Effect of primary and secondary alcohols as oxygenated additives on the performance and emission characteristics of diesel engine

The demand for renewable energy sources is gradually escalating due to the spontaneously growing population and global economic development. The access to fossil fuels is gradually declining due to the limited available reserves. Hence, renewable energy resources, technology choice, and energy policy are always being revised due to the modernization of society. Meanwhile, the liquid energy sources such as methyl ester from locally produced vegetable oils are readily accepted by many countries globally, although it is currently being blended (up to 20%) with diesel. Oxides of nitrogen are the most substantial emissions from diesel engines produced due to high combustion temperature. The addition of alcohol in the fuel reduces the NOx formation since alcohols have high latent heat of evaporation. The present study's primary purpose is to investigate the effect of different alcohol types on engine performance and emission characteristics. For this purpose, seven test fuels and neat diesel were used. The test fuels P20 (20% palm biodiesel with 70% neat diesel and 10% alcohol on a volume basis), D70P20E10, D70P20Pr10, D70P20B10, D70P20Pe10, D70P20H10 were prepared and tested on a single-cylinder, 4-stroke, DI-diesel engine at different speeds at 100 % load. The P20E10 ternary fuel blend illustrated the most practical combination of all the bioethanol-based blends, which considerably improves the BTE, BSFC and reduces NOxformation at high speed compared to other types of alcoholic fuel blends. Also, the P20E10 fuel blend improved the cloud point of neat diesel

Effect of alcoholic and nano-particles additives on tribological properties of diesel–palm–sesame–biodiesel blends

This study focused on evaluating the lubricity of diesel–biodiesel fuel with oxygenated alcoholic and nano-particle additives. Fuel injection system lubrication depended primarily on the fuel used in the diesel engine. Palm–sesame oil blend was used to produce biodiesel using the ultrasound-assisted technique. B30 fuel sample as a base fuel was blended with fuel additives in different proportions prior to tribological behavior analysis. The lubricity of fuel samples measured using HFRR in accordance with the standard method ASTM D6079. All tested fuels’ Tribological behavior examined through worn steel balls and plates using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to assess wear scar diameter and surface morphology. During the test run, the friction coefficient was measured directly by the HFRR tribometer system. The results exhibited that B10 (diesel) had a very poor coefficient of friction and wear scar diameter, among other tested fuels. The addition of oxygenated alcohol (ethanol) as a fuel additive in the B30 fuel sample decreased the lubricity of fuel and increased the wear and friction coefficient, among other fuel additives. B30 with DMC showed the least wear scar diameter among all tested fuels. B30 with nanoparticle TiO2 exhibited the best results with the least wear scar diameter and lowest friction coefficient among all other fuel samples. B30+DMC demonstrated significant improvement in engine performance (BTE) and carbon emissions compared to different tested samples. B30+TiO2 also showed considerable improvement in engine characteristics

Biodiesel Production from Macro Algae as a Green Fuel for Diesel Engine

Plant oils or triglycerides are converted through the transesterification reaction with methanol and base catalyst to produce fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) or Biodiesel. Production of biodiesel from plant oil is a renewable, sustainable and alternative of petroleum based fuel. Algae oil from macroalgae has the potential to become a sustainable fuel source as biodiesel. Macroalgae are produced through photosynthesis by utilizing sunlight, carbon dioxide, water and other nutrients. The lipid contents or oil in algae, once extracted and purified, represent an excellent sustainable feedstock for biodiesel production. Three different species of macroalgae (Spirogyra, Cladophora and Gracilaria) were used for algal oil extraction in this study. The algal oil was extracted by physical and chemical extraction method. The transesterification reaction of algal oil with methanol and base catalyst was used for the production of biodiesel. In engine performance test, the algal biodiesel blends showed slight increase in specific fuel consumption but biodiesel blends showed higher brake power. The emission of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) reduced as biodiesel blend percentage increased over engine speed range

Investigation on Compatibility Property Between Aggregates and Bitumen Modified with Untreated and Treated Waste Cooking Oil

The superior performance of asphaltic concrete exhibited the good adhesion bonding between binder-aggregates interaction in bituminous mixture. However, the issue of compatibility properties in modification of binder with waste cooking oil (WCO) arises since the poor mechanical performance of asphalt mixture is globally recorded thus reflected the weakness of adhesion bonding inside the pavement material. In fact, the potential of high adhesiveness binding properties is affected by the chemical theory which is chemical composition thereby effecting to the surface microstructure arrangement in bituminous mixture. Therefore, it is vital to conduct the morphology and microstructure observation in order to obtain a comprehensive understanding on the behaviour of the internal structure in pavement material that influencing the adhesion performance. The identification of chemical composition is determined by using Gas Chromatography-Mass Selective (GC-MS). Meanwhile, the surface microstructure observation for asphalt mixture is performed with Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM). Results showed that the incompatibility characteristic is revealed based on the GC-MS result, which discovered the identification of polar compounds in control binder and treated WCO while untreated WCO is recognised as a non-polar compound. The FESEM image illustrated that the more compacted structure arrangement existed in treated WCO mixture compared to the control and untreated WCO mixtures

Tribological evaluation of refined, bleached and deodorized palm stearin using four-ball tribotester with different normal loads

The effects of the mechanical factors with applied loads on the tribological performance of refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm stearin (PS) were studied using a four-ball tribotester. All the RBD PS results were simultaneously compared with the additive-free paraffinic mineral oil (PMO). The experiments were carried out using different loads with a constant speed in order to gain a better understanding of the mechanical processes that occurred during the experiment. For each experiment, the temperature was increased to 75 °C and was run for 1 h. In a mechanical system, lubricant plays an important role in reducing wear and friction. PS exists as a semi-solid at room temperature after the fractionation process from oil palm. Due to the increasing rate of pollution to the environment, vegetable oil was chosen as the test lubricant with regard to its biodegradability. Other advantages of vegetable oil are that it is more easily harvestable and non-toxic compared to petroleum-based oil, which made it a suitable candidate. From the experiment, RBD PS is found to have a better friction constraint reduction compared with additive-free PMO

Production of palm and jatropha based biodiesel and investigation of palm-jatropha combined blend properties, performance, exhaust emission and noise in an unmodified diesel engine

An ever increasing drift of energy consumption, unequal geographical distribution of natural wealth and the quest for low carbon fuel for a cleaner environment are sparking off the production and use of biodiesels in many countries around the globe. In this work, palm biodiesel and jatropha biodiesel were produced from the respective crude vegetable oils through transesterification, and the different physicochemical properties of the produced biodiesels have been presented, and found to be acceptable according to the ASTM standard of biodiesel specification. This paper presents experimental results of the research carried out to evaluate the BSFC, engine power, exhaust and noise emission characteristics of a combined palm and jatropha blend in a single-cylinder diesel engine at different engine speeds ranging from 1400 to 2200 rpm. Though the PBJB5 and PBJB10 biodiesels showed a slightly higher BSFC than diesel fuel, all the measured emission parameters and noise emission were significantly reduced, except for NO emission. CO emissions for PBJB5 and PBJB10 were 9.53% and 20.49% lower than for diesel fuel. By contrast, HC emissions for PBJB5 and PBJB10 were 3.69% and 7.81% lower than for diesel fuel. The sound levels produced by PBJB5 and PBJB10 were also reduced by 2.5% and 5% compared with diesel fuel due to their lubricity and damping characteristics

Study on the effect of adiabatic flame temperature on NOx formation using ethanol gasoline blend in SI engine

Active research and development on using ethanol fuel in gasoline engine had been done for few decades since ethanol served as a potential of infinite fuel supply. This paper discussed analytically and provides data on the effects of compression ratio, equivalence ratio, inlet temperature, inlet pressure and ethanol blend in cylinder adiabatic flame temperature (AFT) and nitrogen oxide (NO) formation of a gasoline engine. Olikara and Borman routines were used to calculate the equilibrium products of combustion for ethanol gasoline blended fuel. The equilibrium values of each species were used to predict AFT and the NO formation of combustion chamber. The result shows that both adiabatic flame temperature and NO formation are lower for ethanol-gasoline blend than gasoline fuel

Assessment of emission and performance of compression ignition engine with varying injection timing

Engine performance improvement and exhaust emissions reduction are the two most important issues to develop a more efficient engine with less environmental impact. For a diesel engine, injection timing is one of the major parameters that affect the engine performance and emissions. Now-a-days, alternative fuels for internal combustion engines have created interest among the researchers around the world due to the limited reserve and rapid depletion of petroleum based fuels. In this paper, studies focused on characterizing influence of injection timing on engine performance and exhaust emissions have been critically reviewed where diesel, biodiesel, alcohol and other alternative fuels are used. In case of diesel fuel, advancement in injection timing results in lower carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) emission; though it increases nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission. Advance injection timing increases brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and decreases brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC). Biodiesel-diesel blends produce more HC and CO emission, but reduce NOx emission when injection timing is retarded. Advancement in injection timing results in higher exhaust gas temperature with increase of biodiesel percentage in the blends

The effect of additives on properties, performance and emission of biodiesel fuelled compression ignition engine

With growing concern over greenhouse gases there is increasing emphasis on reducing CO2 emissions. Despite engine efficiency improvements plus increased dieselization of the fleet, increasing vehicle numbers results in increasing CO2 emissions. To reserve this trend the fuel source must be changed to renewable fuels which are CO2 neutral. As a renewable, sustainable and alternative fuel for compression ignition engines, biodiesel is widely accepted as comparable fuel to diesel in diesel engines. This is due to several factors like decreasing the dependence on imported petroleum, reducing global warming, increasing lubricity, and reducing substantially the exhaust emissions from diesel engine. However, there is a major disadvantage in the use of biodiesel as it has lower heating value, higher density and higher viscosity, higher fuel consumption and higher NOx emission, which limits its application. Here fuel additives become essential and indispensable tools not only to minimize these drawbacks but also generate specified products to meet the regional and international standards. Fuel additives can contribute towards fuel economy and emission reduction either directly or indirectly. Their use enable vehicle performance to be maintained at, or near, optimum over the lifetime of the vehicle. A variety of additives are used in automotive biodiesel fuel to meet specification limits and to enhance quality. For example, metal based additives, oxygenated additives, antioxidants, cetane number improvers, lubricity improvers and cold flow improvers are used to meet specifications and quality. This article is a literature review of the effect of various additives on biodiesel properties, engine performance and exhaust emission characteristics and the corresponding effect factors were surveyed and analyzed in detail. The review concludes that the use of additive in biodiesel fuel is inalienable both for improving properties and for better engine performance and emission control. Therefore, in order to find the appropriate fuel additives in the combustion applications, more experiments are needed to explore the different related mechanisms

Combustion, performance and emission characteristics of a DI diesel engine fueled with Brassica juncea methyl ester and its blends

In this study, mustard biodiesel (B100) was produced from low quality crude mustard oil and tested in a four-cylinder, direct-injection, diesel engine to investigate the combustion, performance and emission characteristics of the engine at different engine speeds and full load conditions. Biodiesel and its blends showed increased peak cylinder pressure and reduced ignition delay when compared to diesel fuel (B0). The pre-mixed combustion phase and the start of injection timing for B100 and its blends took place earlier than B0. During engine performance tests, 10% and 20% biodiesel blends showed 4–8% higher brake specific fuel consumption and 9–13% lower brake power compared to diesel fuel. Engine emissions tests showed 9–12% higher NO, 19–42% lower HC and CO for B100 blends compared to B0. In conclusion, 10% and 20% B100 blends can be used in diesel engines without modifications