Reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions of a diesel engine fuelled with biodiesel by controlling excess air factor

Energy demand of the world consistently shows an increase. Conventionel energy resources (coal, petrol, natural gas etc.) which are used as primary energy sources in the world, have limited reserves. Reduction of these reserves forced all countries to do researches on alternative energy resources. One of these alternatives is biodiesel which produced from vegetable oils and animal fats. Biodiesel decreases the dependence on conventional energy resources. Biodiesel also have some chemical specialities which make it cleaner than Diesel fuel. Most important advantages of biodiesel is to have %99 biodegrability at the nature and to reduce sulfur dioxide, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions . Furthermore, plants which are used as a raw material for biodiesel production make the carbon dioxide cycle better in the nature. However biodiesel have some disadvantages like high viscosity, low heat capacity and it?s also not compatible with some materials. In addition to these disadvantages biodiesel increases nitrogen oxide emissions. To solve this problem so many different researches have been done. Aim of our study is to develop a solution for the increase in nitrogen oxide emissions. For this purpose some performance and emission tests have been made using a 4 cylinder, turbo-charged Diesel engine. With in the context of this study, effects of excess air factor on nitrogen oxide emissions have been analysed. As a result of reduced excess air factor we could manage to decrease nitrogen oxide emissions by %9,6 with the power loss by %2,3. Keywords: Biodiesel, exhaust emission, nitrogen oxide, excess air factor.