Bio-Diesel from Mustard Oil: A Renewable Alternative Fuel for Small Diesel Engines

This paper represents the prospect of mustard oil as a renewable and alternative fuel. To cope up with present load-shedding situation and to reduce the dependency on imported fuel, Bangladesh government is encouraging the use of renewable energy sources. Since diesel engines have versatile uses including small irrigation pumping systems, and standby small electricity generators, use of diesel fuel is much higher than any other gasoline fuels. In Bangladesh mustard oil has been in use as edible oil throughout the country. Mustard is a widely growing plant in Bangladesh and every year the production of mustard seed exceeds the demand. So the endeavor was to use the surplus mustard oil as an alternative to diesel fuel. Fuel properties are determined in the fuel testing laboratory with standard procedure. An experimental set-up is then made to study the performance of a small diesel engine in the heat engine laboratory using different blends of bio-diesel converted from mustard oil. It is found that bio-diesel has slightly different properties than diesel fuel. It is also observed that with bio-diesel, the engine is capable of running without difficulty but with a deviation from its optimum performance. Initially different blends of bio-diesel (i.e. B20, B30, B50 etc.) have been used to avoid complicated modification of the engine or the fuel supply system. Finally, a comparison of engine performance for different blends of bio-diesel has been carried out to determine the optimum blend for different operating conditions.