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Article history:
Received 6 May 2014
Accepted 21 February 2015
Available online
Experimental investigation was carried out to study the combustion, engine performance and emission
characteristics of a single cylinder, naturally aspirated, air cooled, constant speed compression ignition
engine, fuelled with two modied fuel blends, B20 (Dieselesoybean biodiesel) and dieselesoybean
biodieseleethanol blends, with alumina as a nanoadditive (D80SBD15E4S1 alumina), and the results
are compared with those of neat diesel. The nanoadditive was mixed in the fuel blend along with a
suitable surfactant by means of an ultrasonicator, to achieve stable suspension. The properties of B20,
D80SBD15E4S1 alumina fuel blend are changed due to the mixing of soybean biodiesel and the
incorporation of the alumina nanoadditives. Some of the measured properties are compared with those
of neat diesel, and presented. The cylinder pressure during the combustion and the heat release rate, are
higher in the D80SBD15E4S1 alumina fuel blend, compared to neat diesel. Further, the exhaust gas
temperature is reduced in the case of the D80SBD15E4S1 alumina fuel blend, which shows that higher
temperature difference prevailing during the expansion stroke could be the major reason for the higher
brake thermal efciency in the case of D80SBD15E4S1 alumina fuel blend. The presence of oxygen in
the soybean biodiesel, and the better mixing capabilities of the nanoparticles, reduce the CO and UBHC
appreciably, though there is a small increase in NOx at full load condition.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Diesel engine performance
Alternative fuels
Soybean biodiesel
Alumina nanoparticle
Emission characteristics
1. Introduction
Diesel engines normally reveal higher thermal efciency in
automotive applications, due to their better fuel economy
compared to gasoline engines. On the other hand, the combustion
of diesel fuel emits more hazardous pollutants such as NOx and
particulate matter than gasoline engines. Polluted air leads to
climate changes and affects plants, animals and human health.
Moreover, conventional fossil fuels in the world are declining day
by day, due to the growth of population and the subsequent energy
utilization; and the stringent government emission standards have
driven scientists and researchers to identify suitable renewable
alternative fuels for diesel engines, for better performance and
good emission control. Most of the researchers have contributed
their efforts to reduce the emissions from the compression ignition
656
CO, CO2 and NOx were appreciably reduced with the addition of the
TiO2 nanoparticles.
Selvan et al. [28] investigated the performance and emission
characteristics of a CI engine using cerium oxide nanoparticles as an
additive, in diesel and diesel-biodiesel-ethanol blends. They
concluded that cerium oxide nanoparticle additive acts as an oxygen donating catalyst, and also provides oxygen for the oxidation of
CO or absorbs oxygen for the reduction of NOx. They revealed that
the cerium oxide additive improved the complete combustion of
the fuel, and reduced the exhaust emissions signicantly. Cerium
oxide nanoparticles exhibit high catalytic activity due to their high
surface area per unit volume, which leads to improved fuel efciency and reduction in emission.
The combustion behaviour of traditional liquid fuels with the
addition of nanoscale energetic materials as fuel additives to
enhance the performance and emissions in a diesel engine is an
interesting concept. In the present work, the combustion, engine
performance and emission characteristics of a single cylinder diesel
engine fuelled with two modied fuel blends B20 (Dieselesoybean
biodiesel), and dieselesoybean biodieseleethanol blends with
alumina as nanoadditive (D80SBD15E4S1 alumina), were tested
and the results are compared with those of neat diesel.
2. Preparation of modied fuel blend and its properties
In the present study, two types of modied fuel blends are
prepared and their performance are compared with neat diesel. The
rst blend consists of 80% diesel and 20% soybean biodiesel (B20).
The second blend consists of a mixture of 80% diesel, 15% soybean
biodiesel, 4% ethanol, and 1% isopropanol as a surfactant, and
alumina nanoparticles of 100 mg/L are used to produce the modied D80SBD15E4S1 alumina fuel blend. The commercially
available Al2O3 nanoparticles of size less than 50 nm, procured from
M/s Sigma Aldrich were used as additives in the present investigation. Its molecular weight, relative density, and surface area are
101, 96 g/mol, 4000 g/cm3, >40 m2/g respectively. Soybean biodiesel was procured from M/s Jatropha Oil Seed Development &
Research, Hyderabad, India. By using the two-step method the
modied fuel was prepared. First, 100 mg of alumina nanoparticles
were mixed in ethanol (99.9% purity) and then, mixed with the
dieselesoybean biodiesel blend. The phase separation is prevented
by the addition of isopropanol as a surfactant in the above fuel
blend. The fuel sample was transferred to the ultrasonicator to
intensively disperse the particles and to reduce their agglomeration. The two step method works well for oxide nanoparticles
[29e32]. Fig. 1 shows the TEM image of the Aluminium Oxide
Table 1
Properties of the fuel blend.
Fuel property
Diesel
Soybean
biodiesel
Diesel
Biodiesel
(B20)
D80SBD15E4S1
alumina fuel
blend
Specic gravity
Viscosity at 40 C (cSt)
Calculated Cetane Index
Caloric value MJ/kg
0.825
2.61
57
44.70
0.865
4.78
49
41.20
0.847
3.70
42
43
0.840
3.37
52
42.59
657
658
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the experimental set-up. 1) Diesel engine 2) AC generator 3) Resistive Load Bank 4) Fuel tank 5) Electronic Weighing balance 6) Air surge tank 7)
Pressure sensor 8) Crank angle encoder 9) Charge amplier 10) Exhaust gas analyser 11) Personal computer.
Table 2
Engine specications.
Make
Model
Type
Bore X Stroke (mm)
Compression ratio
Engine Capacity
Rated power
Rated Speed
Start of Injection
Kirloskar
TAF1
Four Stroke, Single Cylinder, Direct Injection,
Air cooled
87.5 X 110
17.5:1
0.661 L
4.4 kW
1500 rpm (constant speed)
23.4 bTDC
659
660
661
662
loads the vaporization of the fuel droplets in the later stage, without
participating in the combustion, could also be predicted in the case
of the B20 and D80SBD15E4S1 alumina fuel blends due to the
presence of higher UBHC in the exhaust gas.
Fig. 14 shows the percentage of CO2 emission for all the fuels
tested under different loading conditions. It is observed from the
gure that the CO2 variation is not much among the three fuels
considered. At no load condition, the B20 blend has the lowest CO2
emission, and diesel and D80SBD15E4S1 alumina fuel blend have
marginally higher CO2 emission. However, as the load increases,
this trend is gradually reverses, and at full load, the B20 blend has
2.2% higher emission compared to neat diesel, and the
D80SBD15E4S1 alumina fuel blend has 3.3% lower emission
compared to neat diesel. At full load, the presence of oxygen in the
B20 blend helps in the complete combustion, which increases the
CO2 emission than that of diesel. However, the presence of the
alumina nanoparticle changes the reaction patterns and heat
transfer rate, that reduce the CO2 percentage in the emission
though the performance is higher at full load.
5. Conclusion
In recent years, a lot of research has been made by various researchers, to use the biodiesel derived from vegetable oil in an
optimum mixing ratio with diesel, to achieve better engine performance and emission characteristics with the aim of reducing the
fossil fuel consumption. The recent pioneering advancement in
nanotechnology made the fuel researchers to search for suitable
nanoadditives as catalysts, to further improve the engine performance and also to reduce the emissions. In this direction, an
attempt is made in the present research to study the combustion,
engine performance and emission characteristics of the two
modied fuels prepared, and a comparison is made with neat
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