 37%.
This could be due to the increased thermal efficiencies of the en-
gine with blends and decreased ignition delay resulting in smooth-
er engine operation at higher loads.
Similar trends for BSFC with increasing concentration of biodie-
sel in blends were reported by many researchers [3,6–8,11,12]
while fueling diesel engines with esters of soybean, sunflower, ca-
nola, used olive oils, karanja and rubber seed oil.
3.1.1.2. Effect of compression ratio. The BSFCs of HSD and B100 de-
creased on an average by 10.7% and 19.3%, respectively, when the
CR was increased from 18 to 19. The corresponding values for fur-
ther increase of CR from 19 to 20 were 8.0% and 11.5%, respectively.
At full load conditions, an increase in CR from 18 to 20 reduced the
fuel consumption from 331 to 253 g kW 1 h 1 for HSD and 454 to
311 g kW 1 h 1 in case of B100. This shows that increasing the CR
had more benefits with biodiesel than with high speed diesel. Due
to their low volatility and higher viscosity, biodiesel might be per-
forming relatively better at higher compression ratios.
Similar results of BSFC with the change in compression ratio on
the Ricardo E6 engine were also reported by researcher [13] while
using crude mahua oil and diesel.
3.1.1.3. Effect of injection timing. From Fig. 1a–c, it can be seen that
the mean BSFC of the Ricardo engine was reduced by 15.8% when
IT was advanced from 35° to 45° before TDC of which around
11% reduction occurred up to 40° advance while further advance-

Table 2
Fuel properties of crude mahua oil, mahua biodiesel and blends of biodiesel with diesel

Fuel property CMO HSD B20 B40 B60 B80 B100 Biodiesel standards
ASTM D 6751–02 DIN EN 14214
Density at 15 °C (kg/m3) 960 850 856 862 868 874 880 – 860–900
Viscosity at 40 °C (mm2/s) 24.58 2.60 2.78 3.12 3.43 3.70 3.98 1.9–6.0 3.5–5.0
Calorific value (MJ/kg) 36. 1 42.2 41.7 40.1 39.2 37.4 36.8 – –
Acid value (mg KOH/g) 38.0 – 0.36 0.35 0.37 0.42 0.41 <0.8 <0.50
Flash point (°C) 232 68 96 124 152 180 208 >130 >120
Pour point (°C) 15 20 3 0 2 4 6 – –
Water content (%) 1.6 0.02 0.03 0.02 0.04 0.03 0.04 <0.03 <0.05
Ash content (%) 0.90 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 <0.02 <0.02
Carbon residue (%) 3.70 0.17 0.17 0.18 0.19 0.20 0.20 – <0.3

CMO – crude mahua oil, HSD – high speed diesel.

 H. Raheman, S.V. Ghadge / Fuel 87 (2008) 2659–2666 2661

1200

Brake specific fuel consumption, g/kWh

IT35 IT40 HSD IT45
B20
B40
1000 B60
B80
MBD
800

600

400

200
0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100
Load, %
(a) AT CR 18

1200
HSD
Brake specific fuel consumption, g/kWh

B20
B40
1000 B60
B80
IT35 IT40 IT45
MBD
800

600

400

200
0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100
Load, %
(b) AT CR 19

1200
HSD
Brake specific fuel consumption, g/kWh

B20
1000 B40
B60
B80
IT35 IT40 MBD IT45
800

600

400

200
0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100
Load, %
(c) AT CR 20
Fig. 1. Variation of brake specific fuel consumption with load for mahua biodiesel and its blends with high speed diesel in a Ricardo E6 engine running at 1500 rpm for
different injection timings at different compression ratios.

ment to 45° caused only about 5% reduction. Advancing the IT
meant that the combustion occurred earlier in the cycle and more
fuel burnt before TDC and the peak pressure moved closer to TDC.
It was observed that while initial 5° advancement helped in
reducing the fuel consumption at all CRs, further 5° advancement
actually increased it by about 5% at CR20, although the same trend
of reduction continued at CR 18 and 19. This increasing trend in
BSFC with IT advance from 40° to 45° before TDC at CR20 was ob-
served for all the six fuels tested. With too much advanced IT, pres-
sure and temperature in the cylinder might be too low to cause
auto ignition. Hence, it may be concluded that ‘40° before TDC’ is
the best injection timing in conjunction with the ‘CR20’, which
2662 H. Raheman, S.V. Ghadge / Fuel 87 (2008) 2659–2666

40
HSD
35

Brake thermal efficiency, %

B20

30 B40 IT35 IT40 IT45

B60
25
B80

20 MBD

15

10

5
0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100
Load, %
(a) AT CR 18
40
HSD
IT45
35 B20 IT35 IT40
Brake thermal efficiency, %

B40
30
B60
B80
25
MBD
20

15

10

5
0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100
Load, %
(b) AT CR 19

40
HSD
35
B20
Brake thermal efficiency, %

IT35 IT40 IT45

30 B40
B60
25 B80
MBD
20

15

10

5
0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100
Load, %
(c) AT CR 20
Fig. 2. Variation of brake thermal efficiency with load for mahua biodiesel and its blends with high speed diesel in a Ricardo E6 engine running at 1500 rpm for different
injection timings at different compression ratios.

was found to be the best compression ratio. This combination of
‘CR20IT40’ was found to be the best for getting minimum BSFC
with all the blends tested.
3.1.1.4. Effect of load. The BSFC was observed to decrease sharply
with increase in L for all fuels and at any combination of CR and IT.
The main reason for this could be that percent increase in fuel re-
quired to operate the engine is less than the percent increase in brake
power due to relatively less portion of the heat losses at higher loads.
The average values for BSFC were 794, 483, 373 and 325 g kW 1 h 1
for 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% loading conditions, respectively. Thus,
full load BSFC was about 60% less than at part load.
From the above discussions it could be concluded that the BSFC
is a function of biodiesel blend, load, compression ratio and injec-
 H. Raheman, S.V. Ghadge / Fuel 87 (2008) 2659–2666 2663

350
HSD
B20
IT35 IT40 IT45

Exhaust gas temperature,ºC

300 B40
B60
B80
250
MBD

200

150

100
0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100
Load, %
(a) AT CR 18

350

HSD
B20
300
Exhaust gas temperature,ºC

B40
IT35 IT40 B60 IT45
250 B80
MBD

200

150

100
0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100
Load, %
(b) AT CR 19

350

HSD
300 B20
Exhaust gas temperature,ºC

B40
B60
250 IT35 IT40 B80 IT45
MBD

200

150

100
0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100 0 25 50 75 100
Load, %
(c) AT CR 20
Fig. 3. Variation of exhaust gas temperature with load for mahua biodiesel and its blends with high speed diesel in a Ricardo E6 engine running at 1500 rpm for different
injection timings at different compression ratios.

tion timing. However, with increase in compression ratio and 3.1.2. Brake thermal efficiency (BTE)
injection timing the difference of BSFC using HSD and biodiesel The variation of BTE of Ricardo engine obtained in this study is
blends reduced. shown in Fig. 2a–c as a function of load for compression ratios of
2664 H. Raheman, S.V. Ghadge / Fuel 87 (2008) 2659–2666
18, 19, 20, respectively. It can be observed from these figures that
the parameters, which were responsible for giving best fuel econ-
omy, also resulted in showing maximum BTE.
3.1.2.1. Effect of blend. It can be seen from Fig. 2a–c that the BTE of
the Ricardo engine, in general, reduced with the increasing concen-
tration of biodiesel in the blends. However, the mean BTE of ‘B20’
was rather slightly (0.9%) higher than that of pure ‘HSD’, though
the difference was not statistically significant. This could be attrib-
uted to the presence of increased amount of oxygen in B20, which
might have resulted in its improved combustion as compared to
pure diesel.
The mean BTE of B100 was 11.3% lower than that of HSD which
could be attributed to the significantly lower efficiencies of B100
especially at lower CRs, retarded ITs and lower loads. The differ-
ence of mean BTEs between B100 and HSD was about 18% and
6%, when compression ratio was set to 18 and 20 respectively. It
was 15.4% and 7.5% for an IT of 35° and 45° before TDC, respec-
tively. The full load efficiencies of B100 were only about 7% less
than those of HSD, while at part loads these differences were as
high as 14%.
The highest value of BTE using HSD was 34.7% whereas it was
37.7%, 35.4%, 36.4%, 37.5% and 35.1% in case of B20, B40, B60,
B80 and B100 respectively, which in each case was greater than
that obtained using HSD. All these values were obtained at CR20,
IT 40 or 45 and at full load conditions. This could be attributed
to better burning of biodiesel blends partly due to favourable con-
ditions inside the cylinder at those engine settings and also due to
the presence of extra oxygen in biodiesel as compared to diesel.
Based on these results it can be concluded that the performance
of the engine with biodiesel blends is comparable to that with HSD,
in terms of BTE. This is in line with the findings reported by many
other researchers [3,6,7,9,11,12,14,15] while fueling diesel engines
with biodiesels obtained from soybean, sunflower, canola, olive,
karanja, jatropha, mahua and rubber seed oils.
3.1.2.2. Effect of compression ratio. In general, increasing the CR im-
proved the efficiency of the engine. The mean BTE of Ricardo en-
gine increased by more than 33% when the CR was raised from
18 to 20. This improved performance of the engine at higher com-
pression may be due to the reduced ignition delay. The ‘CR20’ was
found to be the best in case of all fuels tested.
The change of CR from 18 to 20 resulted in 23.1%, 29.5%, 32.5%,
37.8%, 40.6% and 41.7% increase in BTE in case of HSD, B20, B40,
B60, B80 and B100, respectively. This could be due to the fact that
biodiesel blends had lower volatility as compared to diesel and
therefore the improvement in their combustion characteristics
might have been relatively more at higher temperatures resulting
from higher CR than the improvement in case of diesel with the
same rise in CR.
3.1.2.3. Effect of injection timing. It can be seen from Fig. 2a–c that
the BTE increased with the increase in IT in most cases. The mean
BTE was found to increase by 13.7% when IT was advanced from
35° to 40° before TDC and by 4.7% on further advance to 45° before
TDC. This improvement in thermal efficiency with injection ad-
vance could be due to the allowances provided by such advanced
timings to the fuel quantities for proper combustion.
The injection advance from 35° to 40° before TDC resulted on an
average 12.9%, 10.1%, 12.0%, 12.3%, 18.0% and 18.1% increase in BTE
in case of HSD, B20, B40, B60, B80 and B100, respectively, as com-
pared to 2.9%, 4.3%, 5.0%, 5.4%, 3.5% and 7.5% when IT was ad-
vanced from 40 to 45°. Thus, injection advance was found to
have more effect on improvement of BTE for the higher percentage
of biodiesel in the blends. This could be due to the fact that with
increasing percentage of biodiesel in blends higher amount of fuel
was needed to be injected, as evident from the higher BSFCs of
blends seen in the previous section, which required more time
for injection and hence injection advance.
Advancing injection timing from 35° to 45° before TDC resulted
in 18.1%, 22.4% and 16.9% increase in BTE for CRs of 18, 19 and
20, respectively, out of which 6.3%, 11.8% and 21.4% increases
were achieved with advancement from 35° to 40° before TDC.
Thus, advancing the injection timing from 35° to 40° before TDC
was found to be more effective in improving the efficiency at
‘CR20’ where it resulted in 21.4% increase in BTE. However, with
further advancement of IT from 40° to 45° before TDC resulted in
3.7% reduction in the BTE. This might be due to the incorrect
matching of peak pressure development and the TDC when injec-
tion was too advanced or the relatively lower cylinder tempera-
tures of such advanced timings resulted in incomplete burning of
the fuel. Hence, injection advance of 40° before TDC was found to
be the best in combination with CR20 in terms of both the BSFC
and BTE.
3.1.2.4. Effect of load. The brake thermal efficiency of the engine
was low at part loads as compared to the engine running on full
load. The maximum BTE was obtained at full load conditions. The
mean full load BTE was 28.7% for all fuels tested. The BTE improved
with the load for the main reason that relatively less portion of the
power is lost with increasing L.
The variations in BTE between various BL at full load conditions
was less than those at part loads and are in accordance with the
trend observed for BSFC. This could be due to the increased tem-
peratures inside the cylinder due to more amount of fuel burning
at higher loads. At full load conditions, the mean BTE of B100
was about 7.3% lower than that of HSD, while at lower loads this
variation was as high as 13.4%.
From the above discussions on BTE, it could be concluded that
the BTE is a function of biodiesel blend, load, compression ratio
and injection timing. However, with increase in compression ratio
and injection timing the difference of BTE with biodiesel blend and
HSD reduced, i.e. the performance of the engine with biodiesel be-
came at par with HSD.
3.1.3. Exhaust gas temperature (EGT)
The variations of EGT with respect to various engine parameters
are presented in Fig. 3a–c. In general the EGT increased with in-
crease in L and decreased with increase in CR and IT for all the fuels
tested. A closer look at these figures vis-à-vis Fig. 1a–c and Fig. 2a–
c reveals that the engine operating parameters which indicated
minimum BSFC and maximum BTE were the ones which contrib-
uted to minimum EGTs. It can be seen from Fig. 3a–c that the
EGT lines for various fuel blends are closer to each other in a nar-
row band for the engine settings of ‘CR19IT45’, ‘CR20IT40’ and
‘CR20IT45’; indicating similar performance of different blends at
these settings. The results presented in the previous sections indi-
cate that these very settings of CR and IT are the ones that contrib-
uted to the minimum BSFC and maximum BTE.
3.1.3.1. Effect of blend. The exhaust gas temperature was found to
increase with the increasing concentration of biodiesel in the
blends. The mean EGTs of B20, B40, B60, B80 and B100 were
2.3%, 6.3%, 8.7%, 11.3% and 14% higher than the mean EGT of
HSD, respectively. With every 20% increase in the proportion of
biodiesel in the blends, the mean EGT was raised by about 5 °C.
This could be due to the increased heat losses of the higher blends,
which is also evident from their lower BTEs as compared to HSD.
However, the mean difference between HSD and B20 was not sig-
nificant at the 0.05 level.
The differences in EGT between various blends reduced at high-
er CRs and advanced IT as seen from Fig. 3a–c. This could be due to
 H. Raheman, S.V. Ghadge / Fuel 87 (2008) 2659–2666
improved thermal efficiencies of blends at higher CR and advanced
IT.
The EGT lines for different fuel blends tended to diverge to-
wards higher load indicating greater differences in EGT among dif-
ferent fuels. The mean EGT of HSD were 131, 160, 186, 212 and
240 °C while they were 152, 182, 211, 243 and 272 °C in case of
B100 at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% loading, respectively. The abso-
lute differences between B100 and HSD increased from about 20 °C
at no load to more than 30 °C at full load conditions. This could be
due to relatively more fuel consumption of blends at higher loads.
Similar findings were obtained by researchers [3,10,12,15]
while testing different biodiesels in compression ignition engines.
3.1.3.2. Effect of compression ratio. On an average, the exhaust gas
temperature reduced by 23% when CR was increased from 18 to
20. It was reduced by 12.9% and 11.6% when the CR was raised
from 18 to 19 and further to 20, respectively. As can be seen from
Fig. 3a–c, this inverse relationship of EGT with CR was observed at
all ITs, Ls and for all the BLs. The possible reason for this trend
could be that the increased CR actually increases the air tempera-
ture inside the cylinder consequently reducing the ignition lag
causing better and more complete burning of the fuel.
The EGT reduced by 20.2%, 22.0%, 22.6%, 24.0%, 24.3% and 24.4%,
respectively for HSD, B20, B40, B60, B80 and B100, when CR was
increased from 18 to 20. It can be seen that raising the CR had
greater effect for higher concentrations of biodiesel in blends. This
could be due to increased thermal efficiencies of the higher blends
with increase in compression ratio.
It was also found that the effect of varying the CR on EGT was
not the same at all ITs. It was maximum at IT40 when compression
ratio increased from 18 to 20 causing 29.7% reduction in EGT.
Whereas in case of IT35 and IT45, the similar increase in CR re-
duced the exhaust gas temperature by 18.0% and 21.3%, respec-
tively. It could be attributed to the maximum thermal
efficiencies obtained for the combination of CR20IT40.
The rate of reduction in EGT with increase in CR decreased with
the increasing L and is in agreement with the trend for BSFC and
BTE. The mean temperatures were 165, 142 and 122 °C at no load
and 283, 253 and 228 °C at full load conditions, for compression ra-
tios of 18, 19 and 20, respectively. Thus ‘CR20’ was found to be the
best on the basis of the EGT.
3.1.3.3. Effect of injection timing. It can be seen from Fig. 3a–c that
the EGT dropped continuously as IT was advanced from 35° to 40°
and to 45° before TDC at all CRs and Ls for all the BLs tested. The
mean EGT reduced by 11.7% when IT was advanced from 35° to
40° before TDC and 4.8% on further advancement from 40° to 45°
before TDC, with an overall reduction of 15.9%. This might be due
to the favourable pressure-temperature profile, which resulted
into the higher thermal efficiencies at advanced injection timings.
The efficiency of engine cycles increases when the conversion of
chemical energy into heat is concentrated near TDC.
The injection advance was found to have increasing effect on
EGT with increasing concentration of biodiesel. The percentage
reduction in the mean EGT with an injection advance from 35° to
45° before TDC were 15.3, 15.4, 15.4, 16.2, 16.5 and 16.6 in case
of HSD, B20, B40, B60, B80 and B100, respectively. This might be
due to relatively improved performance of biodiesel blends at ad-
vanced injection timings as compared to diesel as evident from the
trends for BSFC and BTE seen in previous sections.
The proper IT setting was found to be critically dependent on
the CR setting. For lower CR of 18, an advancement of IT from
35° to 40° before TDC was found to reduce EGT by only 4.7% and
further advancement from 40° to 45° before TDC resulted in to
8.9% reduction. For ‘CR19’, the corresponding values were 13.2%
and 5.5%, respectively. For ‘CR20’, the maximum reduction of
2665
18.3% occurred when IT was advanced from 35° to 40° before
TDC. However, when the IT was further advanced beyond 40° up
to 45°, there was in fact 1.9% increase in the temperature. Thus
40° before TDC was found to be the best IT at the CR20, which
was also the best compression ratio for minimum BSFC and maxi-
mum BTE as discussed before. This might be due to the same rea-
sons attributed for BSFC and BTE that development of peak
pressure might have well coincided with the TDC at this particular
combination of CR and IT as compared to other combinations.
No specific trend could be observed between loading condition
and injection advance and there was, on an average, 15–16% reduc-
tion in the EGT with change in IT from 35° to 45° at all loading con-
ditions. For IT35, the mean EGT was 158 °C at no load, which
increased linearly up to 280 °C at full load conditions. The corre-
sponding values were 139 and 248; 132 and 237 for IT40 and
IT45, respectively.
3.1.3.4. Effect of load. The exhaust gas temperature was found to
have linear relationship with load as seen from Fig. 3a–c. The mean
temperature increased linearly from 143 °C at no load to 255 °C at
full load conditions with an average increase of 15% with every 25%
increase in load. This typical trend of temperature with load was
observed to be true in case of all the fuel blends tested. The in-
crease in EGT with L is obvious from the simple fact that more
amount of fuel was required in the engine to generate that extra
power needed to take up the additional loading.
4. Conclusions
Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the
BSFC, BTE and EGT of Ricardo engine in general, were found to be
a function of biodiesel blend, load, compression ratio and injection
timing. For the same operating conditions, performance of the en-
gine reduced with increase in biodiesel percentage in the blend.
However, with increase in compression ratio and injection timing
this difference was reduced and the engine performance became
at par with HSD.
More precisely, biodiesel could be safely blended with HSD up
to 20% at any of the compression ratio and injection timing tested
for getting almost same performance as that with diesel. However,
pure MBD could be used on the Ricardo engine at ‘CR20IT40’ with-
out affecting the performance obtained using HSD.
Acknowledgements
Sincere thanks to Dr. Ramanujam for extending the I.C. Engine
Testing Laboratory facility of Mechanical Engineering Department,
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur to carry out this research
work.
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