| Summary: | Renewable alternatives to fossil fuels, such as biodiesel, are necessary to lessen emission of greenhouse gases that are causing climate change. Using a high-pressure, medium-duty, common-rail, turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engine, this work studies the effect of adding <i>Cocos nucifera</i> biodiesel to conventional diesel on exhaust emissions, engine performance, and combustion characteristics. An analysis and characterization of the key physicochemical properties of diesel, biodiesel, and biodiesel–diesel blends were carried out. The engine was fuelled with pure petroleum diesel and blended diesel containing a 10%, 20%, 30%, and 50% volume of coconut oil at full throttle and six different speed settings, respectively. The results showed relatively close physicochemical properties between the biodiesel blend and conventional petroleum fuel. Observations made over the entire speed range indicated that a higher coconut oil biodiesel (COB) content lowers the torque and brake power compared to diesel. In the case of engine exhaust gas, a reduction in carbon monoxide (CO) and smoke emissions were observed. Notably, COB50 gives out the highest nitrogen oxides (NOx) but it is raised even for other blends. The experimental results also demonstrated that a higher COB content achieves a lower peak pressure while the peak heat release rate (PHRR) was lower than that of conventional diesel as the speed of the engine increases.
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