Scrutinizing the combustion, performance and emissions of safflower biodiesel–kerosene fueled diesel engine used as power source for a generator

•Effects of kerosene addition to biodiesel in a diesel engine were investigated.•S90&K10, S75&K25 and S50&K50 were tested and comparisons have been made with D2.•Patterns of combustion parameters have found be quite similar for blend fuels and D2.•The highest efficiency value is obtained for S50&K50 blend.•HC emissions a bit increased and NOx emissions were decreased. When neat biodiesel or its blends with diesel fuel that contain high amounts of biodiesel are used in diesel engines some operational problems such as poor injection, bad atomization and incomplete combustion occur mainly due to higher viscosity and surface tension. Engine problems with the use of biodiesel–fuel blends that contain higher percentages of biodiesel need to be solved in order to utilize the advantages of biodiesel in environmental and economical ways. The mentioned problems can also be solved by blending biodiesel with another low density or viscosity fuel such as kerosene. In present study biodiesel was produced from safflower oil. S90&K10, S75&K25 and S50&K50 were prepared by blending biodiesel with kerosene. A 4 cylinder diesel engine that was used to drive an electric generator was used to deeply investigate the similarity of combustion, performance and emission characteristics of the blend fuels to D2. All experiments were carried out at constant loads of 3.6, 7.2 and 10.8kW generated powers. Patterns of combustion parameters found to be quite similar for blends and D2 fuel. NOx emissions were considerably decreased with percentages of 68.2%, 56.9% and 55.1% for S50&K50, S75&K25 and S90&K10, respectively while unburned HC emissions were a bit increased. Mass fuel consumption and BSFC were slightly increased for S75&K25 and S90&K10, but they were decreased with an average increase in BTE by 3.84% for S50&K50 fuel when compared to D2. Eventually, it was concluded that high percentages of safflower oil biodiesel can be a potential substitute for diesel fuel provided that it is used as blended with certain amounts of kerosene.