Fuel 265 (2020) 117024

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Full Length Article

Performance, emission and combustion characteristics of multi-cylinder T

CRDI engine fueled with argemone biodiesel/diesel blends
⁎
Mandeep Singh, Sarbjot Singh Sandhu
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, India

G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Present work dealt with the performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a 4-cylinder turbocharged,
Argemone biodiesel intercooled, common rail direct injection engine using argemone biodiesel-diesel blends. The physicochemical
CRDI properties of biodiesel-diesel blends; AB10, AB20, AB30, AB50 and pure biodiesel were determined and com-
Combustion pared with ASTM D6751. These blends were used for experimentation on 1.9L common rail direct injection
Performance and emission
(CRDI) engine at low load, part load and high load condition at a fixed rotational speed of 2000 rpm. It was
observed that biodiesel blends perform better at part load and high load in comparison of low load condition.
Maximum improvement of 5.58% in brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and 7.88% in brake specific fuel con-
sumption (BSFC) were observed for AB20 at high load condition. Significant reduction in exhaust emissions
(excluding NOx) were observed at part load and high load up to 30% blending of argemone biodiesel in diesel. At
low load, less NOx emissions, higher HC and CO emissions were observed for all biodiesel-diesel blends. Also, no

Abbreviations: AB10, 10% argemone biodiesel blended with 90% diesel; AB20, 20% argemone biodiesel blended with 80% diesel; AB30, 30% argemone biodiesel
blended with 70% diesel; AB50, 50% argemone biodiesel blended with 50% diesel; ECU, electronic control unit; CRDI, common rail direct injection; IT, injection
timing; IP, injection pressure; BPr, boost pressure; RME, rapeseed methyl ester; SLME, swine lard methyl ester; BTE, brake thermal efficiency; ABB, animal based
biodiesel; VBB, vegetable based biodiesel; TLME, Turkey lard methyl ester; SOC, start of combustion; ID, ignition delay; SOI, start of injection; HC, hydrocarbon
emissions; CO, carbon monoxide emissions; NOx, nitrogen oxide emissions; AOME, argemone oil methyl ester; HRRP, heat release rate peak; CPP, cylinder pressure
peak; BSFC, brake specific fuel consumption
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sandhuss@nitj.ac.in (S.S. Sandhu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2020.117024
Received 14 August 2019; Received in revised form 24 December 2019; Accepted 2 January 2020
0016-2361/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. Singh and S.S. Sandhu Fuel 265 (2020) 117024

change in ignition delay was observed up to 20% blending of argemone biodiesel in diesel. AB30 and AB50
blends show a longer ignition delay in comparison of other tested blends. Higher in-cylinder pressure and heat
release rate was found at all the test conditions except low load for AB20 blend. The 20% blending of argemone
biodiesel can be used in engine to attain higher thermal efficiency with a penalty of higher NOx emissions.
However, 30% blending of argemone biodiesel can be used to achieve almost similar brake thermal efficiency as
that of petroleum diesel with less penalty of NOx emissions as imposed by AB20.

1. Introduction
Favorable aspects of diesel engines like high thermal efficiency,
high torque and their adaptability for biodiesel [1], agreed to the fact
that “despite of less emissions by spark ignition (SI) engine and in-
creasing electrification, CI engines will retain their important position”
[2]. In present scenario, where diesel vehicles are going out of market
due to the high cost associated with implementation of stringent
emission norms [3], biodiesel or alkyl esters are preferred by many
researchers to ensure the use of renewable energy resources and to
lower the greenhouse gasses [4,5]. Liquid biofuels (biodiesel and
ethanol) provide a major renewable energy contribution of 4% to the
transport sector [6]. Global production of biodiesel increased by 9% in
comparison of 2015, with a considerable increase in US and Indonesia
[7]. This is inspiring for the developing nations, that depends very
much on imported crude oil [8]. National policy on biofuels [9], en-
courages the use of non-edible oil seeds for biodiesel production. Also,
many researchers agreed that non-edible biodiesel feedstocks are sup-
plementary diesel engine fuels and have the potential to improve the
status of energy security [10,11].
The older DI engines, work on 200–300 bar of fixed injection
pressure and 23° BTDC injection timing at all operating conditions
[12,13]. Same injection timing and pressure at different engine oper-
ating conditions results in poor air/fuel mixing. Electronic control unit
(ECU) in modern CRDI engines overcomes this problem by varying the
injection timing (IT), injection pressure (IP) and boost pressure (BPr )
w.r.t engine load and speed, thus results in significant improvement in
noise, exhaust emissions and performance of engine [14]. Still it is
difficult to meet the strict euro 6 norms with the existing technologies.
As a result, consistent efforts are given by researchers for development
of new technologies, viz: Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) and Diesel
particulate filter (DPF) [15]. Although, these after treatment devices
significantly reduces engine emissions, but at very high maintenance
and capital cost [16]. In parallel to this, research on different type of
fuels: ethanol [17], dimethyl ether [18], diesel-gasoline blends [19],
biodiesel or alkyl esters [20] is being carried out with a hope of less
exhaust emissions and higher performance of engine. However, CRDI
injection system require very high quality fuels [21]. As a result, bio-
diesel or alkyl esters are gaining popularity because of their potential to
meet the requirement of quality standards laid down by ASTM and EN
14214.
Extensive work is available on utilization of biofuels in single
cylinder direct injection CI engine. The main conclusion of the studies is
nearly same i.e. comparable or higher brake thermal efficiency (BTE)
[22,23] and lower exhaust emissions HC, CO and Smoke [24]. Higher
NOx emissions were observed in many studies [13,25] and no mal-
functioning of CI engine due to the use of biodiesel has been reported in
the literature by any author. There is substantial research gap in utili-
zation of different biodiesel feedstocks in modern CRDI engines. Re-
cently, Duda et al. [26] carried out a study on 4 cylinder, 2.6L CRDI
engine fueled by biodiesel made from animal fats. They observed an
average increase of 7%, 9% and 10% in BSFC for R75 (75% RME, 25%
Diesel), S75 (75% SLME, 25% Diesel) and T75 (75% TLME, 25%
Diesel). They also observed no change in start of combustion (SOC) of
biofuels when not using the pilot injection. Turkcan [14] tested ternary
blends of bioethanol-diesel-ABB and bioethanol-diesel-VBB in 1.9L
CRDI engine and observed longer ignition delay (ID), lower maximum
pressure rise rate (MPRR) and higher thermal efficiency by using higher
percentage of bioethanol. Two peaks for cylinder pressure due to the
pilot injection were observed. Also, the magnitude of the second peak
for VBB blends is higher at higher load. In addition to this, Sun et al.
[27] reported that in CRDI engines, start of injection (SOI) is in-
dependent of fuel properties such as viscosity, density and compressi-
bility. Conversely, studies are available in the literature that shows SOI
and SOC, is significantly affected by properties of fuel, in DI engines.
Also, it was shown in some studies that biodiesel perform better at high
injection pressure and high load [28]. Though, CRDI engine works on
high injection pressure (1000–2200 bar) [29], still the behavior of
biofuels in this type of engines has been scantily reported in literature
and thus requires validation.
Argemone mexicana, the biodiesel feedstock used in the present
work is a non-edible and has the potential to grow on non-fertile land
with little water requirement [30]. Also, in the country like India, many
cases were observed in which Argemone oil is adulterated in edible
mustard oil, which has many negative health effects [31]. Though,
literature is available on production of biodiesel from argemone oil
[32], but the effect of its utilization in CI engine has been reported
scantily in the literature [33]. Moreover, no studies on utilization of
argemone biodiesel in modern CRDI engines has been reported yet.
Therefore, present investigation has been carried out on 1.9L, turbo-
charged/intercooled, CRDI engine to understand the effect of AOME/
diesel blends on performance, emissions and combustion characteristics
of CRDI engine at low load, part load and high load condition.

Fig. 1. Production of argemone biodiesel.

2
M. Singh and S.S. Sandhu
2. Material and method
Biodiesel was prepared from crude argemone oil having FFA content
37.5% i.e. acid value of 75 mg KOH g−1. As the oil has high FFA
content, biodiesel was prepared in two steps as shown in Fig. 1. Step I:
Esterification, [1% H2SO4 (10 ml/litre of oil)], 6:1 M ratio of CH3OH,
reaction time 1 h, reaction temperature 60 °C. Step II: Transesterifica-
tion, to obtain a yield of more than 95% following parameters were
used: (i) Catalyst (Na metal) = 0.5% (5 g/litre of oil) (ii) Methanol/ oil
molar ratio = 6:1 (iii) Reaction time = 1.5 h (iv) Reaction tempera-
ture = 60–65 °C. The properties of prepared argemone biodiesel and its
blends with diesel were measured and compared with ASTM D6751 as
shown in Table 1.
3. Experimental setup and methodology
In the present work 4-stroke, 4-cylinder, turbocharged inter-cooled
CI engine with common rail direct injection system has been used for
testing of diesel and blends of diesel/AOME. The schematic diagram
and engine specifications are shown in Fig. 2 and Table 2 respectively.
The list of all the sensors, actuators and their types are shown in
Table 3. Setup is equipped with BOSCH-MCP4-i7, ECU to control and
monitor the parameters of engine such as IT, IP, Boost pressure (BPr )
and mass of fuel supplied (mf ) . ECU is connected to computer software
“NIRA rk Nap” via the USB base controller area network (CAN) con-
verter dongle. The other sensors such as engine water inlet temp. (T1),
engine water outlet temp. (T2), exhaust gas inlet temp. (T3), exhaust
gas outlet temp. (T4), calorimeter water inlet temp. (T5), calorimeter
water outlet temp (T6), crank angle encoder and cylinder pressure
sensor are linked to computer software “KC lab Soft.” through data
acquisition system (DAQ). Engine exhaust emissions (NOx, HC and CO)
were measured with AVL-4000 Di Gas Analyser and smoke opacity was
measured with AVL-437 smoke meter.
In this study, mainly three test conditions: (i) low load: 31 Nm (ii)
Part load: 62.3 Nm, 93.5 Nm and 124.6 Nm (iii) High load: 156 Nm as
shown in Table 4, were used for analyzing the effect of blending AOME
with diesel on CRDI engine. The whole testing was carried out at a fixed
engine speed of 2000 rpm. Original calibration maps of engine were
used for testing. The data was recorded when engine attained a steady
state condition. Each experiment was performed thrice and mean value
is used for plotting graphs to minimize the experimental error.
The parameters such as IP, IT, BPr are changing simultaneously with
engine load and speed as shown in Table 4. Cylinder pressure data was
calculated from the average of 50 engine cycles. After that, the calcu-
lated cylinder pressure data is used to evaluate other combustion
parameters such as heat release rate (HRR), rate of pressure rise (ROPR)
and cumulative heat release (CHR).
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Engine performance characteristics
The Variation of BTE and BSFC with respect to engine load and
different AOME/diesel blends has been shown in Fig. 3(a, b). It is clear
from the Fig. 3(a, b) that for all fuel blends, BTE increases and BSFC
decreases with increase in engine load. This is attributed to more
Table 1
Properties of argemone biodiesel-diesel blends.
Property Diesel AB10 AB20
Density at 15 °C (kg/m ) 3
830 832.7 835.4
Kinematic viscosity 40 °C (Cst) 2.8 3.516 3.612
Calorific value (MJ/kg) 44.5 43.8 43.1
Flash point (°C) 65.5 78.5 91
Copper strip corrosion test – Passed Passed
3
Fuel 265 (2020) 117024
increase in engine power with increase in load and less proportion of
heat losses at higher load [34]. At the same time, it can be observed that
BTE is maximum and BSFC is minimum for AB20 blend at 30, 45, 60
and 75% loading condition. Further, increase in biodiesel blending
lowers BTE and enhance the BSFC. The BTE and BSFC of AB10 and
AB30 lies between diesel and AB20; AB50 shows lowest BTE and
highest BSFC amongst all the tested blends. Keeping in view the low
calorific value (CV) and high viscosity of biodiesel, a deterioration in
performance characteristics is expected but unexpectedly biodiesel
blends perform better. The reason for good behavior of biodiesel blends
at part load and higher load is: (i) Higher injection pressure at part load
(550 bar @ 45% load) and high load (950 bar), which results in a good
atomization of fuel and promote better mixing (ii) At higher load, dif-
fusion phase of combustion dominates the premixed combustion
(Fig. 6f), as a result the effect of engine control parameters is more
significant as compared to fundamental combustion effects, fuel
chemistry and fluid dynamics [35]. Das et al. [36] also observed higher
BTE at full load condition for a single cylinder DI engine with castor oil
biodiesel. The reason cited is advanced fuel injection and higher lu-
bricity of biodiesel which reduces the frictional power and results in
higher BTE.
Biodiesel blends show opposite trend at lower load condition of
15%. Diesel shows the maximum BTE and minimum BSFC and increase
in biodiesel blending at this condition resulting in lower BTE and higher
BSFC. As less fuel is injected at low load, the favorable lubricating
property of biodiesel is not much effective [37]. Also, injection pressure
is very low at low load condition (350 bar) in comparison to high load
(950 bar). As a result, biodiesel/diesel blends result in poor atomization
of fuel at lower load. Therefore, lower brake thermal efficiency was
observed at low load condition. This is in-line with the reports [38,39]
which shows poor performance of biodiesel at low load condition.
Exhaust gas temperature increases with increase in load (Fig. 3c) as
with increase in load amount of fuel injected/cycle increases. Blending
up-to 20% biodiesel in diesel reduces the EGT. However, further in-
crease in biodiesel blending increases the EGT. The same is evident
from the trends of BTE as shown in Fig. 3a. Higher BTE means more
effective utilization of heat produced for useful work [40]; as a result
the blends AB10 and AB20 shows less EGT. In addition to this, at part
load and high load the blends AB10, AB20 shows higher cylinder
pressure (CP) and HRR and the position of cylinder pressure peak (CPP)
and heat release rate peak (HRRP) is same as that of diesel which shows
effective utilization of heat produced. AB30 and AB50 blends also show
higher CP and higher HRR at part and high load when compared to
diesel. However, there CPP and HRRP shifts away from TDC (Fig. 6).
The shift in HRR peak away from TDC indicates late combustion and
results in increase of exhaust gas temperature [41].
At low load, blending of biodiesel shows almost same EGT, small
increase in EGT is observed for AB50 only. At low load, up to 20%
biodiesel blending results in lower CP and HRR in comparison of diesel,
with their peak position same as that of diesel. However, shifting of CP
and HRR peak towards right has been observed in case of AB30 and
AB50 blends (Fig. 6a, d). As a result, EGT starts increasing for AB 30
and AB50.
AB30 AB50 AB100 ASTM D6751
838.1 843.5 857 –
3.708 3.9 4.38 1.9–6
42.4 41 37.5 –
103.75 129.25 193 93 (min)
Passed Passed Passed _
M. Singh and S.S. Sandhu Fuel 265 (2020) 117024

F1: Mass flow rate of air

F2: Mass flow rate of fuel
T1: Engine water Inlet Temp.
T2: Engine water outlet Temp.
T3: Exhaust gas inlet
T4: Exhaust gas outlet
T5: Calorimeter water inlet
T6: Calorimeter water outlet
CP: Cylinder pressure
APP: Acc. Pedal position
TMAP: Temperature and Manifold air
pressure sensor
N: Speed sensor

Fig. 2. Experimental Layout.

Table 2 Table 4
Technical specifications of experimental test rig. Engine operating parameters.
Engine make/Model International Tractors Ltd. (ITL)/G2 Series Test Condition Speed Load (%) IP (bar) IT (deg. Boost Pressure
No of cylinders 4 BTDC) (kPa)
Cylinder bore/stroke (mm) 84.45/88.95
Capacity 1.9 L I (Low Load) 2000 rpm no load 350 10.2 114
Compression ratio 17.5:1 15 390 9.8 132
Number of valves/cyl. 02 II (Part Load) 30 450 9.2 120
Fuel Injection Common Rail Direct Injection 45 550 8 125
Maximum power (kW) 67 kW–4000 rpm 60 800 10.3 175
Maximum torque 207 Nm–1750 rpm III (High Load) 75 950 9.8 160
Fuel Injection Pressure (bar) 1400 (max)
Cooling Water Cooled
load. Small quantity of fuel injected at low load condition results in
formation of localized rich mixture zones that might be the reason for
4.2. Engine exhaust emissions higher UHC at low load condition [26]. Blending up to 20% AOME in
diesel lowers the HC emission at part load and high load. These results
4.2.1. Hydrocarbon and carbon mono-oxide emissions are in agreement with the literature [26,43]. The reason for lower UHC
Both CO and HC emissions are the result of incomplete combustion. at part load and high load for AB10 and AB20 fuel is higher in-cylinder
As a result, an analogy has been observed in results of HC and CO temperature achieved by these blends as compared to diesel fuel. The
emissions (Fig. 3e, f). Both are decreasing with increase in percentage of enhanced in-cylinder temperature promotes good combustion and
biodiesel in diesel up to 30% at all test conditions except low load. Total hence HC emissions reduced [34]. Higher blends AB30 and AB50 shows
unburnt hydrocarbon emissions are the result of over lean or rich fuel higher HC emissions at all the testing conditions. These blends show an
mixture zones in the combustion chamber [42]. Fig. 3e shows that increase in ignition delay (period in which HC mainly forms) (Table 5)
unburnt hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions decrease with an increase in that results in higher HC. At low load of 15% the in-cylinder

Table 3
Type of sensors used.
Sensor Name Type Resolution

Crank Position Sensor 1 Hall effect type (5 V) ± 0.1°

Crank Position Sensor 2 Optical encoder ± 1°
Cam Position Sensor Hall effect (12 V) ± 0.1°
Injection Pressure Sensor Piezoelectric 0.1 bar
Temperature and manifold pressure sensor (TMAP) Negative temperature coefficient (NTC), 5 V 0.1°/1 kPa
Fuel Temperature Negative temperature coefficient (NTC), 5 V 1°
Temperature sensor (T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6) Thermocouple type K 0.1°

Actuators
Boost Pressure Actuator (BPA) Solenoid type vacuum operated –
Pressure Control Valve (PCV) Solenoid type, electronically operated –
Volume Control Valve (VCV) Solenoid type, electronically operated –

4
M. Singh and S.S. Sandhu Fuel 265 (2020) 117024

Fig. 3. Engine performance and emission characteristics.

temperature decreases with an increase in quantity of AOME in diesel.
The lower in-cylinder temperature results in poor oxidation reaction
which results in higher HC emissions [44].
Reduction in CO concentration in comparison to diesel fuel was
observed for AB10, AB20 and AB30 blends at test condition of part load
and high load. The reduction in CO emission is generally explained by
presence of oxygen, higher cetane number and favorable fatty acid
composition of biodiesel [45,46]. Higher blend of AOME/diesel, AB50
shows higher CO at all the test conditions than diesel. Higher viscosity
of the AB50 (3.9, 39% higher than diesel) deteriorates the quality of
fuel spray, which promote the in-complete combustion and production
of CO. However, all biodiesel/diesel blends (AB10, AB20, AB30 and

5
M. Singh and S.S. Sandhu Fuel 265 (2020) 117024

Table 5 4.2.2. Nitrogen oxides

Ignition delay and combustion duration. Many studies have shown that blending of biodiesel increases the
Load Fuel SOI SOC ID 5% 90% CD NOx emissions [46–48]. According to literature, higher in-cylinder
temperature of engine due to higher unsaturation and oxygen content
15% Diesel 9.8 −1° 8.8 −1° 13 14 of biodiesel are the major reason for increase in NOx emission [35]. In
AB10 −1° 8.8 −1° 13 14
the present work also, blending of biodiesel in diesel increases the NOx
AB20 −1° 8.8 −1° 13 14
AB30 −1° 8.8 −1° 14 15
emissions at all the testing conditions except at low load. Lower NOx
AB50 0° 9.8 0° 16 16 emissions at low load is attributed to lower CP, lower HRR and hence
45% Diesel 8 −2° 6 −2° 13 15
low in-cylinder temperature of biodiesel/diesel blends. Increase in NOx
AB10 −2° 6 −2° 13 15 emissions were observed up to 20% blending of argemone biodiesel in
AB20 −2° 6 −2° 13 15 diesel at part load and high load condition. After that, further increase
AB30 −1° 7 −1° 15 16 in biodiesel blending decreases the NOx emissions in comparison of
AB50 −1° 7 −1° 16 17
AB20.
75% Diesel 9.8 −6° 3.8 −6° 13° 19 In older pump line nozzle injection system, biodiesel properties such
AB10 −6° 3.8 −6° 13° 19
as: high density, viscosity and lower compressibility results in ad-
AB20 −6° 3.8 −6° 13° 19
AB30 −5° 4.8 −5° 15° 20
vancement of SOI [49,50]. Advanced SOI, results in higher ignition
AB50 −5° 4.8 −5° 16° 21 delay and cylinder pressure, thereby increase in NOx was reported.
Although it has been reported in literature [35,51] that SOI is not ef-
fected by biodiesel properties in CRDI system, too increase in NOx has
AB50) show higher CO emissions at condition of low load. At low load been observed. Though no change in SOI and ID (Table 4) was observed
the injection pressure and boost pressure are low in comparison of part for 20% blending of biodiesel, still NOx emission increases.
load and full load (Table 4). The lower injection pressure reduces the in- The higher NOx emissions might be the result of higher in-cylinder
cylinder temperature and lower boost pressure results in formation of temperature (Fig. 4) due to presence of unsaturation and molecular
less homogeneous mixture. Therefore, due to the combined effect of oxygen in biodiesel blends that promotes better combustion, irrespec-
engine operating parameters and lower CV and higher viscosity of tive of any change in SOI. After that, with further more blending up to
biodiesel blends the higher CO emissions were observed at condition of 50%, ID increases by 1° (Table 5) and CPP, HRRP shifts away from TDC
low load. and NOx emissions starts decreasing in comparison of AB20.
Present work shows maximum NOx emissions of 1302 ppm for
AB20 fuel @ 33 kW of power produced. However, studies on normal

Fig. 4. In-cylinder temperature and NOx.

6
M. Singh and S.S. Sandhu
direct injection engines reports on an average 1200 ppm of NOx
emissions for production of 5.2 kW power [51,52] which mean that
NOx produced per kW are very less in CRDI engines in comparison of
conventional DI engines. The reason might be the higher injection
pressure and retarded injection timing in CRDI engines.
4.2.3. Smoke opacity
Smoke opacity is measured in Hartridge smoke unit (HSU), which is
a scale of percentage opacity with sampling length 430 mm, tempera-
ture 100 °C and pressure 1 atm. Fig. 5, shows the smoke opacity at
different testing conditions of engine. It was found that diesel/arge-
mone biodiesel blends (AB10, AB20 and AB30) show lower smoke
opacity as compared to diesel. The exhaust smoke emissions follow the
trend of engine performance characteristics (Fig. 3). The improved
performance of engine (BTE and BSFC, Fig. 3) results in reduction of
exhaust smoke emissions. Moreover, smoke opacity for all tested fuels
increases with increase in load up to 45%. After that, reduction in
smoke emissions was observed for higher load of 60% and 75%. The
reason might be higher boost pressure, which improves the diffusion
phase of combustion and results in reduction of smoke emissions
(Table 4).
4.3. Engine combustion analysis
The cylinder pressure and heat release rate for test conditions of low
load, part load and high load, with diesel and diesel/AOME blends have
been shown in the Fig. 6(a–f). Blending of biodiesel in diesel lowers the
cylinder pressure at low load and increases the same at part load and
high load condition. All the biodiesel/diesel blends (AB10, AB20, AB30
and AB50) show higher CP than diesel at part load and high load. AB20
shows maximum CP with CPP position same as that of diesel. Many
studies on DI engines have reported earlier SOC, longer ignition delay
hence higher CP for biodiesel due to advanced injection timing of
biodiesel [53–55]. Though, in the present work no change in ignition
delay was observed up to 20% blending of biodiesel (Table 5), still
increase in CP was noticed. High degree of unsaturation of AOME and
presence of molecular oxygen might be the reason for increase in CP for
AB10 and AB20. For higher blends, AB30 and AB50; the ignition delay
increases by 1° (Table 5) as a result CPP shifts away from TDC. Also, due
to their lower calorific value and high viscosity; cylinder pressure va-
lues start decreasing in comparison of AB20.
Fig. 6(d–f) shows HRR at 15%, 45% and 75% load. Blends of
AOME/diesel AB10 and AB20 shows almost identical stages of com-
bustion i.e. ignition delay, premixed phase of combustion and diffusion
phase. However, higher proportion blends AB30 and AB50 shows
longer ignition delay (Table 5) and results in shifting of premixed
combustion phase away from TDC Fig. 6(d–f). It can also be observed
from Fig. 6d that blending of biodiesel lowers the peak of HRR at low
load. Though the point of SOC is same for biodiesel blends (AB10, AB20
and AB30) at low load, the lower HRRP is the result of poor atomisation
of biodiesel blends due to high viscosity and density at same injection
pressure and load. At higher load, more fuel supplied, high injection
pressure and higher boost is responsible for more dominating diffusion
phase in comparison of premixed phase of combustion [56]. Also, it is
mentioned in the literature [35] that when diffusion phase is more ef-
fective, engine control parameters (IP, Engine load, BPr and IT) have
more effect on combustion phenomenon in comparison to fuel prop-
erties (Viscosity, density, CV, bulk modulus etc.). As a result, somewhat
higher HRR was observed for AB10 and AB20, though they have lower
CV and higher viscosity. Higher blends AB30 and AB50 have higher
HRRP than diesel, however, the position of peaks shifts away from TDC.
As a result, higher EGT and lower BTE has been observed for these
blends.
ROPR is the first derivative of CP which is related to the smooth
operation of the engine [57]. The variation of ROPR with crank angle at
different test conditions has been shown in Fig. 7(a–c). It can be
7
Fuel 265 (2020) 117024
observed that ROPR of biodiesel blends is lower at low load condition.
At high load and part load, opposite trend has been observed and all the
AOME/diesel blends show higher ROPR than diesel. High boost pres-
sure, Injection pressure at high load promotes better mixing irrespective
of poor atomisation caused due to higher density and viscosity of bio-
diesel blends [58]. The reason for lower ROPR of biodiesel blends at
low load is due to lower premixed combustion heat release observed for
all diesel/AOME blends. Also, for higher blends AB30 and AB50,
combustion duration increases (Table 5), for all the tested conditions
which may also lower the ROPR.
Cumulative heat release is related to inefficiency in conversion of
thermal energy into shaft power [38]. Fig. 7(e, f) shows that CHR is less
for AB10 and AB20 blends at part load and high load condition. This
indicates better combustion in comparison to diesel fuel, which can be
confirmed from measured values of BTE (Fig. 3). All biodiesel blends
show higher CHR at condition of low load (Fig. 7d), as a result lower
BTE was observed for biodiesel-diesel blends.
5. Conclusions
Present work compared the performance, emission and combustion
characteristics of 1.9L, CRDI engine, when fuelled with diesel and
various argemone biodiesel-diesel blends (AB10, AB20, AB30 % AB50).
The conclusions from this study are as follows:
• At part load and high load, the blending of 10% and 20% argemone
biodiesel in diesel improves the combustion attributes such as CP
and HRR which results in improved BTE and BSFC. Also, no change
in Ignition delay was observed up to 20% blending of argemone
biodiesel in diesel. The blends AB30 and AB50 show longer ignition
delay and the peaks of CP and HRR shifts away from TDC which
results in higher exhaust gas temperature and lower brake thermal
efficiency of these blends.
• Both HC and CO emissions decrease with an increase in proportion
of biodiesel up to 30% in diesel at all testing conditions except low
load. Conversely, NOx emissions for biodiesel blends are low at low
load and high at higher load condition. At low load the blends of
biodiesel show lower values of maximum cylinder pressure, HRR
and ROPR in comparison of diesel, owing to lower thermal effi-
ciency and higher specific fuel consumption of argemone biodiesel
blends at this condition.
• The 50% blending of argemone biodiesel results in higher exhaust
gas temperature and lower brake thermal efficiency. Therefore, not
recommended to use at the same injection parameters as that of
diesel. However, AB20 blend can be used with a benefit of higher
thermal efficiency and penalty of higher NOx emissions. Moreover,
Fig. 5. Engine exhaust smoke emissions.
M. Singh and S.S. Sandhu Fuel 265 (2020) 117024

Fig. 6. Cylinder pressure and heat release rate.

AB30 can be used with almost same brake thermal efficiency and
less penalty of NOx emissions in comparison of AB20.
6. Author’s contribution
Sarbjot Singh Sandhu conceived of the presented idea. Mandeep
Singh carried out the experiment, calculations and made graphs.
Sarbjot Singh Sandhu supervised the findings of this work. Sarbjot

8
M. Singh and S.S. Sandhu Fuel 265 (2020) 117024

Fig. 7. Rate of pressure rise and cumulative heat release rate.

9
M. Singh and S.S. Sandhu Fuel 265 (2020) 117024

Singh Sandhu and Mandeep Singh, contributed to the final version of its performance, emission and combustion characterization in a single cylinder DICI
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