ABSTRACT
The exhaust emissions from automotive diesel engines are successfully controlled over the years by adopting different combustion strategies and after treatment devices, whereas the combustion induced vibration and noise are the major pollutant in off-road vehicle engines and yet to be optimized. In the present study, a twin cylinder, Simpson's S-217 tractor diesel engine was used to evaluate the performance, combustion, vibration, and noise characteristics, using biofuel blends. For this study, the blends of pine oil - soapnut oil biodiesel (P75SNB25), diesel - soapnut oil biodiesel (SNB20) and diesel were used as fuel. The pine oil used in this research was purchased and used in its neat form. The soapnut oil was extracted from the soapnut seeds by cold pressing method and trans-esterified in two stages by using methanol and catalysts. The experimental results revealed that the performance and combustion characteristics of the blend P75SNB25 was superior to diesel and the blend SNB20 was slightly inferior to diesel. For the blend P75SNB25, the amplitude of acceleration with respect to time was reduced by 19.48% and 11.58% at no load and full load conditions respectively, whereas for the blend SNB20, the amplitude of acceleration showed a reduction of 14.27% and 9.46% at no load and full load conditions respectively in comparison with diesel operation. But both the blends P75SNB25 and SNB20 showed a maximum reduction of noise by 2.34% at different engine loads compared to diesel operation.
