EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF PERFORMANCE AND COMBUSTION CHARACTERISTICS ON A SINGLE CYLINDER LHR ENGINE USING DIESEL AND CASTOR BIODIESEL

In this present investigation castor biodiesel a non edible vegetable oil is selected as a alternative fuel to analyze the performance and combustion characteristics with and without modification of diesel engine. A castor oil is converted in to castor biodiesel by transesterification process and blended with diesel in 25/75%, 50/50%, 75/25 % and 100 % on volume basis and analyzed and compared with diesel. The performance and combustion characteristics of blends are evaluated at variable loads of 0, 1,2,3,4,5.2 at rated speed of 1500rpm and results are compared with diesel. The thermal efficiency, bsfc, mechanical efficiency, volumetric efficiency are well comparable with diesel for diesel engine and LHR engine and better performance and combustion characteristics are observed in case of Low Heat Rejection engine. From investigation it can be stated that up to 25 % blend of castor biodiesel can be substituted for diesel engine without any modification. And with modification we can blend up to 25 % but we can get better performance and combustion characteristics than normal engine