Investigating the Effects of Pentanol and Biodiesel Blends on the Performance and Emission Characteristic of Compression Ignition Engine

Abstract

Emissions from use of fossil fuels have consistently posed significant threat to the environment and wellbeing of man. This has prompted several studies aimed at finding solution to the emissions and their effects. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of adding pentanol and biodiesel from Moringa Oleifera seed to pure diesel content of 70% by volume. pentanol and biodiesel make up the remaining 30 percent by volume and were also varied, with pentanol percentage being increased from 2 percent to 8 percent so as to carefully monitored the effects of adding pentanol while the Moringa oleifera biodiesel made up the balance for the 30%. These blends were labelled according to the percentage composition of biodiesel and pentanol (B28P2, B26P4, B24P6, B24P6, and B22P8). The physicochemical properties of all blends such as viscosity, density, pour point, acid value and iodine value determined. From the result of the engine performance and emission tests, B24P6 blend has been noted to have the best engine performance parameters, haven shown the best engine brake power of 19.787 kW, and with the highest engine brake thermal efficiency of 19.78%.While in term of engine emission, B22P8 blend, have the lowest Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission, with a value of 82.4994 ppm which is about 3% lower than that of pure diesel, while B26P4 have the lowest carbon monoxide (CO) emission among all the samples tested with value of 6.1556 ppm which is about 58% lower than that of Petro diesel. However, blends appeared to have good brake mean effective pressure except for B22P8 which have the lowest BMEP, that’s about 2.8% lower than that of Petro diesels. Conclusively, the addition of Moringa oleifera biodiesel with pentanol improved the diesel quality, yielding good improvement in engine performance and emission.