Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-020-09770-0 Investigation on the performance, emissions and combustion characteristics of CRDI engine fueled with tallow methyl ester biodiesel blends with exhaust gas recirculation P. Kanthasamy 1  · V. Arul Mozhi Selvan 1  · P. Shanmugam 2 Received: 1 November 2019 / Accepted: 29 April 2020 © Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2020 Abstract This paper demonstrates the study of performance, combustion and emission characteristics of a common rail diesel injec- tion (CRDI) engine with the infuence of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) (5, 15 and 25%) at various fuel injection pressures (400, 500 and 600 bar) under the efective load conditions (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100%). The experiments were carried out in a controlled manner using the CRDI engine fuelled with 80% (D80) diesel (98% purity) blended with 20% (B20) tallow biodiesel. The engine has been operated at a rated speed of 1500 rpm on all load conditions, fuel injection timings of 10°, 15° and 20° bTDC, fuel injection pressures of 400, 500 and 600 bar, respectively. Combustion-infuenced performance characteristics such as variation of in-cylinder pressure and net heat release rate in J deg −1 are also studied with the above operating conditions. It was observed that the usage of 20% biofuel blend shows considerable improvement in combustion, and it further enhances with an increase in the injection pressures. Besides, EGR (up to 25%) reduced signifcant pollutants at higher operating pressures (600 bar) at higher load conditions. It was also observed that CO 2 emission increased with increase in the % EGR with an increase in the load conditions. However, for CO emission increased up to 50% load condi- tion and subsequently tends to decrease due to improved combustion at higher load; hence higher temperature. NO x , smoke opacity continue to increase with the increase in pressure and the percentage increase in EGR due to its attainment of adi- abatic temperature, which leads to the pathway for the Zeldovich mechanism. The present work shows light on the usage of tallow methyl ester produced from the wastes in the tannery industry as alternate biofuel operating the CRDI engines without compromising its combustion and emission characteristics to deliver the same power as petro-diesel. Keywords Combustion · CRDI engine · EGR · Emissions · Fuel injection pressure List of symbols BSEC Brake-specifc energy consumption BSFC Brake-specifc fuel consumption bTDC Before top dead centre BTE Brake thermal efciency CO Carbon monoxide HC Hydrocarbon NHRR Net heat release rate NO x Oxides of nitrogen PM Particulate matter UBHC Unburned hydrocarbon Introduction An increase in fossil fuel usage and the environmental impact necessitate us to search for emerging alternative fuels. Diesel is commercially used in the applications such as transportation, agriculture, industrial and domestic sec- tors for mechanical and electricity generation in large scales [1]. The generation of pollution continues to raise the global temperature, thereby meltdown Antarctic ice sheet [2]. Great efort has been made to produce bio-origin fuel and use with the commercial diesel in various direct injection die- sel engines (DI), and superfcially nowadays being tested in CRDI engines. Yilmaz et al. [3] investigated biodiesel–die- sel–ethanol blends with 3, 5, 15 and 25% of ethanol content * V. Arul Mozhi Selvan arulmozhi@nitt.edu 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India 2 Department of Environmental Engineering, CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, India