Performance and environmental impact of diesel engines operating on Mahua and plastic oil biodiesel blend

Mahua oils (MO) and plastic oil (PO) are the raw materials for methyl ester. It was possible to produce biodiesels by esterifying and trans esterifying mahua and PO, and then mix them with diesel in ratios of 15% and 25%, respectively. Variation in load, performance, and emissions were calculated for diesel engines operating at 3000 rpm. At full throttle, the specific fuel consumption (SFC) increased by 2.5%, 3.5%, 5.6%, 6.4% and 8.6% in the cases of plastic oil (15%), mahua bio-diesel (15%), blending (15%), plastic oil(25%), and mahua (25%), respectively. Declines of 2.5, 4, 5, 6, and 9.5% in thermal efficiency occurred in that order. Pure diesel 100% (C1), 15% plastic oil with diesel (C2), 15% mahua oil with diesel (C3), 15% blended diesel (C4), 25% blended diesel (C5), and 25% blended mahua oil with diesel (C6) are all combinations of diesel and biodiesel. The concentrations of nitrogen oxides increased to 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 5, and 7% compared to C1, whereas the concentrations of carbon monoxide were reduced by 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 3, and 3.5% correspondingly for C2, C3, C4, and C6. There was a 67%, 71%, 11%, and 14% decrease in hydrocarbon emissions for biodiesel mixes, respectively. Smoke reductions at peak load were greatest for C2, C3, C4, C5, and C6, with values of 6, 8, 10.5 and 11%, respectively. There were 1.5, 2, 2, 3, 5, and 4.5 % drops in maximum cylinder pressure at peak load that were associated with diesel. Maximum heat rate reductions were 1.5%,2.5%,3.5%, and 5%, respectively. Diesel engines that use a combination of PO and mahua methyl ester as fuel have their emissions, performance, and combustion characteristics improved by combining feedstocks with various attributes, such as 15% mahua and 15% PO biodiesels.