150 CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION The studies on performance, emission and combustion characteris of a waste cooking oil biodiesel fuelled variable compression ial ratio engine under different operating conditions is performed. Arti Neural Networks modelling was used to predict the engine performance, emission and combustion characteristics of the engine. The following conclusions are drawn from the studies. 8.1 CONCLUSION ON EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ‘The performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a single cylinder four stroke variable compression ratio multi fuel engine when fuelled with waste cooking oil methyl ester and its 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% blends with diesel (on a volume basis) are investigated and compared with standard diesel, When blend B40 is used brake thermal efficiency is slightly higher than that of standard diesel at higher compression ratios. The BTE of all blend increases by increasing the compression ratio of the engine. Brake thermal efficiency of the blends increase with the increase in applied load.151 When blend B40 is used specific fuel consumption is lower than that of all other blends and diesel. SFC of the engine gradually decreases with increase in load. The biodiesel is performing relatively better at higher compre ion ratios due to low volatility and higher scosity. Brake power decreases at higher compression ratio and at higher load due to the conversion from the chemical energy to mechanical energy. It is due to the lower heating value of the blends and uneven combustion. When blend B40 is used the mean effective pressure is higher at sion ratios and lower at higher compression ratios than standard s also higher at les vr loads and lower at higher loads than standard When blend B40 is used the mechanical efficiency increases with steady the increase in compression ratio than that of standard diesel. There increase in mechanical efficiency for all the blends as the load increases. ‘The exhaust gas temperature decreases with the higher compression ratio and increase in load, due to lower calorific value of blended fuel and the low temperatures at the end of compression.152 ‘The hydrocarbon emission of various blends is higher at higher compression ratios and higher loads. The effect of fuel viscosity on the fuel spray quality is expected to produce increase in HC with vegetable oil fuels, ‘The emission of oxides of nitrogen (NO,) from the waste cooking oil blends is higher than that of diesel except B40 at lower loads. The reason for higher NO, emission for blends is due to the higher peak temperature. NO, emissions are sen: ive to oxygen content, adiabatic flame temperature and spray characteristics. diesel and it is found to be higher for light and medium load and at compression ratio 21. The effect of fuel viscosity on fuel spray quality would be expected to make some CO increase while using vegetable oil fuels. The CO, emission is lesser at the same conditions due to incomplete combustion and inadequate supply of oxygen. ‘The combustion pressure for diesel is higher for lower compression ratios and that for blends are higher for higher compression ratios. The maximum rate of increase in pressure is increasing with increase in the compression ratio. The oxygen fortification in the blend due to the addition of biodiesel is the reason for the increased pressure rise. ‘The heat release rate increases with the lower compression ratios and slightly decreases at higher compression ratios. It decreases at the start of153 combustion and increases further with respect to standard diesel at full load, This is due to air entrainment and lower air/fuel mixing rate and effect of viscosity of the blends. The heat release pattern of B40 is quite similar to that of standard diesel, whereas other blends deviate more from that of standard diesel. It is due to reduced viscosity and better spray formation of B40. The mass fraction bumt of blends is slightly higher at lower compression ratios and closely follows the standard diesel at higher compression ratios. The mass fraction burnt of blends is slightly higher than that of standard diesel at full load. Total duration of combustion is shorter for biodiesel and dies: 1 blends while comparing with standard diesel. As the calorific value of the biodiesel blend is lower than diesel, a higher quantity of fuel is consumed to keep the engine speed stable at different loads. ‘The ignition delay decreases with biodiesel in the diesel blend with the increase in load. Ignition delay is influenced by fuel type, fuel quality, air- fuel ratio, engine speed, quality of fuel atomization, intake air temperature and pressure influence the ignition delay. ‘The performance of the B40 blend is superior when compared with the conventional standard diesel at compression ratio 21 and at higher loads. There is slight increase in NO, emission, but it is still comparable with that of standard diesel fuel and is also in the acceptable range.154 8.2 CONCLUSION ON ANN MODELLING ANN are designed to predict for performance, emission and combustion characteristics of biodiesel fuelled variable compression ratio engine for different compression ratios and for different loading conditions. Mathematical models are developed using trained artificial neural network. ‘There is good correlation between the ANN predicted values and the experimental results for different engine performance, emission parameters and combustion characteristics. ANNs reduce the experimental efforts and also serves as an efficient tool for predicting the engine parameters under different operating conditions with different biodiesel blends. Analysis of the experimental data by the ANN exposed that there is a good correlation between the predicted data resulted from the ANN and the measured ones. Therefore the ANN proved to be an enviable prediction tool to predict engine parameters.155 83 SCOPE FOR FUTURE RESEARCH research, ‘The present investigation brings out several avenues for further Performance, emission and combustion characteristics of VCR engine testing in a variety of biodiesel may be carried out to find suitable compression ratio for their different blends. Fuel injection timing and pressure can be changed to obtain an optimization between performance, emissions and combustion characteristics. It should be noted that slight increase in NO, formation occurred while using biodiesel. Research is needed to propose NO, reduction strategies for biodiesel combustion. Further studies on the low temperature performance of biodiesel engine should be fulfilled because biodiesel presents higher viscosity than diesel, which could affect the emissions due to the different size of droplets and the different primary zone equivalence ratio for biodiesel and diesel without any change in fuel nozzle.