Comparative Assessment of Performance and Emission Characteristics of DI Diesel Engine Fueled with Combined Blending of Biodiesel, Butanol and Conventional Diesel

TLDR: In this paper, the authors used different blends of biodiesel, butanol and diesel fuel blends in a single cylinder 3.7 kW diesel engine at different loads to deal with emission reduction in CI engines.

Abstract: Seeing today’s trend of petroleum product consumption and correspondingly its harmful effects on environment have forced researchers to investigate alternative and eco-friendly fuels. Biodiesel is emerging as most promising fuel to replace diesel in CI engines. However, the viscosity of biodiesel is generally higher than diesel fuels which lead to poor combustion. Therefore, to address above problems, biodiesel is blended with diesel fuel in different ratio. In addition, the presence of alcohols to diesel–biodiesel blend upgraded the fuel properties such as cloud point (CP) and cold filter plugging point (CFPP), while slightly decreased density, lower heating value, kinematic viscosity, cetane number and flash point. Hence, this investigation deals with emission reductions in CI engines by using different blends of biodiesel, butanol and diesel fuel blends. To perform the experiments, Jatropha and pongamia biodiesel fuels were mixed with conventional diesel fuel and butanaol in different combinations—Jatropha (J), Pongamia (P), Butanol (But), Diesel (D): (J10But5D85), (P100But5D85), (J15But5D80), (P15But5D85), and (J15P15But5D65). The experiments were conducted with single cylinder 3.7 kW diesel engine at different loads. For all combinations of blends, NOx, CO, CO2, HC, Smoke and BSFC were recorded and compared with diesel fuels at different loads. All the fuel variants worked well in engine and no difficulty was found. Best results were found in combine blending of Jatropha biodiesel and butanol in ratio of J15But5D80. With this blend the NOx, CO2 content was found minimum and fell down drastically, smoke content was lowest with J15P15But5D65. However, BTE was observed to be slightly decreased with all combination of biodiesel, butanol and diesel. Fuel consumption was observed maximum with J15P15But5D65 fuel blends due to its lower calorific value.