Experimental investigation of the performance and emission characteristics of a CI engine equipped with a modified truncated cone piston crown operated on diesel and shea-butter biodiesel

Biodiesels and Improved combustion chamber design have better in-cylinder air motion which positioned them to offer increased advantages in addressing the major concern of high emission and low thermal efficiency of compression ignition engines. This study therefore investigated the impact of Shea-butter biodiesel and redesigned combustion chamber on the performance and emission characteristics of a compression ignition engine. Biodiesel was prepared from Shea-butter using the standard process. Experiments were conducted on a Yoshita-165F engine operated on a blend of AGO and Shea-butter biodiesel and then Yoshita-165F engine equipped with a truncated cone piston crown with a cone base-angle of 40° modified from the standard piston, operated on a blend of AGO and Shea-butter to determine the engines’ performance characteristics using a TQ TD115 MKH Absorption Dynamometer. The performance and emission characteristic of the engine witnessed an improvement with the use of the truncated cone piston crown with a cone base-angle of 40°. This was also observed with AGO/Shea-butter biodiesel blend as fuel and was particularly well pronounced when utilized as a fuel for the truncated cone piston crown equipped engine. Compression ignition engine equipped with the modified piston and operated on AGO/Shea-butter biodiesel led to improvement in performance.