INVESTIGATION ON CHARACTERISTICS OF POME BLENDED DIESEL ENGINE

Abstract

The sudden increase in fuel prices due to diminishing petroleum resources and the pollution resulting from its use has resulted in research into alternative fuels such as biodiesel. In addition, the faster combustion and high temperature in the combustion chamber which results from petroleum diesel fuel leads to higher nitrogen oxide (NOx) and Particulate Matter (PM) emissions. Therefore, this research was conducted to investigate the effect of using palm oil methyl ester (POME) blends as alternative fuels on the performance and emission of a compression ignition engine. The performance of POME blends and diesel were compared by manipulating the load of the engine at 1800 rpm. The results obtained show that fuel consumption rate is higher for the POME blends compared to the diesel fuel and increases as the POME concentration increases. The increment of brake specific fuel consumption and the reduction of CO emission exhibit a relation to the increase in percentage of POME. This is mainly contributed by the higher oxygen content of POME which promotes complete combustion of the blends. However, efficient combustion from the blends as compared to diesel fuel resulted from higher oxygen content and cetane number leads to significant increase in exhaust temperature. This in turn increases NOx emissions since using POME blends is highly related to high temperature of combustion chamber. The experimental results proved that POME in compression ignition engine is a possible substitute to diesel.