Determination of effects for usage of biodiesel mixtures at different rates on engine characteristics of an agricultural tractor

In this study, effects for usage of biodiesel-diesel fuel mixtures at different rates on performance of agricultural tractor engine and exhaust emissions were investigated. Methyl Esther extracted from Oil seed rape (Canola) was used as biodiesel. The rates of biodiesel used for tests were 2%, 5.75%, 10% and 20% in volume. The engine was tested with diesel fuel and different mixtures. Consequently, engines effective power and effective torque were declined with small difference which can be ignored due to usage of biodiesel mixture fuel when compared with results of conventional diesel fuel; however, these values were observed better than conventional diesel fuel at some exceptions. Generally, it can be expressed that power and torque were very close in same cases compared with diesel fuel. It is found out that there were not any significant differences in fuel consumption between them. During the tests, thermal efficiency figures were found higher. Smoke, CO, HC, and Particular Material emission figures were found lower where as NOx emission figures were found higher than diesel fuel emissions.