Investigation of engine characteristics of a variable compression ratio diesel engine using biodiesel and alcohol blends

Abstract

Increasing environmental pollution and reducing fossil fuels are major concerns of today’s age. To address both the above said issues, the present research focuses on fossil fuel compensation with Biofuels additives. The objective is to analyze combined effect of biodiesel, alcohols and other additives on the diesel engine performance and emission characteristics. The prime target of present research is to analyze the emission characteristics of the diesel engine fueled with Biodiesel (20%)-diesel, Biodiesel (20%)-ethanol (10%)-diesel and Biodiesel (20%)-butanol (10%)-diesel blends. For this purpose, various loads and compression ratios have been applied on each of the blends, to get the optimum result for better performance and reduction in emissions. Engine tests were conducted at variable loads, starting from no load (0 Kg) to full load (15 Kg) at rpm of 1500 on a single cylinder diesel engine. Two compression ratios CR16 and CR18 were used for the research. Engine performance parameters namely BSFC, BTE and engine emissions namely NOX, CO, HC and CO2 were measured. Performance and emission variations of the modified blends were compared with the reference fuel (pure diesel) for the quantitative assessment of the improvements.