Rapid depletion of petroleum crude oil reserves,stringent
pollution legislations and global warming, has given us the
opportunity to work on bio fuels. Biodiesel can be produced from
edible and non-edible vegetable oils,waste bio mass and animal
fats.Biodiesel is renewable,bio gradable,sulphur free, non-toxic,
oxygenated and green alternative fuel. Karanja and Jatropha oils
are non- edible vegetable oils. Karanja and Jatrophaoil methyl
ester biodiesel are prepared by transesterification process, using
methanol. JOME and KOME have comparable performance with low
gaseous emission characteristics, except higher NOx emission, in
comparison to mineral diesel fuel. Recent emission legislations
also restrict nano particle emission in addition to particulate
matter, due to their adverse impact on health.In the present study,
performance, combustion and emissions of CO, CO2, UHC, NOx and PM
including nano particle emission characteristics, along with engine
wear were compared for KOME, JOME and diesel fuels by applying 20%
EGR with turbo charging, in a 12 cylinders, 720 kW, 38.8 liters
heavy duty CIDI military diesel engine.Both KOME and JOME biodiesel
fuel exhibit the ASTM standard properties within acceptable limits.
Engine was subjected to 100 hours endurance tests. Lubricating oil
samples were drawn from engine after a fixed interval of 20 hours
engine run for elemental analysis. Atomic absorption spectroscopy
and ferrography test were conducted for metal debris concentration
analysis. To test wear of exposed cylinder liner, scanning electron
microscopy was conducted.All wear tests were conducted with new set
of engine parts for all three test fuels.Metals wear were found
lowered (26-33%) for both biodiesel fueled engine. The engine
performances were evaluated in terms of power, heat release rates
and SFC. Engine performance with both KOME and JOME biodiesel were
slightly lower (<4-6%) than diesel fuel. Emissions performance
of KOME and JOME were better (30-70%)including 21-24% lower NOx
emission along with lower total particulate number
concentration,particulate size-number distribution and particle
size-surface area distribution, as compared to diesel fuel.