Biodiesel is a renewable fuel derived from vegetable oils used in diesel engines, in any proportion with petroleum diesel, or pure. It is produced by chemical processes, usually by transesterification, in which the glycerin is removed. The objective of this study was to compare the performance of a four stroke, four cylinder diesel cycle engines using either olive (B100) biodiesel oil or diesel oil. The following parameters were analyzed: effective and reduced power, torque, specific and hourly fuel consumption, thermo-mechanical and volumetric efficiency. Analysis of variance was performed on a completely randomized design with treatments in factorial and the Tukey test applied at the level of 5%. Five rotation speeds were researched in four replications (650, 570, 490, 410, 320 and 240 rpm). The engine fed with biodiesel presented more satisfactory results for torque, reduced power and specific and hourly consumptions than that fed with fossil diesel.
Alternative fuel; energy efficiency; combustion engine
