Investigation on the emission quality, performance and combustion characteristics of the compression ignition engine fueled with environmental friendly corn oil methyl ester – Diesel blends S. Nagaraja a,n , K. Soorya Prakash b , R. Sudhakaran a , M. Sathish Kumar a a Department of Mechanical Engineering, SNS College of Engineering, Coimbatore 641107, India b Department of Mechanical Engineering, Anna University Regional Centre, Coimbatore 641046, India article info Article history: Received 2 December 2014 Received in revised form 16 December 2015 Accepted 26 January 2016 Keywords: Corn Oil Methyl Ester Compression Ignition Engine Performance Emission Combustion Toxicity Test Norms abstract This paper deals with emission quality of diesel engine based on eco toxicological studies with different methods of environmental standard toxicity tests satisfy the Bharath and European emission norms. Based on the emission norms, Corn Oil Methyl Ester (COME) with diesel is tested in a compression ignition engine and the performance and combustion characteristics are discussed. The corn oil was esterified and the property of corn oil methyl ester was within the limits specified in ASTM D 6751–03. The COME was blended together with diesel in different proportion percentages along with B20, B40, B60, B80, and B100. The emission and per- formance tests for various blends of COME was carried out using single cylinder, four stroke diesel engine, and compared with the performance obtained with 100% diesel (D100). The results give clear information that COME has low exhaust emissions and increase in performance compared to D100 without any modifications. It gives better performance, which is nearer to the obtained results of D100. Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC) of B100 at the full load condition is found to be 4% lower than that of (D100). The maximum Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTE) of B100 is found to be 8.5% higher than that of the D100 at full load. Also, the maximum BTE of part load for different blends is varied from 5.9% to 7.45% which is higher than D100. The exhaust gas emissions like Carbon Monoxide (CO), Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ), Hydro Carbon (HC) and Nitrogen Oxide (NO x ) are found to be 2.3 to 18.8% lower compared to D100 for part as well as full load. The heat release rate of biodiesel and it blends are found to 16% to 35% lower as compared to D100 for part load, where as for full load it is 21% lower than D100. The results showed that the test of emissions norms are well within the limits of Bharath VI and European VI and it leads to less pollution, less effect on green eco system and potential substitute to fossil fuels. & 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The aim of this research is to find out a new and renewable alternate fuel for compression ignition engine. The increasing usage of vehicles and energy needs for the industrial sector in developing countries of the world has led to a steep rise in the demand of petroleum products. Petroleum based fuels are ob- tained from limited resources. Hence, it is necessary to look for alternative fuels, which can be produced from the resources that are available within the country. From previous studies, the cost of the vegetable oil is a major drawback, to commercialization of the product (Ramadhas et al., 2004). Straight vegetable oils used in engine leads to various problems like fuel filter clocking, poor atomization and incomplete combustion due to high viscosity, high density and poor non volatility (Agarwal, 2007). In order to reduce the viscosity of the straight vegetable oil the following four techniques are adopted; namely heating/pyrolysis, dilution/ blending, micro-emulsion, and transesterification. Among all these techniques the transesterification is an extensive, convenient and most promising method for reduction of viscosity and density of the straight vegetable oils (Alptekin and Canakci, 2008). However, this adds extra cost of processing because of the transesterification reaction involving chemical and process heat inputs (Igwe, 2004). Biodiesel consists of long chain fatty acid esters derived from feed stocks such as vegetable oils, animal fats and used frying oil, etc. Oxidation of biodiesel can cause degradation of fuel quality by affecting the stability parameters (Jain and Sharma, 2010). Bio- diesel is a non-toxic, biodegradable and renewable fuel with the potential to reduce engine exhaust emissions. The main dis- advantages are higher viscosity, lower energy content, higher cloud point and pour point than diesel. An overview is given on Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoenv Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2016.01.023 0147-6513/& 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: nagarajacit@yahoo.com (S. Nagaraja), sooryaprakash.k@gmail.com (K. Soorya Prakash), absudha@yahoo.com (R. Sudhakaran), sathishmfg14@gmail.com (M. Sathish Kumar). Please cite this article as: Nagaraja, S., et al., Investigation on the emission quality, performance and combustion characteristics of the compression ignition engine fueled with environmental friendly corn oil methyl ester – Diesel blends. Ecotoxicol. Environ. Saf. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2016.01.023i Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety ∎ (∎∎∎∎) ∎∎∎–∎∎∎