The characteristics of combustion process of diesel engine using vegetable oil methyl esters

Biodiesel is one of the promising renewable, alternative, and environmentally friendly biofuels that can be used in Diesel engine with little or no modification in the engine. The present paper investigates the combustion characteristics of single cylinder, naturally aspirated, air cooled, Diesel engine fueled with pure (100%) methyl ester of rapeseed oil, comparing to the corresponding characteristics when it was driven by diesel fuel. Combustion process analysis for both fuels was done at constant engine speed and at two load levels corresponding to the mean effective pressure of three and six bar. It was also concluded that the test engine can operate without problems, both with that fuel and with a lot of other biofuels and their mixtures that were used during long laboratory research