Velmurugan.K , Sathiyagnanam A.P
Scarcity of conventional petroleum fuels has promoted research in alternative fuels for internal combustion engines. Worldwide energy demand has been growing steadily during the past five decades and most experts believe this trend will continue to rise. The conventional petroleum fuels for internal combustion engines will be available for few years only, due to a tremendous increase in population. Biodiesel is a green fuel produced from renewable sources, offers cleaner combustion over conventional diesel fuel. However, several authors report to increase in NOx emissions (about 13%) for biodiesel compared with conventional diesel fuel. In this paper, the effect of antioxidant additive L-ascorbic acid on NOx emissions in a Mango Seed methyl ester fuelled direct injection diesel engine have been examined experimentally and compared. The antioxidant additive is mixed in various proportions (100-400mg) with Mango Seed methyl ester is tested on a kirloskar make 4-stroke water cooled single cylinder diesel engine of 5.2 KW rated power. Results show that the antioxidant additive is effective in controlling the NOx and HC emissions of Mango Seed methyl ester fuelled diesel engines.