Transportation industry and agricultural sectors contribut to increase in the consumption of diesel

by 40% in the past ten years. Diesel engines are well known and preferred due to their
performance and efficiency. They find wide range of applications throughout our nation. In
addition to consumption of fossil fuel, they greatly contribute to environmental pollution[1-3].
Biodegradable and non-toxic renewable fuels that contain insignificant amounts of sulfur are
preferred to petrodiesel fuel. They are safe for use in diesel engines. Further, the inherernt
oxygen content of biofuels helps in lessening the exhaust emissions[4-7]. Many experimental
studies and analytical work have been carried on range of biodiesel to prove that they are
promising substitute fuels.

Vallinayagam et al used pine oil as an alternative biofuel directly without any transesterification
in diesel engines. Maximum heat release rate was hiked by 27% compared to diesel fuel. Smoke
and CO emissions reduced by 70% and 30% respectivley at full load conditions. They reported
25% increase in NOx emissions.

In the investigation of Arunkumar et al, Castor biodiesel was utilized as alternative fuel for
diesel. It was reported that CO emissions were reduced by 9% and HC emissions by 8.8%. The
brake thermal efficiency of the engine was slightly reduced by 2.2%. The high viscous nature of
Castor biodiesel has increased BSFC by 4.2%.

Ashok et al showed that Calophyllum Innophyllum biodiesel with Isobutanol blends can be used
as comfortable replacement in CI engines. They added 10%,15% and 20% of iso-butanol to
diesel- biodiesel blends. Among all possible combinations tries, 10% iso-butanol addition in
diesel- biodiesel blends gave 3.19% improvement in BTE and reduced CO emissions by 13%
with a slight penalty in HC emissions. Heat release rate of ternary blends helped in momentous
progress of the engine performance.

Another work of Rajak et al dealt with the performance of five different oil categories such as
edible, non-edible, animal fat, alcohol and waste oil. They conducted numerical simulation on
diesel emgine running with different alternative fuels. Lowest level of NOx emission of 212 ppm
was attained in case of Butanol. Poultry oil from animal fats reduced PM emissions by 0.0012
g/kWh.

Varatharajan et al examined the effect of using Pongamia Methyl ester in CI engines. They used
different blends B20, B40, B60, B80 and B100 of biodiesel for experimental runs. 8.2%
reduction in CO emissions and 8.9% reduction in HC emissions compared to diesel were
reported for B20 blend. BTE was slightly reduced by 2.4% but with effective engine
modifications, this drop in efficiency can be overcome.

V.Praveena et al conducted an optimization study on load and blend concentration using

Response Surface Methodology statistical tool. They used Mahua oil blends at different load
conditions. The optimized BTE and BSFC values were 31% and 0.26 kg/kWhr. Experimental
results helped to verfiy the statistical tool. It was finally concluded that B20 blend operated well
at 4.32 kW load condition.

Subbarayan et al reported that emissions from Cotton seed oil methyl ester and Pumpkin seed
methyl ester were quite high. They used hot EGR and cold EGR technique with differentblends
of biodiesel. They concluded that emissions were least with cold EGR and B25 blend at full load.
Adding to this benefit, soot was increased by a considerable amount.

Huary et al worked on emission reduction in pine oil diesel blends by increasing EGR rate from
0 to 24.6%. They found a significant reduction in NOx emission. Furthermore, as the proportion
of pine oil increased, NOx emissions also increased. But subsequent increase in EGR rate has
dominated the effect of additional NOx emission produced. The limiting rate of EGR wsas found
to be 24.6% , as soot and THC emissions sharply increased beyond this cut off point.

Velumurugan et al tested Mango seed biodiesel in a DI diesel engine. To reduce higher NOx
emissions, they added three different anti-oxidants such as Di-ethyl amine, Pyridoxine
hydrochloride and Tert-butyl hydro quinone. The anti-oxidants at differnt concentrations of 100,
250, 500 and 1000 ppm were added and the maximum NOx reduction was 18% at 80% load with
250 ppm of Pyridoxine hydrochloride. There was a slight reduction of 0.6% in BTE. Smoke and
UBHC emissions increased by 7.9% and 6.9% respectively.

Another effort to reduce NOx emissions in Calophyllum Innophyllum methyl ester was carried
out by Ashok et al by adding nano particle additives and anti-oxidant. They used Zinc oxide
nano fuild with 50 ppm and 100 ppm concentration and reported 4.7% improvement in BTE.
Simultaneously NOx emissions were reduced by 12.6% at full load conditions. To further target
the NOx emissions, Ethanox anti-oxidant was added at 200 ppm and 500 ppm concentration
levels and found a maximum NOx emission reduction of 17.8% at 500 ppm concentration.

Varatharajan et al evaluated the performance and emission parameters of CI engine running with
Pongamia methyl ester. Five different blends B20, B40, B60, B80 and B100 were chosen for
trial runs. Blend B20 was reported as the acceptable combination with 4.01% increase in BTE
compared to disel fuel. Copper oxide nano particles at different concentrations of 50 ppm and
100 ppm were added in liquid form to reduce NOx emissions. Due to addition of Copper oxide
nano particles , the NOx emission value reduced from 415 ppm to 375 ppm. CuO nanoparticles
absorbed the oxygen available, thereby giving less time for NOx formation.

To further reduce NOx emissions, an effective solution could be installation of after treatment
devices. Selective Catalytic Reduction, Selective Non- Catalytic Reduction and Lean NOx Trap
are the NOx reduction technologies. SCR is one of the proven technologies, whose emission
control lies on the catalyst performance[VP].
Mari et al defined the effect of SCR unit in a diesel engine running with untreated Rapeseed oil.
They studied the performance of SCR catalyst element at fresh condition and after ageing for 61
hr at 340 C. The particle number produced were high for RSO fuel and they influenced the
catalytic activity of SCR to a significant level. 79% reduction in NOx emissions was achieved
with the help of SCR device. SCR also helped in reducing the number of particles and concerting
it to fine nano particles.