TY - JOUR
TI - Experimental investigation on a diesel engine using neem oil and its methyl ester
AU - Sivalakshmi Sivanathan
AU - Balusamy Thangavel
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2011
VL - 15
IS - 4
SP - 1193
EP - 1204
PT - Article
AB - Fuel crisis and environmental concerns have led to look for alternative fuels  of bio-origin sources such as vegetable oils, which can be produced from  forests, vegetable oil crops and oil bearing biomass materials. Vegetable  oils have energy content comparable to diesel fuel. The effect of neem oil  (NeO) and its methyl ester (NOME) on a direct injected four stroke, single  cylinder diesel engine combustion, performance and emission is investigated  in this paper. The results show that at full load, peak cylinder pressure is  higher for NOME; peak heat release rate during the premixed combustion phase  is lower for neat NeO and NOME. Ignition delay is lower for neat NeO and NOME  when compared with diesel at full load. The brake thermal efficiency is  slightly lower for NeO at all engine loads, but in the case of NOME slightly  higher at full load. It has been observed that there is a reduction in NOx  emission for neem oil and its methyl ester along with an increase in CO, HC  and smoke emissions.