Use of the Different Blends of Jatropha Curcas Biodiesel as Fuel for the Performance Evaluation of a Four-Wheel Tractor

 

Angeli Grace M. Castalone¹, Delfin C. Suministrado², Rossana Marie C. Amongo³, Romulo E. Eusebio⁴ and Ralph Kristoffer B. Gallegos⁵

 

ABSTRACT

 

This study aimed to determine the effects of using different blends of Jatropha curcas biodiesel as fuel on the performance of a four wheel tractor. Unblended (Blend 0), five percent (5%) blend (Blend 5), ten percent (10%) blend (Blend 10), and fifteen percent (15%) blend (Blend 15) of biodiesel were used during the tests. At varying speed and load, the drawbar power (DBP), specific fuel consumption (SFC), operating forward speed and wheel slippage of the tractor were measured. Response surface regression was used to analyze the response at 90% and 95% levels of confidence. Further, a multiple range test was conducted to verify the significant difference of the blends from each other. Results showed that Blend 5 has the highest DBP produced. On the average, Blend 5 has also the closest performance to the performance of the commercial diesel fuel, Blend 0. Statistical analyses also proved that for most of the test runs, there are no significant differences among the DBP generated by the different fuels. Statistical analyses further showed that for most of the tests, there are no significant differences between the SFC of the Blend 0 and the SFC of the blended biodiesel.

 

Keywords: Jatropha curcas, biodiesel, drawbar power, four-wheel tractor

¹BS Agricultural Engineering graduate, University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB); ²Professor, Agricultural Machinery Division (AMD), Institute of Agricultural Engineering (IAE), College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT), UPLB; ³Assistant Professor, AMD, IAE, CEAT, UPLB;  ⁴Engineer IV, Agricultural Machinery Testing and Evaluation Center (AMTEC), CEAT, UPLB; ⁵Assistant Professor AMD, IAE, CEAT, UPLB