Fuel 130 (2014) 160167

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Fuel
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel

Effect of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles and Carbon Nanotubes as

fuel-borne additives in Diesterol blends on the performance, combustion
and emission characteristics of a variable compression ratio engine
V. Arul Mozhi Selvan , R.B. Anand, M. Udayakumar
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India

h i g h l i g h t s
 Biodiesel acts as bridging agent in Diesterol fuel blend.
 Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles and Carbon Nanotubes are used as fuel borne catalysts.
 Nanoparticles in Diesterol signicantly improves engine performance & reduce smoke.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 24 January 2011
Received in revised form 9 April 2014
Accepted 10 April 2014
Available online 26 April 2014
Keywords:
Diesterol blends
Fuel-borne nanoparticles additive
Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles
Carbon Nanotubes
Exhaust emission

a b s t r a c t
An experimental investigation is carried out to establish the performance, combustion and emission characteristics of a variable compression ratio engine using Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles and Carbon Nanotubes as fuel-borne nanoparticles additives in Diesterol (dieselbiodieselethanol) blends. As Diesel
and Ethanol are immiscible, Castor oil biodiesel is used as an additive which acts as a bridging agent
to prevent the phase separation. Stability studies are carried out using Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles
(CERIA) and Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) each 25, 50, 100 ppm in the Diesterol blends subjected to high
speed mechanical agitation followed by ultrasonic bath stabilization. It is observed that the blends are
stable which are suitable for performance test on the compression ignition engine. Studies on the performance, combustion and emission characteristics are carried out on a variable compression ratio engine
using the stable DiesterolCERIACNT blends under various loading conditions at an optimum compression ratio of 19:1 to estimate the emission reduction potential of CERIA and CNT as catalyst in Diesterol
blends. The addition of CERIA and CNT in Diesterol blend increases the cylinder gas pressure when comparing with the neat Diesterol blends. The Carbon Nanotubes act as a catalyst to accelerate the burning
rate which results in decreased ignition delay and cause for the lower heat release rate and advancement
of the peak heat release rate. The Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles act as an oxygen donating catalyst which
provides oxygen for the oxidation of carbon monoxide and absorbs oxygen for the reduction of nitrogen
oxides. The activation energy of Cerium Oxide acts to burn off carbon deposits within the engine cylinder
at the wall temperature and helps to prevent the deposition of non-polar compounds on the cylinder wall
resulted in signicant reduction of hydrocarbon and smoke emissions. The combined effect of CERIA and
CNT as fuel-borne nanoparticles additives in the Diesterol fuel blend contributes for the cleaner combustion and signicantly reduces the harmful exhaust gas emissions.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The growing need to reduce the environmental impact of the
modern life style imposes a continuous development of novel technologies aimed at severe reduction of pollutant emissions. Diesterol
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9894920835; fax: +91 4312500133.
E-mail addresses: arulmozhi@nitt.edu (V. Arul Mozhi Selvan), rbanand@nitt.edu
(R.B. Anand), muday@nitt.edu (M. Udayakumar).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.04.034
0016-2361/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

blends are formulated in the recent years, which not only serve for
the utilization of ethanol in CI engines, also to reduce the harmful
pollutant emissions when comparing with the neat diesel [1]. In
view of utilizing ethanol in compression ignition engines, Lapuerta
et al. [2] studied the stability of the dieselbiodieselethanol blends
at different temperatures and found that the biodiesel acts as a stabilizer component in the e-diesel blends except at low temperatures, where it favors the formation of a gelatinous phase. The
engine performance test results with dieselbiodieselethanol

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V. Arul Mozhi Selvan et al. / Fuel 130 (2014) 160167

Nomenclature
CERIA
Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles
CI
Compression Ignition
CNT
Carbon Nanotubes
D+CNT 25 Diesel+ 25 ppm of Carbon Nanotubes
D+CERIA 25 Diesel+ 25 ppm of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles
E20
70% Diesel+ 10% Biodiesel+ 20% Ethanol (D70B10E20)

blend showed increased hydrocarbon emission with increase in

ethanol concentration and a signicant reduction in smoke and particulate emissions when compared with the neat diesel. Park et al.
[3] investigated the mixing stability, fuel properties and spray
atomization characteristics of dieselbiodieselethanol blends.
They found that the biodiesel prevents phase separation of ethanoldiesel blend and the higher ethanol blends induces decrease
in droplet size distribution of the fuel blends. Lapuerta et al. [4]
studied the lubricity of ethanolbiodieseldiesel fuel blends using
a high frequency reciprocating test rig at different temperatures
and found that the incorporation of ethanol did not result in significant losses of lubricity until the ethanol concentration close to
100%. Also the increasing temperature of the blend led to improved
lubricities as a consequence of the ethanol evaporation from the
lubricating layer. Hadi et al. [5] conducted experiments to found a
suitable low cost and renewable additive for the ethanoldiesel
blend and formulated Diesterol, a mixture of fossil diesel fuel, vegetable oil methyl ester and plant derived ethanol to reduce the
engine exhaust emissions. It was observed that the emissions such
as nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxides, hydrocarbon and smoke
were reduced by increasing the bio-fuel composition of Diesterol
throughout the engine operating range. The variable compression
ratio engine technology is capable of handling any fuel with wide
range of fuel properties. Arul Mozhi Selvan et al. [69] carried out
experimental investigations to study the performance, combustion
and emission characteristics of Diesterol fuel blend and compared
with the neat diesel in a direct injection compression ignition
engine under the compression ratios of 15:1, 17:1 and 19:1 at a
constant speed of 1500 r/min. They found that the biodiesel can
be reliably used as an additive in dieselethanol blends to improve
the blend stability, fuel economy and lesser emissions.
Among the various techniques available to reduce the harmful
exhaust gas emissions, the use of fuel-borne catalysts are currently
focused due to the advantage of fuel efciency while reducing the
harmful greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen oxides and particulate
matter. The Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles act as a catalyst in the
reduction of toxic gases on the combustion of hydrocarbon fuel
and improves the fuel economy. The amount of oxygen reversibly
provided in and removed from the gas phase is called Oxygen Storage Capacity (OSC) of CERIA and the presence of CERIA in the fuel
helps to regenerate a diesel particulate lter at lower temperatures
[10]. Heejung et al. [11] studied the inuence of Cerium Oxide
additive on ultrane diesel particle emissions and kinetics of
oxidation. They found that the addition of CERIA to diesel causes
signicant reduction in number weighted size distributions and
light-off temperature and an increase in the oxidation rate as
observed by Nubia et al. [12]. The studies on the complexity of
the ethanol reactions on the surfaces of noble metals/Cerium Oxide
catalysts revealed that the Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles can be used
as a fuel-borne additive in the hydrocarbon liquid fuels to promote
complete combustion and to reduce the exhaust emissions significantly [13]. Arianna et al. [14] investigated the potential of emission reduction of an experimental 6% W/D emulsion with EURO-3
LD diesel vehicles in comparison to a commercial 12% W/D

PAH
PM
W/D
XRD

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Particulate Matter
Water + Diesel
X-ray Diffraction

emulsion with a EURO-3 HD engine with a Cerium based additive

and found a signicant reduction in PM and the associated PAH.
Sajith et al. [15] conducted an experimental investigation to nd
the inuence of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles on the major physico-chemical properties and the performance of a CI engine with
the dosing levels from 20 to 80 ppm in biodiesel. They found that
the addition of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles increase the ash point
and kinematic viscosity of the biodiesel. In addition, they observed
a signicant improvement in engine efciency and reduction of
hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxides emissions by 40% and 30%
respectively. The Cerium Oxide acts as an oxygen donating catalyst
and provides oxygen for the oxidation of carbon monoxide and
absorbs oxygen for the reduction of nitrogen oxides. The activation
energy of Cerium Oxide acts to burn-off the carbon deposits within
the engine cylinder at the wall temperature and prevents the deposition of non-polar compounds on the cylinder wall which resulting in the reduction of hydrocarbon emissions. The key to use
CERIA for catalytic purpose is the low redox potential between
the Ce3+ and Ce4+ ions (1.7 V) that allows the following reaction
to easily occur in the exhaust gases.

2CeO2 $ Ce2 O3 1=2O2

Hydrocarbon combustion:

2x yCeO2 CxHy !


2x y
x
y
Ce2 O3 CO2 H2 O
2
2
2

Soot burning:

4CeO2 Csoot ! 2Ce2 O3 CO2

Cerous oxide (Ce2O3) formed from the oxidation of hydrocarbon

gets re-oxidized to Cerium Oxide (CeO2) through the reduction of
nitrogen oxide.

Ce2 O3 NO ! 2CeO2 1=2N2

The most eye-catching features of the Carbon Nanotubes are

their electronic, mechanical, optical and chemical characteristics,
which opened a way to the future applications. In the present
work, the Carbon Nanotubes are used as a fuel-borne additive to
enhance the combustion characteristics of the fuel and to reduce
the level of harmful pollutants in the exhaust emissions. The Carbon Nanotubes have the ability to trap the free radicals and the
carbon brils can function as an anti-knock additive. The carbon
brils can be used as sequestering agents for tramp metals/tramp
ions present in the engine fuel to reduce the formation of insoluble
complexes, results in fewer insoluble impurities. Also, the addition
of Carbon Nanotubes in diesel increases the cetane number of the
blend and acts as a catalyst to accelerate the burning rate [16]. As
the diesel soot can be recycled as a carbon source for synthesizing
of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes (SWNTs) through the laser
vaporization technique, the SWNTs produced in this way provide
economic benets and also contribute to a cleaner environment
[17].
The compression ignition engine can be fuelled with the
maximum of 20% Ethanol for producing better performance and

V. Arul Mozhi Selvan et al. / Fuel 130 (2014) 160167

emission without making any engine modications. As ethanol and

diesel are immiscible, 10% Biodiesel is used an additive in the formation of the E20 called Diesterol fuel blend which contains 70%
Diesel. Taking an initiative from the earlier studies, the present
investigation is aimed to combine the emission reduction potential
of CERIA and CNT as fuel borne additives and to study its effect on
the Diesterol blend, an alternate fuel have the advantages of diesel,
ethanol and biodiesel on the operating characteristics of a variable
compression ratio engine.
2. Experimental setup and procedure

1200
Cerium Oxide
(1 1 1)

1000

Relative Intensity (a.u)

162

800

600
(2 2 0)
(3 1 1)

400
(4 2 0)

(2 0 0)

200

The nanoparticles blended Diesterol fuels are prepared for carrying out experiments in the variable compression ratio engine.
The Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles (CERIA) and Carbon Nanotubes
(CNT) of each 25, 50 and 100 ppm concentrations are added with
Diesterol fuel blends and mechanically agitated to prepare the
homogeneous fuel blend. The Diesterol nanoparticles blends are
kept in an ultrasonic bath for half an hour to improve the stability
of the fuel blend. The turbidity procedure is used to assess the stability of the resulting suspension. The properties of the stable dieselbiodieselethanol fuel blends are determined as per ASTM
standards and presented in Table 1. The CERIA and CNT are subjected to X-ray Diffraction (XRD) tests and the results on the variations of relative density with respect to 2-theta are shown in
Figs. 1 and 2 respectively. The data obtained from the XRD are analyzed by using the Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards (JCPDS) database and the XRD tests conrmed the purity of
the Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles and the size of the Cerium Oxide
Nanoparticles is determined as 32 nm using the Scherrer formula.

Kk
b cos h

(3 3 1)

(2 2 2)

(4 0 0)

0
20

40

60

80

2Theta (Degree)
Fig. 1a. Variations of relative density with 2 theta for Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles.

where s is the mean size of the ordered domains, K is the shape factor, k is the X-ray wavelength, b is the line broadening at half the
maximum intensity in radians and h is the Bragg angle. The dimensional shape factor has a typical value of about 0.9. Photographic
images of CERIA and CNT are obtained using the Scanning Electron
Microscope (SEM) and the Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM)
to study their morphology is shown in Figs. 1(b) and 2(b) respectively. The TEM image of the Carbon Nanotubes conrmed the
CNT as a single walled Carbon Nanotube.
Diesel supplied by M/s Indian Oil Corporation Limited through
the commercial outlet dealer at Tiruchirappalli, India, Ethanol supplied by M/s Changshu Yangyuan Chemical, China, with 99.9% purity and Castor oil purchased from a commercial oil shop in
Tiruchirappalli, India are used for preparing Castor oil methyl ester
(Biodiesel) through transesterication process at the institutes
fuels laboratory. Diesterol fuel blends are prepared by varying
the concentration of the Diesel, Biodiesel and Ethanol. As Diesel
and Ethanol are immiscible, Castor oil biodiesel is used as an additive which acts as a bridging agent to prevent the phase separation.
It is observed that the stability of the blend is achieved without

Fig. 1b. SEM image of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles.

phase separation for a period of more than a month; hence, the

blended fuel can be used reliably for the engine tests. Experiments
are conducted to determine the fuel properties of the dieselbiodieselethanol blends by adopting ASTM test standards and the
results are presented in Table 1.
Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles (CERIA) and Carbon Nanotubes
(CNT) each 25, 50, 100 ppm are added in the Diesterol (E20) fuel
blends to study the effect of fuel borne nanoparticles on the emission reduction potential and the performance enhancement of
Diesterol fuel blend for compression ignition engines. The NanoDiesterol blends are subjected to high speed mechanical agitation
followed by ultrasonic bath stabilization to prepare the stable
homogeneous blend. The stable Nano-Diesterol blends
(E20 + CERIA 25 + CNT 25, E20 + CERIA 50 + CNT 50, E20 + CERIA
100 + CNT 100) are used for experimental investigations and

Table 1
Properties of dieselbiodieselethanol fuel blends.
Properties

Diesel

Biodiesel

Ethanol

E20

ASTM standards

Kinematic viscosity @ 40 C, (mm2/s)

Density @ 15 C, (kg/m3)
Flash point, (C)
Fire point, (C)
Pour point, (C)
Copper strip corrosion
Cetane number
Caloric value, (MJ/kg)

2
830
50
56
6

46
42.30

5.98
893
88
106
7
1
55.4
38.71

1.1314
790
13.5

117.3

6
25.18

2.35
827
11
14
14
1
45.25
40.10

ASTM
ASTM
ASTM
ASTM
ASTM
ASTM
ASTM
ASTM

D445
D1298
D93
D93
D5985-02
D130
D 613
D240

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V. Arul Mozhi Selvan et al. / Fuel 130 (2014) 160167

14000

(0 0 2)
Carbon Nanotubes

Relative Intensity (a.u)

12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
(1 0 0)

(1 1 0)

(0 0 4)

0
20

40

60

80

2Theta (Degree)
Fig. 2a. Variation of relative density with 2 theta for Carbon Nanotubes.

measurement of the load. The Kistler piezoelectric pressure transducer is used to measure the in-cylinder pressure and a Kistler
crank angle encoder is used to measure the crank angle. The air,
water and exhaust gas temperatures are measured using K type
thermocouple and the fuel ow rate is measured using an infrared
optical sensor. Air intake for the engine was measured with pressure change across the orice plate. All the signals collected from
the sensors are given as input to the data acquisition system
through a signal conditioning unit and DICI-V5.73 software is used
to analyze and recorded data.
To eliminate cyclecycle variation, cylinder pressure data of
more than 50 consecutive cycles were collected and averaged for
proper estimation of cylinder pressure data for heat release analysis as the heat release calculations rely on accuracy the in cylinder
pressure data.
The heat release of the system is determined by the following
Eqs. (6) and (7) as reported by Arul et al. [6].

dQ hr
c dV
1
dP dQ hr

c  1 dh c  1 dh dh
dh

Here, Qhr, Qht, P, V, c, and h denote heat release energy, heat

transfer energy, cylinder gas pressure, cylinder volume, ratio of
specic heats, and crank angle, respectively. The rst and second
term represent the change in sensible energy from the chemical
conversion during combustion and associated work imparted on
the piston due to the change in pressure. The third term relates
the energy loss due to heat transfer effects to the cylinder wall;
commonly modeled as a convection term. Integrating the above
equation between the ignition crank angle (IGN) and exhaust valve
open time (EVO) provides the heat release rate for the entire combustion period. The determination of the ratio of specic heats is of
signicant importance for an accurate heat release rate. The
parameters strong dependency on temperature can be modeled,
with considerable accuracy, as a linear relationship.
Fig. 2b. TEM image of single walled Carbon Nanotube.

cT a bT

7
5

compared with E20 blend to establish the performance, combustion and emission characteristics of the Nano-Diesterol blend on
a variable compression ratio engine. The specication of the test
engine is shown in Table 2 and the schematic diagram of the experimental setup is shown in the Fig. 3. The experimental setup consists of a single cylinder, four stroke, naturally aspirated, watercooled, Constant speed Direct Injection Diesel Engine coupled with
an eddy current dynamometer used by Arul et al. [6] in the previous experimentation is used in the present investigation. The
engine is set to the compression ratio of 19:1 and run at a constant
speed of 1500 r/min under various loading conditions with the
brake mean effect pressure of 00.55 MPa which is from 0% to
100% load conditions. The engine is loaded using an eddy current
dynamometer and a strain gauge type load cell is used for the

Table 2
Specication of the engine.
Rated power
Engine speed
Compression ratio
Bore
Stroke
Ignition
Type of fuel injection
Fuel injection timing
Fuel injection pressure
Cooling
Loading system

3.7 kW
1500 r/min (Constant)
5:120:1(Variable)
80 mm
110 mm
Compression ignition
Direct injection
23 BTDC
20 MPa
Water cooled
Eddy current dynamometer

where a and b are chosen to be 1.392 and 8.14  10 with T in

Kelvin.
The exhaust gas emissions such as CO, HC and NO are measured
by AVL Five gas analyzer and the Smoke is measured using the AVL
Smoke meter. All the experiments are conducted and the corresponding readings are recorded after reaching the steady state conditions. The uncertainty analysis of the experimental data has been
performed based on the procedures suggested by Kline [18], Moffat
et al. [19] and Holman [20] and the estimated uncertainty for the
measured and the evaluated quantities are shown in Table 3.
3. Results and discussion
The proceeding section illustrate the results of the experimental
investigation on the performance, combustion and emission characteristics of a compression ignition engine using Diesterol + CERIA + CNT blends of varying Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles
and Carbon Nanotubes concentrations of each 25, 50 and
100 ppm in the Diesterol (D70B10E20) blends.
3.1. Performance characteristics of DiesterolCERIACNT blends
The variations of specic fuel consumption with brake mean
effective pressure is shown in Fig. 4. The economic load of the
engine is identied as 0.44 MPa for the corresponding least specic
fuel consumption. It is observed that the specic fuel consumption
decreases with the increase in brake mean effective pressure up to
0.44 MPa and then increases with the further addition of loads. The
addition of CERIA and CNT decreases the specic fuel consumption

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V. Arul Mozhi Selvan et al. / Fuel 130 (2014) 160167

10

2
11
12
3

13

4
14

5
6

15

16

1. Fuel tank inlet

2. Fuel flow sensors

3. Control Panel

4. VCR Engine

5. Pressure Sensor

6. Crank angle encoder

7. Speed sensor

8. Air flow sensor

9. Exhaust gas line

10.Computer

11.Data capture card

12.Gas Analyzer

13.Fuel line

14.Gas calorimeter

15.Load Sensor

16.Eddy current dynamometer

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup.

Table 3
Estimated uncertainty for the measured and evaluated quantities.
Quantity

Estimated uncertainty

Speed, (r/min)
Brake mean effective pressure (MPa)
Brake thermal efciency, (%)
Fuel injection pressure, (MPa)
Cylinder pressure, (bar)
Crank angle encoder (Degree)
Fuel injection start angle, (Crank
angle degree)
Carbon monoxide, (vol%)
Hydrocarbon, (ppm)

0.5%
1.0%
1.5%
1.0%
1.0%
1
0.5 CA

Nitrogen oxide, (ppm)

Smoke absorption coefcient, (m1)

0.01%
1 ppm for <2000 ppm, 10 ppm for
>2000 ppm
1 ppm vol
0.01 m1

when compared to the E20 blend as the addition of CERIA and CNT
enhances the combustion. The lowest specic fuel consumption is
identied as 0.36 kg/kWh for the fuel blend E20 + CERIA 100 + CNT
100, whereas for the E20 blend it is 0.39 kg/kWh at the same bmep
of 0.44 MPa. The CERIA acts as a catalyst and provides oxygen for
the combustion, while the Carbon Nanotubes accelerates the combustion and the combined effect of these nanoparticles additive
cause for the improvement in fuel economy and thereby increase
in the brake thermal efciency. The brake thermal efciency for

the E20 + CERIA 100 + CNT 100 blend is observed as 25.5%, whereas
it is 23.6% for the E20 blend as shown in Fig. 5. However, the addition of CNT increases the specic fuel consumption to 4.6% when
comparing with the CERIA and CNT in E20 blends; hence the use
of CNT in E20 blend becomes undesirable.
3.2. Combustion characteristics of DiesterolCERIACNT blends
The variation of cylinder gas pressure with the crank angle for
the Diesterol + CERIA + CNT blend is shown in Fig. 6. The peak pressure for the Diesterol + CERIA + CNT blend is higher than that of the
E20 blend due to the addition of CERIA and CNT, which accelerates
the complete combustion and cause for the higher cylinder gas
pressure. However, the variation between the CERIA and CNT concentrations of each 25, 50 and 100 ppm is marginal. The peak pressure for the E20 + CERIA 50 + CNT 50 is found as 10.7 MPa at the
crank angle of 367, whereas for the E20 blend it is 7.9 MPa at
the crank angle of 377. It is observed that the occurrence of peak
pressure is advanced with the addition of CERIA and CNT in E20
blend due to the shorter ignition delay due to the addition of
CNT which accelerates the combustion and the addition of CERIA,
which supplies oxygen and promotes the complete combustion.
The addition of CERIA and CNT in E20 blend advances the occurrence of the peak heat release rate when comparing with the E20
blend and the variation of heat release rate with the crank angle

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V. Arul Mozhi Selvan et al. / Fuel 130 (2014) 160167

Engine Load (%)

0

20

40

60

80

100

Specific fuel consumption (kg/kWh)

0.9
E20
E20+CERIA 25+CNT 25
E20+CERIA 50+CNT 50
E20+CERIA 100+CNT 100

0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

bmep (MPa)

for the Diesterol + CERIA + CNT blend is shown in Fig. 7. The heat
release rate is negative at the start of combustion for all the biodiesel blends and neat diesel. This is due to the vaporization of the fuel
accumulated in the ignition delay period. The fuel has taken the
heat form the combustion chamber walls to vaporize the fuel
and the hot air in the compression process. After the ignition starts,
the rate of heat release increases rapidly and reaches to the maximum value. When the ignition delay is more, the quantity of the
fuel accumulated in the combustion chamber is also more and
cause for the rapid burning in the premixed combustion process.
The heat release rate calculation adopted by the same author Arul
Mozhi Selvan et al. [6] is used in this present investigation. The
addition of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles and Carbon Nanotubes
decreases the ignition delay and accelerates earlier initiation of
combustion, which results in the lower heat release rate and
advancement of the peak heat release rate. The maximum heat
release rate is observed as 67 J/CA at the crank angle of 370 for
the E20 + CERIA 25 + CNT 25 blend, whereas it is 85 J/CA at the
crank angle of 376 for the E20 blend.

Fig. 4. Variation of specic fuel consumption with brake mean effective pressure
for DiesterolCERIACNT Blends.

3.3. Emission characteristics of DiesterolCERIACNT blends

Engine Load (%)

0

20

40

60

80

100

Brake thermal efficiency (%)

30

25

20

15

10
E20
E20+CERIA 25+CNT 25
E20+CERIA 50+CNT 50
E20+CERIA 100+CNT 100

0
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

bmep (MPa)
Fig. 5. Variation of Brake Thermal Efciency with brake mean effective pressure for
DiesterolCERIACNT Blends.

The variation of nitrogen oxide with respect to the brake mean

effective pressure for the Diesterol + CERIA + CNT blend is shown in
Fig. 8. It is observed that the lower concentrations of CERIA and
CNT in the fuel blend increase the nitrogen oxide emissions and
the higher concentrations decrease the nitrogen oxide emission.
The lowest nitrogen oxide emission is observed as 283 ppm for
the E20 + CERIA 50 + CNT 50 blend and it is 308 ppm for the
E20 + CERIA 25 + CNT 25 blend under the bmep of 0.44 MPa. The
nitrogen oxide emission increases with increase in loads due to
the increase in cylinder gas temperature. Also, the addition of
CERIA and CNT enhances the combustion and causes an increase
in the cylinder gas pressure and the corresponding temperature
which subsequently increases the nitrogen oxide emission by Zeldovich mechanism. The addition of CERIA (50 ppm) in E20 blend
decreases the nitrogen oxide emission to 9.8% when comparing
with E20 blend.
Smoke absorption coefcient (K) is the number, which gives an
indication about exhaust emission density. The black smoke emission resulting from combustion of Diesterol + CERIA + CNT (E20)
blends is shown in Fig. 9. It is observed that the increasing load
produces higher smoke for the E20 blend, whereas the smoke
decreases with the addition of CERIA and CNT in the E20 blend.

12

120
E20
E20+CERIA 25+CNT 25
E20+CERIA 50+CNT 50
E20+CERIA 100+CNT 100

E20
E20+CERIA 25+CNT 25
E20+CERIA 50+CNT 50
E20+CERIA 100+CNT 100

100

Heat release rate (J/CA)

Pressure (MPa)

10
8
6
4

80
60
40
20
0
-20

-40
0

-60
-40

-20

20

40

60

80

100

Crank angle (Degree)

Fig. 6. Variation of cylinder gas pressure with crank angle for DiesterolCERIACNT
Blends.

-20

20

40

60

80

Crank angle (Degree)

Fig. 7. Variation of heat release rate with crank angle for DiesterolCERIACNT
Blends.

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V. Arul Mozhi Selvan et al. / Fuel 130 (2014) 160167

Engine Load (%)

Engine Load (%)

0

20

40

60

80

100

400

20

E20
E20+CERIA 25+CNT 25
E20+CERIA 50+CNT 50
E20+CERIA 100+CNT100

350
300

2.5

60

80

100

E20
E20+CERIA 25+CNT25
E20+CERIA 50+CNT50
E20+CERIA 100+CNT100

2.0
250

CO (%)

NO (ppm)

40

3.0

200

1.5
1.0

150

0.5

100
50

0.0
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.0

0.1

bmep (MPa)

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

bmep (MPa)

Fig. 8. Variation of nitrogen oxide with brake mean effective pressure for Diesterol
CERIACNT Blends.

Fig. 10. Variation of carbon monoxide with brake mean effective pressure for
DiesterolCERIACNT Blends.

The addition of CERIA and CNT in E20 blend decreases the smoke at
higher loads (more than 0.44 MPa) as the CERIA enhances the combustion and CNT suppress the soot; and at lower loads, the smoke
emissions are found higher. This may be due to the higher temperature of the in-cylinder burned/unburned mass that causes for the
activation of reaction with the fuel-borne nanoparticle additives
for the reduction of smoke. The lowest smoke absorption coefcient is observed as 1.2 for the E20 + CERIA 50 + CNT 50 blend;
whereas it is 2.3 for the E20 blend. The use of CERIA and CNT of
each 50 ppm concentrations in Diesterol (E20) blend decreases
the smoke absorption coefcient to 47.6% at the bmep of
0.44 MPa when comparing with the E20 blend.
The variation of carbon monoxide emission on volumetric basis
with respect to brake mean effective pressure for the Diesterol + CERIA + CNT blends is shown in Fig. 10. The percentage of carbon monoxide emission increases as the engine load increases. The
variation of CO emission is marginal up to the brake mean effective
pressure of 0.33 MPa and increases rapidly with the further addition of loads. At the full load, rich combustion invariably produces
higher CO emissions. The variation of the carbon monoxide

emission for the E20 blend and E20 + CERIA + CNT blend is marginal at the lower loads up to 0.33 MPa and increases with increasing the load. At the higher loads, higher carbon monoxide emission
is observed with the CERIA and CNT blended E20 fuel when comparing with the E20 fuel blend. However, among the E20 fuel
blends with CERIA and CNT, the blend E20 + CERIA 50 + CNT 50
produces lesser carbon monoxide emission (0.54%) and the lowest
carbon monoxide emission of 0.42% is observed for the E20 blend.
When there is not enough oxygen to convert all carbon into CO2,
some fuels does not get burned and some carbon ends up as carbon
monoxide. Also the poor mixing, local rich regions and incomplete
combustion will also be the source for CO emissions. A thick
quench layer created by the cooling effect of vaporizing alcohol
also play a major role on CO emission at part loads.
The variation of hydrocarbon emission with the brake mean
effective pressure for the Diesterol + CERIA + CNT blends is shown
in Fig. 11. The addition of CERIA and CNT in E20 blend reduces
the hydrocarbon emissions as the addition of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles and Carbon Nanotubes enhances the combustion and
cause for the hydrocarbon emission reduction [5,6]. The addition

Engine Load (%)

0

20

40

60

80

Engine Load (%)

100
0

20

40

60

80

100

220
8

E20
E20+CERIA 25+CNT 25
E20+CERIA 50+CNT 50
E20+CERIA 100+CNT100

200

E20
E20+CERIA 25+CNT 25
E20+CERIA 50+CNT 50
E20+CERIA 100+CNT 100

180
160

HC (ppm)

Smoke Absorption Coefficient (m-1)

10

140
120
100
80

60
40

0
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

bmep (MPa)
Fig. 9. Variation of Smoke absorption coefcient with brake mean effective
pressure for DiesterolCERIACNT Blends.

20
0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

bmep (MPa)
Fig. 11. Variation of hydrocarbon with brake mean effective pressure for Diesterol
CERIACNT Blends.

V. Arul Mozhi Selvan et al. / Fuel 130 (2014) 160167

of 50 ppm of CERIA in E20 blend reduces the hydrocarbon emission

to 39.2%, whereas the addition of CERIA and CNT each 50 ppm in
E20 blend decrease the hydrocarbon emission only 7.2%. The addition of CERIA and CNT each up to 50 ppm in E20 blend reduces the
hydrocarbon emission and the further addition of nanoparticles
increases the hydrocarbon emission as the fuel is contaminated
by the nanoparticles. The lowest hydrocarbon emission is observed
as 166 ppm for the E20 + CERIA 50 + CNT 50 blend, whereas it is
176 ppm for the E20 blend at the bmep of 0.44 MPa.
4. Conclusion
The performance, combustion and emission characteristics of a
VCR under various concentrations of CERIACNT in Diesterol fuel
blends are investigated to understand the effects of Carbon Nanotubes and Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles as a fuel-borne nanoparticle
additives in dieselbiodieselethanol blend. Based on the experimental investigations, the following major conclusions are arrived.
1. The brake thermal efciency increases with the addition of
CERIA and CNT in Diesterol blend to 7.5% when comparing with
the Diesterol blend (E20).
2. The addition of CERIA and CNT in Diesterol blend increase the
cylinder gas pressure and advances the occurrence of peak pressure as the addition of CERIA and CNT accelerates the combustion. However, the variation between the fuel blends with the
CERIA and CNT concentrations of 25, 50 and 100 ppm is
marginal.
3. The addition of CERIA and CNT in the Diesterol blend advances
the occurrence of the peak heat release rate when comparing
with the Diesterol blends. The addition of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles and Carbon Nanotubes decreases the ignition delay
and accelerates earlier initiation of combustion, which results
in the lower heat release rate and advancement of the peak heat
release rate.
4. The addition of CERIA and CNT in Diesterol blends (E20 + CERIA
50 + CNT 50) increases the carbon monoxide emission to 22.2%
when comparing with the E20 blend. The addition of CERIA and
CNT each 50 ppm in E20 blend enhances the combustion
and reduces the hydrocarbon and smoke emission to 7.2% and
47.6% respectively when comparing with the E20 blend. The
addition of CNT and CERIA in E20 fuel blend does not make
signicant reduction on the nitrogen oxide emission.

Acknowledgements
We thank the Director, National Institute of Technology,
Tiruchirappalli, for granting permission to establish Advanced
Internal Combustion Engines Research Laboratory with modern

167

computerized experimental test facilities to the international

standards.
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