The effects of injection pressure on engine performance and exhaust emissions in an engine running by biodiesel fuel blends

Diesel fuels have been used in many fields and constituted significant place in economy of the country. Biodiesel is a non-toxic, decayable easily in nature, environmentally friendly alternative fuel for diesel engines that can be obtained from renewable sources such as vegetable and animal oils. An alternative fuel must be technically feasible, economically competitive with conventional diesel fuel, safe in terms of environmental and also obtainable eaisly. While sulfur compounds in diesel fuels spread into the atmosphere and cause sulfuric acid rain, vegetable oils are safer in terms of environmental due to the fact that their sulfur content is close to zero. With Directive 2003/30/EC of The European Union, for fossil fuels supplied to the market at the end of 2005 it was become compulsory to be added 2% biofuels to these fuels. In 1893 Rudolph DIESEL first experimented with engine which is his own invention in Germany, and in 1898, at the Paris World's Fair, he exhibited his engine using his peanut oil as a fuel. In 1911, he stated that the use of vegetable oils as engine fuels will significantly contribute to the development of agriculture of the countries and said in 1912, the preference of vegetable oils in engines could seen insignificant today, however vegetable oils will gain importance as oil and coal tar in progress of time. In this study, biodiesel fuels have been tested at different mixing ratios and two different fuel injection pressures in a single cylinder diesel engine with direct injection system. The experiments have been carried out under full load at different engine speeds. The effects of biodiesel-diesel fuel blends on engine performance, combustion and exhaust emissions have been experimentally investigated. The experiments have been conducted primarily with reference diesel fuel. The experimental results have been compared with reference diesel fuel and biodiesel fuels.