Assessment of diesel engine performance and emission using biodiesel obtained from eucalyptus leaves

Hunger for energy consumption is booming due to industrialization and globalization causes the consumption of fossil fuel resources and searching for unconventional fuels. Among all other available unconventional fuels, biodiesel has achieved significant considerations globally. The present research is catering production of biodiesel from eucalyptus species as forest waste using fast pyrolysis. The derived biodiesel was tested for its various physical and chemical properties using standard test methods (IS 1448, ASTM D 4868). The major properties of the derived biodiesel are similar to the existing diesel fuel. The obtained biodiesel is having a cetane number of 54, the kinematic viscosity of 5.83 cSt, and a calorific value of 7,850 kcal/kg. The derived biodiesel was tested in a fixed compression ratio diesel engine. The variable parameters were blending ratio and engine load. The engine gave the best performance at B100 with full load gave the highest 33.57% BTE, 0.31 kg/KWhr of lowest SFC, and minimum ignition delay. Its emission characteristics also follow current exhaust gas emission norms as per BS6 in India. NOx emission was a minimum of 235 ppm at B100, hydrocarbon emission was a minimum of 0.038 g/KWhr at full load with B100 and the least CO emission of 2.85 g/KWhr was observed at full load with pure biodiesel (B100). Thus, obtained biodiesel can be used as a fuel in the CI engine as an alternative source of energy.