DYNAMOMETER EVALUATION AND ENGINE WEAR CHARACTERISTICS OF PALM OIL DIESEL EMULSIONS

Dynamometer engine tests at steady-state conditions and a wear charact eristics study were carried out on an indirect-injection diesel engine with palm oil diesel (POD) and its emulsions. The POD fuel was obtain ed in commercial form, and its emulsions were created by mixing POD fu el to contain 5 and 10% of water by volume. Variations in the engine's performance characteristics were determined from the results of stead y-state tests carried out at fifteen selected torque-speed matrix poin ts of the engine's performance map. The wear characteristics tests wer e performed by running the engine at half throttle setting for twenty hours for each fuel system. Then a desk-top comparison study was perfo rmed between the baseline fuel system of ordinary diesel (OD), POD, an d its emulsions. Promising results have been obtained. Neither the low er cetane number of POD fuel nor its emulsification with water present ed obstacles to the operation of:he diesel engine during a series of s teady-state engine tests and the twenty-hour endurance tests. Engine p erformance and fuel consumption for POD and its emulsions are comparab le with those of OD fuel. Accumulations of wear metal debris in crank- case oil samples were lower with POD and its emulsion!; than with base line OD fuel.