Operational Parameters of a Diesel Engine Running on Diesel–Rapeseed Oil–Methanol–Iso-Butanol Blends

This contribution focuses on utilizing blended biofuels of rapeseed oil and methanol with diesel. Rapeseed is one of the most cultivated energy crops in Europe, and its purpose in the blends is to increase the bio-content in test fuels. The purpose of methanol in the blends is to increase bio-content and compensate for the higher viscosity of the rapeseed oil. As methanol is almost insoluble in diesel and rapeseed oil, iso-butanol is used as a co-solvent. The fuel blends were tested in volumetric concentrations of diesel/rapeseed oil/methanol/iso-butanol 60/30/5/5, 50/30/10/10, and 50/10/20/20. Diesel was used as a reference. The measurements were performed on a turbocharged diesel engine Zetor 1204, loaded using the power-takeoff shaft of the Zetor Forterra 8641 tractor. In this paper, the effect of the blended fuels on performance parameters, engine efficiency, production of soot particles, and regulated and unregulated emissions are monitored and analyzed. It was found that engine power decreased by up to 27%, efficiency decreased by up to 5.5% at full engine load, emissions of NOX increased by up to 21.9% at 50% engine load, and production of soot particles decreased; however, the mean size of the particles was smaller.

Effect of Nitromethane and Jatropha Biodiesel on the Combustion, Performance and Emission Characteristics of Diesel Engine

The experimental work reported has been carried out in two parts; Jatropha biodiesel production and engine test. The engine test has been carried out on a direct injection, single-cylinder, water-cooled stationary diesel engine. Several diesel fuel blends which contain 10% and 20% by volume of JBD and 1% and 3% nitromethane were prepared. The effects of these blends on the combustion, performance, and emission characteristics of diesel engine were studied. The tests were performed under constant speed and varying load conditions without altering injection timing. A maximum increase of 11.73%, 3.2 % and 7.68 % in the brake thermal efficiency, the brake specific fuel consumption and exhaust gas temperature were achieved respectively for 20% Jatropha biodiesel and 3% nitromethane at full engine load. Compared to the pure diesel operation, the peak in-cylinder pressure of blended fuels was lower at the full load conditions. Also, the maximum net heat release rate of blended fuels was lower than that of diesel at all loading conditions. In regards to the engine emissions, the results showed that the blended fuels reduced carbon monoxide at 18.6–28.9% and unburned hydrocarbon of 7.5-24.2%, while increased the emission of nitrogen oxides at 6.9–14.3% and carbon dioxide at 4.3-10.5%.

A Comparison of Ethanol, Methanol, and Butanol Blending with Gasoline and Its Effect on Engine Performance and Emissions Using Engine Simulation

Air pollution, especially in large cities around the world, is associated with serious problems both with people’s health and the environment. Over the past few years, there has been a particularly intensive demand for alternatives to fossil fuels, because when they are burned, substances that pollute the environment are released. In addition to the smoke from fuels burned for heating and harmful emissions that industrial installations release, the exhaust emissions of vehicles create a large share of the fossil fuel pollution. Alternative fuels, known as non-conventional and advanced fuels, are derived from resources other than fossil fuels. Because alcoholic fuels have several physical and propellant properties similar to those of gasoline, they can be considered as one of the alternative fuels. Alcoholic fuels or alcohol-blended fuels may be used in gasoline engines to reduce exhaust emissions. This study aimed to develop a gasoline engine model to predict the influence of different types of alcohol-blended fuels on performance and emissions. For the purpose of this study, the AVL Boost software was used to analyse characteristics of the gasoline engine when operating with different mixtures of ethanol, methanol, butanol, and gasoline (by volume). Results obtained from different fuel blends showed that when alcohol blends were used, brake power decreased and the brake specific fuel consumption increased compared to when using gasoline, and CO and HC concentrations decreased as the fuel blends percentage increased.

A comparative study on alcohol-diesel blended fuels in a common rail diesel engine: Combined effects of carbon numbers, oxygen content, and molecular structure

Abundant alcohols, including ethanol, propanol, butanol, and pentanol, are expected to be used in compression ignition engines to ease the shortages of fossil fuel. The various alcohols have quite a different combustion and emission characteristics in the engine due to the changes in molecular structures. In this paper, a series of experiments were conducted on a modified common-rail diesel engine fueled with diesel/alcohols blended fuels in a wide operating range. The effects of alcohol chain length, oxygen content, and molecular structure on engine combustion and emission characteristics are studied systematically. The experimental results show that the blending of alcohols increases the peak values of in-cylinder pressure and maximum pressure rising rate. Besides, the combustion duration and ignition delay are mainly affected by oxygen content and isomer structure. The addition of short-chain alcohols will significantly reduce the total mass of particulate matter (PM) emissions, while the CO and HC emissions increase appropriately. The CO, HC, aldehydes, and ethylene emissions are mainly affected by carbon chain length and isomer structure. For PM emissions, the carbon chain length, molecular structure, and oxygen content of alcohol fuels have different influences on PM number, PM mass, and particle size distributions. The shorter carbon chain of alcohol leads to smaller particle size, and higher oxygen content leads to lower total particle mass.