ABSTRACT

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel similar to conventional or 'fossil' diesel. Biodiesel can be

produced from straight vegetable oil, animal oil/fats, tallow and waste cooking oil. The process
used to convert these oils to Biodiesel is called transesterification. Biodiesel is meant to be used in
standard diesel engines and is thus distinct from the vegetable and waste oils used to fuel converted
diesel engines. Biodiesel can be used alone, or blended with petro diesel in any
proportions. Biodiesel blends can also be used as heating oil. It is composed of saturated and
unsaturated long-chain fatty acid alkyl ester and can be used as partial substitute for the diesel in
the diesel engine without any major modification. A few automobile manufacturers extended their
warranty only to lower blends of biodiesel although the acceptability of biodiesel in automotive
applications is relatively a successful story; it is an issue with regards to its oxidation stability.
Biodiesel, having different chemical characteristics from diesel, can interact with air and engine
components in a different way and causes corrosive and tribological attack on metallic components
and degrade elastomer parts. From the literature review, we have collected and analyzed the data
on both advantages and disadvantages biodiesel over conventional diesel. One of the main
disadvantages of the biodiesel is its lower oxidation stability and the oxidation will be accelerated
at higher temperature. Also, the biodiesel is more prone to absorb water and hence it is necessary
to improve the oxidation stability of the biodiesel. The oxidation stability can be increased with
the addition of antioxidants to the biodiesel. The antioxidants added biodiesel can significantly
affects the performance and emissions of the diesel engine. Hence, the objective of tis proposed
project work is to study the effect of antioxidant on the performance and emission of the diesel
engine.
Biodiesel has higher brake-specific fuel consumption compared to diesel, which means
more biodiesel fuel consumption is required for the same torque. However, B20 biodiesel blend
has been found to provide maximum increase in thermal efficiency, lowest brake-specific energy
consumption, and lower harmful emissions. The engine performance depends on the properties of
the fuel, as well as on combustion, injector pressure and many other factors. Since there are various
blends of biodiesel, that may account for the contradicting reports as regards engine performance.