Performance Emission and Combustion Characteristics of Diesel Engine Fuelled With Biodiesel–Diesel–Diethyl Ether Blends
Increasing energy demand and rapid depletion of fossil fuels has accelerated the search for an alternative fuel for diesel engine. Biodiesel produced from waste cooking oil is the most suitable alternative for diesel due to low production cost. Higher viscosity, pour and cloud point of biodiesel causes several engine operating problems such as injector choking, piston ring sticking and unfavorable pumping and spray characteristics. In order to avoid the problem associated with biodiesel various combinations of biodiesel-diesel-diethyl ether were prepared in this present investigation. Based on the stability and fuel properties close to diesel the combination namely B70D20DEE10 (biodiesel 70%, diesel 20% and diethyl ether 10%) was further selected for experimental investigation. Experiments were performed on a single cylinder direct injection water cooled diesel engine under varying load, injection timing and injection pressure while keeping engine speed constant of 1500 rpm. The highest brake thermal efficiency was reported for B70D20DEE10 at an injection timing of 25.5 bTDC and injection pressure of 260 bar at full load condition which is 5.6% higher than diesel. The highest heat release rate (HRR) was observed at above operating condition is 29.4 MJ/°CA, which is 5.3% higher than diesel. Further a slight reduction in unburnt hydrocarbon (UBHC) by 12 ppm, nitric oxide by 116 ppm and smoke opacity by 18% was observed when compared to diesel.