Evaluation of performance parameters of the Massey Ferguson 399 tractor equipped with Dual fuel, diesel and liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG)

In this study, to investigate the tractor performance parameters, a Massey Ferguson 399 tractor was equipped with liquefied petroleum gas and diesel fuel system. The study was based on three steps: (i) equipping the tractor with dual fuel systems, (ii) evaluating on asphalt road (bitumen) and (iii) disk operations on a farm. The heavy disk plow was performed at working depth of 25 cm. The results were analyzed by factorial experiment based on randomized complete block design. The study was conducted by 5 levels of fuel combination (D100, D80, D60, D40 and D20) and a forward speed of 3.5 and 7 km/h in asphalt and 7 and 12 km/h in farm with engine speed of 1800 rpm. The highest and lowest diesel fuel consumptions were obtained at D100 and D20 treatments with 15 and 4.2 l/h, respectively and the highest and lowest LPG consumptions were obtained in the D20 and D80 combination with 7.9 and 2.4 kg/h, respectively. The drawbar power in various combinations of fuel was not changed significantly. By increasing the ratio of LPG and diesel fuel combination, specific fuel consumption was reduced from 0.4 to 0.6 l/kWh. In two farm and asphalt conditions, the best combination of fuel was obtained in D60 that showed the highest power drawbar and the lowest specific fuel consumption. In this combination, the overall energy efficiency of tractors was approximately about 20%.