Spirulina microalgae biodiesel – A novel renewable alternative energy source for compression ignition engine

The present study aims to investigate emulsion fuel characteristics with B20 blend level of microalgae spirulina biodiesel (MSB) concentration and their effects on performance, combustion and exhaust emissions of a direct injection diesel engine. The engine was operated at three different engine speeds. This has been analyzed by Diesel-RK commercial software and engine parameters such as specific fuel consumption, thermal efficiency, exhaust gas temperature, ignition delay, the rate of heat release, emissions particulate matter, carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and smoke emission were obtained. Investigations were performed on a, naturally aspirated, single-cylinder, diesel engine using diesel (B0), MSB-B20 (80 diesel + 20 spirulina) and spirulina biodiesel (B100) at 100% load condition. Result shows that MSB-B20 a reduction of 1.63%, 1.2%, 0.55%, 10.5%, 6.2% and 2.6% in parameters like, cylinder pressure, brake thermal efficiency, indicated thermal efficiency, particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen and smoke emission respectively. The MSB-B20 shows an increase by 5.08%, 4.5%, 2.45% and 2.7% for the parameters of specific fuel consumption, peak heat release rate, ignition delay period, and carbon dioxide emission respectively at 1500 rpm with 100% engine load. The numerical results are verified against experimental results conducted under the same operating conditions. •Third generation spirulina biodiesel.•Numerical study of engine performance, combustion and emission using variable speed.•Thermal efficiency increased and fuel consumption decreased with higher speed.•Reduced NOX formation and slightly improved CO2 emission.