Author : Shailaja.M, A. Aruna Kumari, A V Sita Rama Raju

The interest on alternative fuels is continuously increasing to meet the growing energy needs and protect the environment. A successful alternative fuel fulfills the environmental and energy security needs without sacrificing operating performance. One of the successful alternative fuels is biodiesel which is gaining attention in the present day world. Operationally, biodiesel blends perform very similar to conventional diesel in terms of performance and emissions without major modifications of engine because the properties of biodiesel and conventional diesel are similar. In this present work, biodiesel is prepared from sesame oil and short term tests were conducted with different blends of biodiesel and diesel on a single cylinder four stroke diesel engine and performance and emissions are evaluated and compared with diesel operation.

Keywords: Sesame oil, biodiesel, esterification, performance parameters, emissions

Article published in the Proceedings of National Conference on ‘Women in Science & Engineering’ (NCWSE 2013), SDMCET Dharwad