Experimental assessment of ternary fuel blends of diesel, hybrid biodiesel and alcohol in naturally aspirated CI engine

Abstract

In the current experimental study, the synthesis of biodiesel was acquired from mixed pongamia & mahua crude oil (50:50% v/v) with catalyst mixture of 1.5 g K2CO3 in 0.75 g of NH4OH through transesterification method. The effect of diesel, biodiesel, binary blend (B20) and ternary blends of diesel with mixed pongamia & mahua biodiesel and alcohol (ethanol and heptanol) of (B20H10, B20H20, B20E10 and B20E20) fuel samples on CI engine was used to determine engine performance, combustion and emission characteristics at different loading conditions. From the experimental assessment, it was observed that heptanol blended test sample such as (B20H20) has improved thermal efficiency with decreased specific fuel consumption. Furthermore, significant enhancement in prolonged ignition delay causes to generate higher in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate when compared to other binary and ternary samples. The emission parameters like CO, HC and smoke opacity were reduced with slight increase in NOx at operating loads for all tested ternary samples when compared to diesel fuel. Alcohol blended ternary fuel samples caused to reduce CO2 formation according to B20 and B100 fuel but slightly greater than diesel. It is worthwhile to conclude that the prepared B20H20 fuel is a distinguished alternative ternary blend sample preferably than pure biodiesel and binary test sample into CI engine without any engine modification as it satisfies with the diesel performance and to combat global warming.