.

In this study the engine performance evaluation of synthesized and characterized rubber seed oil biodiesel was
carried out at varying engine speeds and different biodiesel blend levels using a four-cylinder, four-stroke Gardner
diesel engine rated at 55.93 KW and 435Nm. The engine was operated on pure rubber seed oil biodiesel, biodiesel
blends B10, B20, B30 and B40 with baseline diesel fuel as control. Experimental results showed that the brake torque
decreased with increasing engine speed and biodiesel blend percentage while the power produced from the biodiesel
blends was less than that produced from the diesel fuel. The power produced decreased as the biodiesel blend
concentration increases. The maximum power for the biodiesel blended fuels are 55.14kW, 54 31kW, 54.48kW,
53.15kW, 51.17kW and 48.52kW corresponding to B0, B10, B20, B30, B40 and B100 respectively. The break mean
effective pressure increased slightly with increasing engine speed and then sharply decreases with increasing engine
speed and biodiesel blend concentration. The brake specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency
increased with increasing engine speed and increasing biodiesel blend concentration. The results of this
investigation can be used for partial replacement of diesel fuel using low concentration of biodiesel (maximum 30%)
produced from rubber seed oil thereby reducing the dependence on petroleum- based diesel fuel.