Renewable Energy 29 (2004) 11351145

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Technical note

Performance of jatropha oil blends in a diesel

engine
F.K. Forson , E.K. Oduro, E. Hammond-Donkoh
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
(KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana
Received 31 October 2002; accepted 7 November 2003

Abstract
Results are presented on tests on a single-cylinder direct-injection engine operating on diesel fuel, jatropha oil, and blends of diesel and jatropha oil in proportions of 97.4%/2.6%;
80%/20%; and 50%/50% by volume. The results covered a range of operating loads on the
engine. Values are given for the chemical and physical properties of the fuels, brake specic
fuel consumption, brake power, brake thermal eciency, engine torque, and the concentrations of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and oxygen in the exhaust gases. Carbon dioxide
emissions were similar for all fuels, the 97.4% diesel/2.6% jatropha fuel blend was observed
to be the lower net contributor to the atmospheric level. The trend of carbon monoxide
emissions was similar for the fuels but diesel fuel showed slightly lower emissions to the
atmosphere. The test showed that jatropha oil could be conveniently used as a diesel substitute in a diesel engine. The test further showed increases in brake thermal eciency, brake
power and reduction of specic fuel consumption for jatropha oil and its blends with diesel
generally, but the most signicant conclusion from the study is that the 97.4% diesel/2.6%
jatropha fuel blend produced maximum values of the brake power and brake thermal
eciency as well as minimum values of the specic fuel consumption. The 97.4%/2.6% fuel
blend yielded the highest cetane number and even better engine performance than the diesel
fuel suggesting that jatropha oil can be used as an ignition-accelerator additive for diesel
fuel.
# 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Corresponding author. Tel.: 0023 51 60232; fax: 00233 51 60568.

E-mail address: fkforson@hotmail.com (F.K. Forson).

0960-1481/$ - see front matter # 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.renene.2003.11.002

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1. Introduction
Many energy fuels are being investigated [15] as potential substitutes for the
current high-pollutant diesel fuel derived from diminishing commercial sources.
Vegetable oils may provide one such alternative and their potential has been examined in the past years by several researchers. Many of the researchers have indicated that the successful use of vegetable oil is a function of the engine type.
Vegetable oil cannot be safely used in an indirect-injection, naturally aspirated and
air-cooled engine for long periods of time. This problem is related to the high viscosity of the vegetable oil, which causes inadequate atomisation and incomplete
combustion. Another problem associated with the use of vegetable fuels as diesel
substitute is the reactivity of the unburned fuel, which is the cause of fouling of the
injector nozzles and cylinder deposition. A major problem to be encountered with
the more widespread use of the diesel engine, however, is the emission of particulate matter (i.e. smoke) comprising carbon and unburned hydrocarbons. This has
been the subject of much recent public concern over possible eects on human
health, and particularly respiratory disorders in urban environment.
One alternative and demonstrably eective way of reducing the emissions of
smoke and oxides of nitrogen is to emulsify the vegetable oil fuel with a small proportion of water [6]. This leads to improved atomisation and lower-combustion
chamber temperatures. A way of reducing the viscosity of the vegetable oil fuel is
to blend it with some proportion of diesel fuel by volume and/or pre-heat the vegetable oil before it is admitted to the combustion chamber. Our current research
eort has been directed towards the use of vegetable oil as a diesel fuel substitute
with minimal fuel processing and no engine modication. To take advantage of
emulsication as a way of improving the combustion of vegetable oil in a diesel
engine, some amount of water was introduced in the vegetable oil during the
extraction process. The present work presents the performance of diesel/jatropha
fuel blends in a diesel engine. Three blends were obtained by mixing diesel and
jatropha oil in the following proportions by volume: 50% diesel/50% jatropha oil;
80% diesel/20% jatropha oil and 97.4% diesel/2.6% jatropha oil.
For comparison purposes, test runs were carried out for the pure jatropha oil
and diesel fuel. The eect of preheating of the pure jatropha oil and its blends with
diesel on engine performance was also investigated. Performance and emission
parameters for the fuels and the blends were measured under a range of varying
loads (torque) applied to the engine.

2. Experimental
2.1. Extraction of jatropha oil
It is reported [7] that a dry seed of Jatropha curcas contains about 55% of oil.
However, the maximum amount of oil that can be extracted from a given sample
of the seed depends on the method of extraction and perhaps the quality of the

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1137

feedstock. Two main methods of extracting the oil have been identied. They are
the chemical extraction method using solvent extraction with n-hexane and the
mechanical extraction method using either a manual ram-press or an engine driven-expeller. Kpikpi [8] has reported that solvent extraction with n-hexane could
produce about 41% yield by weight of oil per kg of the jatropha seed. Foidl and
Eder [9] reported that the dry seed of J. curcas would yield about 3038% of crude
oil, however, in their study in Nicaragua 30.8% of crude oil by weight was extracted from 12,782 tons of dry weight of J. curcas using an engine driven-expeller.
In the present study, a simple mechanical ram-press available at the Technology
Consultancy Centre (TCC) of the KNUST was used for the oil extraction process
because of its availability and also to allow for the formation of emulsication of
the vegetable oil. The ow chart of the oil extraction process used is illustrated in
Fig. 1. About 32 kg of unshelled seeds were shelled from which 20 kg of the shelled
fruit was obtained. From the shelled fruit, 19.6 kg of dough was obtained after the
milling process, which subsequently yielded 6.88 kg of oil representing about 21.5%
of crude oil by weight per kg of the unshelled dry weight of the J. curcas seed. On
the assumption that a dry seed of J. curcas contains about 55% of oil, the eciency
of the mechanical extraction process used was estimated to be 39% whereas a value
of 98% is reported for extraction with n-hexane. It is suggestive from the above
that the mechanical ram-press used needs some form of improvement.
2.2. Physical and chemical properties
Standard methods (i.e. ASTM and I.P. methods) were used to determine the
properties of the jatropha oil and its blends at the Tema Oil Renery (TOR),
Tema, Ghana with the exception of the caloric values, which were determined at
the Mechanical Engineering Combustion Laboratory of the KNUST, Kumasi. The
chemical and physical properties of the jatropha oil and its blends relative to the
diesel fuel is provided alongside the TOR limit for their product specication of
diesel in Table 1.
2.3. Engine performance tests
The experimental installation used in this work presented here, consists of a
Lister model single-cylinder engine. This is an air-cooled, direct-injection, fourstroke diesel engine. A dynamometer was used to load the engine at increments of
2 kg to a maximum load of 10 kg. The reaction force and the torque were measured by means of a 100  0:5 N spring balance attached to the dynamometer
arrangement. The fuel supply system was modied by adding an additional three
way, hand operated, two-positional directional control valve which allowed rapid
switching between the diesel oil used as a standard and the test plant fuels. At each
loading, the speed of the shaft was measured using a hand held tachometer. The
fuel was fed to the injector pump under gravity and the volumetric ow rate was
measured by noting the time taken for 5 cm3 of fuel to ow through a graduated
measuring device. The relative humidity and ambient temperature were monitored

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F.K. Forson et al. / Renewable Energy 29 (2004) 11351145

Fig. 1. Flow chart of the Jatropha oil extraction process using the mechanical ram-press.

F.K. Forson et al. / Renewable Energy 29 (2004) 11351145

1139

Table 1
Chemical and physical properties of jatropha oil and its blends relative to diesel fuel
Property

Density at
v
15 C
Evaporated
v
at 360 C
Total sulphur
Colour
Flash point
Kinematic
viscosity at
v
37.8 C
Pour point
Total acid
number
Ash
Diesel index
Specic gravity
API gravity
Aniline point
Caloric value

Units

Fuel

TOR limits

0/100

50/50

80/20

97.4/2.6

100/0

kg/m

917.7

891.7

876.9

868.4

866.9

870 max.

vol%

87

83

87

85 min.

wt%

3.0
99
36.9

2.0
94
14.6

2.0
90
8.2

2.0
88
5.9

2.0
86
5.7

1.1 max.
3 max.
55 min.
6.5 max.

C
cSt

C
mg KOH/g

+6

+12

+15
0.4062

+15
0.146

+15 max.
1 max.

wt%

v
C
MJ/kg

0.918
22.7

42.048

27
0.892
27.1
38
43.099

41
0.877
29.8
58.8
44.15

50
0.869
31.4
71
45.202

49
0.867
31.7
68.1
45.90

0.1 max.
48 min.

by a hygrometer (type VAISALA). A NOVA 360T/360T portable combustion

analyser was used for monitoring the CO2, CO and O2 emissions in the exhaust gas
species sampled near the exhaust valve. Thermocouples were installed to measure
the temperature of the exhaust gas.
The diesel/jatropha oil fuel blends were tested successfully in the unmodied diesel engine. Test runs were also carried on straight (pure) jatropha oil and diesel oil
fuel in order to make comparative assessments. The engine ran well on all the fuels
except that in each case there was a need to warm up the engine slightly. The eect
of preheating of the straight jatropha oil and a blend of equal volumes of the jatropha oil and the diesel fuel on engine performance was also investigated.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Engine performance test
The following engine performance parameters were computed using standard
equations provided in:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)

Brake specic fuel consumption

Brake power
Torque
Brake thermal eciency

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Fig. 2. Brake specic fuel consumption against torque.

The results for the variation in the brake specic fuel consumption (b.s.f.c.) with
increasing torque on the engine for the various fuels are presented in Fig. 2. For all
fuels, the specic fuel consumption falls with increasing load (increasing torque on

Fig. 3. Brake thermal eciency against torque.

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1141

Fig. 4. Brake power against torque.

the engine). However, values for the 97.4% diesel to 2.6% jatropha fuel blend are
generally lower compared to the other fuels at all loads.
The brake thermal eciency (E.) plots of Fig. 3 show an increase with engine
load as the amount of the jatropha oil in the blends increases. It can be seen from
Fig. 3 that the 97.4% diesel to 2.6% jatropha fuel blend incidentally gives higher
eciencies at all loads. The diesel fuel produced the lowest thermal eciency at all
loads. The higher thermal eciency of the vegetable oil fuels may be due to their
low heat input requirement for a higher power output at a given engine load.
Fig. 4 shows the variation of brake power with increasing torque on the engine.
It can be seen that the diesel fuel yields the minimum values for the brake power at
all loads. As can be seen from Fig. 4, in general, as the jatropha oil component in
the diesel/jatropha fuel blends increases, the brake power generally increases.
However, the 97.4% diesel/2.6% jatropha fuel blend produces the maximum brake
power at all loads. It can be postulated from this observation that the 2.6% by volume of jatropha introduced into the diesel fuel enhances the performance of the
engine and therefore the jatropha oil can be used as a fuel enhancement additive
for diesel oil.
Carbon monoxide (CO) values shown in Fig. 5, become lower with increased
load on the engine. At higher loads (greater than a torque of 4 Nm on the engine)

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Fig. 5. Variation with engine torque of carbon monoxide emissions.

the carbon monoxide values are lower for the fuels for which the percentage by
volume of oil is less than 2.6%. The CO values are all below 0.035% since the operating conditions were probably lean. The higher values of oxygen compared to the
carbon dioxide values (see Figs. 6 and 7) conrm the lean-fuel combustion process
for all the fuels used.

Fig. 6. Variation with engine torque of oxygen emissions.

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1143

Fig. 7. Variation with engine torque of carbon dioxide emissions.

3.2. Physical and chemical properties

Table 1 shows that the 97.4% diesel/2.6% jatropha fuel blend has a diesel index
of 50 compared to the base diesel fuel of 49. Since the cetane number is directly
proportional to the diesel index, it can be inferred that the cetane number of the
97.4% diesel/2.6% jatropha fuel blend is higher than the diesel fuel. As the percentage by volume of the jatropha in the fuel blend increases, the diesel index decreases
suggesting that the 2.6% by volume of the jatropha in the fuel blend is perhaps the
optimum value (see Table 2). It can be hypothesised that the jatropha oil can be
used as an ignition-accelerator additive since the engine performance (in terms of
specic fuel consumption, brake power and brake thermal eciency) is optimum
for the 97.4% diesel/2.6% jatropha fuel blend.
Table 2 shows that increasing the percentage by volume of the jatropha oil in the
fuel blends leads to a reduction in the exhaust gas temperature. The reduction in
the exhaust gas temperature for the fuel blends may be attributed to the eect of
water present in the jatropha oil on the temperature in the spray region which is
two-fold: the rst is the heating up and subsequent evaporation of the extra liquid,
Table 2
Exhaust gas temperatures
v

Fuel

Temperature ( C)

100% diesel/0% jatropha

97.4% diesel/2.6% jatropha
80% diesel/20% jatropha
50% diesel/50% jatropha
0% diesel/100% jatropha

280
275
260
245
210

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F.K. Forson et al. / Renewable Energy 29 (2004) 11351145

having a higher specic-heat capacity and enthalpy of evaporation than the diesel
fuel; the second is in the increase of the water vapour, having approximately twice
the specic-heat capacity of the other gaseous products of combustion. The result
of thermal eects is the reduction of the exhaust gas temperature as we go from
pure diesel to pure jatropha oil. The lower exhaust gas temperatures will result in
the reduction of NOx formation.

4. Conclusions
An experimental investigation was conducted to explore the performance of
jatropha oil and its fuel blends with diesel in a direct-injection single-cylinder diesel
engine and the results obtained suggest the following conclusions:
1. Pure jatropha, pure diesel and blends of jatropha and diesel oil exhibited similar
performance and broadly similar emission levels under comparable operating
conditions.
2. Introduction of jatropha oil into diesel fuel appears to be eective in reducing
the exhaust gas temperatures since the jatropha oil could be considered to be
emulsied as water was introduced into the milled jatropha seed during the
extraction process.
3. The jatropha oil can be used as an ignition-accelerator additive for poor diesel
fuels when 2.6% by volume of the jatropha is introduced into pure diesel fuel.
4. The jatropha oil has substantial prospects as a long-term substitute for diesel
fuels. The 97.4% diesel/2.6% jatropha fuel blend competed favourably with diesel fuel and oers a reasonable, if not even a better, substitute for pure diesel
fuel.

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