An Experimental Study of Performance and Emission Parameters of A Compression Ignition Engine Fueled by Different Blends of Diesel-Ethanol-biodiesel
An Experimental Study of Performance and Emission Parameters of A Compression Ignition Engine Fueled by Different Blends of Diesel-Ethanol-biodiesel
An Experimental Study of Performance and Emission Parameters of A Compression Ignition Engine Fueled by Different Blends of Diesel-Ethanol-biodiesel
Abstract: - The effects of different ethanoldiesel blended HD diesel engine. Ali Mohammadi et al. [3] observed a great
fuels on the performance and emissions of diesel engines have improvement in PM and NOx emissions when compared to the
been evaluated experimentally and compared in this paper. After diesel combustion with ordinary pilot injection. However, this
series of miscibility tests, it was found that ethanol is not miscible study also experienced penalties in thermal efficiency, THC
in diesel beyond 10% concentration. In order to increase its
and CO emissions. The results obtained by Bang-Quan He et
miscibility, Pongamia piata methyl ester (PPME), popularly
known as biodiesel was added as an amphiphilic agent. Different al. [4] indicated that with the increase of ethanol in the blends,
concentrations of ethanol and biodiesel produced different blends smoke reduces significantly, BSEC improves slightly, and
from which 4 blends were chosen for engine testing. The results combustion duration decreases. Hardenberg and Schaefer [5]
indicated that biodiesel inclusion in the blends increased the revealed some attractive properties of ethanol combustion in a
brake thermal efficiency and reduced the fuel consumption of the CI engine such as low black smoke, NOx and hydrocarbon
engine. The study of emission parameters also showed that diesel emissions. This study also pointed out the corrosion problems
ethanol blends reduced NOx and CO2 emission but increased caused by Ethanol blended fuels. Li et al [6] concluded that
hydrocarbon emission with elevated exhaust smoke opacity. It smoke, CO and NOx emissions decreased with ethanoldiesel
was also noticed that biodiesel inclusion in the blends reduced
blended fuel, especially with E10D and E15D. But THC
hydrocarbon emission, reduced exhaust smoke opacity with the
penalties of simultaneous increase in NOX and CO2 emission. increased significantly when compared to neat diesel fuel.
Bang-Quan He et al. [7] concluded that at low loads, the
Keywords Diesel engine; Oxygenate fuel; Ethanol; blends have slight effects on smoke reduction due to overall
Biodiesel; Emissions reduction. leaner mixture. In addition, CO, unburned ethanol and
acetaldehyde emissions of the blends can be decreased
I. INTRODUCTION moderately, even total hydrocarbon emissions are less than
those of diesel fuel can. A study by M. Abu-Qudais [8]
To meet the ever-growing demand of energy, diesel is widely
revealed that an optimum 15% of fumigated ethanol in diesel
used in transportation, agricultural and industrial machinery as
produces an increase of 43.3% in CO emissions, 34% in HC
an efficient and reliable fuel. However, diesel being a fossil
and a reduction of 32% in soot mass concentration. zer Can
fuel is bound to be exhausted in future. According to M.K
et al [9] concluded that ethanol addition reduces CO, soot and
Hubberts peak theory, the present reserve of petroleum
SO2 emissions, although it caused an increase in NOx emission
products is slowly dying out, widening the gap between global
of 12.5% for 10% ethanol addition and 20% for 15% ethanol
energy supply and energy consumption, which very recently in
addition. Huang et al. [10] concluded that for every ethanol-
2010 has increased by 5%.[1]. Moreover, emissions from
diesel blend, CO emission reduced at half load, UBHC
diesel engines seriously threaten the environment and at
emissions were increased except at high loads and the nitrogen
present, it is considered as one of the major cause of concern.
oxides (NOx) emissions were different for different speeds,
This also contributes to global warming. So present-day
loads and blends. Kim and Choi [11] concluded that THC and
engine manufacturers are constantly trying to meet the
CO emissions of the ethanoldiesel blend fuels were slightly
stringent requirements laid down by the regulatory authorities
increased, and about 5080% mean conversion efficiencies of
world over. The present work is an attempt towards the same
THC and CO on catalysts were achieved in the ECE R49 13-
goal.
mode cycle. Smoke was decreased by more than 42% in the
Quite a handful amount of research on application of Diesel- entire ECE 13-mode cycles.
ethanol in a CI engine has been performed over the years. A Despite of all the beneficial effects of ethanol-diesel blends on
study by Irshad Ahmed [2] demonstrated over 41% reduction emission of a CI engine, the performance of such blends are
in PM, 27% reduction in CO, and 5% reduction in NOx from a
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Before experimenting with fuel blends, the engine was run on
diesel to get a reference set of data, which can be used as
benchmark while comparing the performance and emission
characteristics of different blends. Once the base of the
experiments was set by the data obtained by the base fuels,
fuel blends were introduced one at a time. The fuel blends
were prepared and were given sufficient time to settle down to
a homogeneous mixture. The experimental data was acquired
by DAQ system. All the data for a particular pilot fuel blend
was averaged for 80 cycles to compensate any cyclic
variations of observations. Again each set of data were taken 6
times to and averaged to increase authenticity of readings. The
Fig-2: Diesel-Ethanol-Biodiesel Blends. loading was done by controlling the voltage of the
electromagnet of the eddy current dynamometer. As variation
B. Experimental set up and Methodology
of load caused a change in engine speed, so the engine was run
A 5.2 kW single cylinder water-cooled CI engine was used in for a while after each loading so that it comes to a constant
this work. The engine was equipped with eddy current speed state. Moreover, in order to get a steadier reading, the
dynamometer (Make Saj test plant Pvt. Ltd) for load engine was allowed to run for 5 minutes after each loading
measurement. A crank angle sensor (Make Kubler) was used operation for all the strategies. In addition, to avoid any
to measure the engine RPM. It was calibrated in terms of 1- contamination of the base fuels, after using each blend, the
degree interval. The TDC (Top Dead Center) position of the complete fueling system was cleaned thoroughly with
flywheel was also calibrated in order to develop a proper data Acetone.
acquisition algorithm through a commercial data acquisition
software. A piezoelectric pressure transducer (Make III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
KISTLER) was used to measure in cylinder pressure. The
analog pick up voltages of the transducers were fed to a NI- A. Performance parameters
DAQ card through a signal conditioner to filter the out noise. 1. Brake thermal Efficiency
The major specifications of the engine are given in Table 3.An The variation of brake thermal efficiency (Bth) of the engine
AVL 5 gas analyzer (AVL Digas 444) and an AVL smoke is shown in Fig-4. As per the figure, it can be seen that increase
meter (AVL 437 Opacimeter) was employed to measure in ethanol percentage in the fuel decreases the brake thermal
emission of CO2, UBHC, NOx and smoke opacity in line of efficiency of the engine. For D95E5 blend, the brake thermal
the raw exhaust. The whole circuit is depicted in fig- 3. efficiency decreased by 5.29% at 20% load, 4.95% at 60%
load, 9.98% at full load and 9.85% at 120% load. For D90E10
TABLE:-3: ENGINE SPECIFICATION blend the thermal efficiency decreased by 23.30% at 20% load,
6.18% at 60% load, 13.78% at full load, and 7.86% at 120%
Engine Type Kirloskar, Model TV-1, 4 stroke Water
cooled, VCR Engine. load condition. This consistent decrease in Bth may be due to
Bore and Stroke 87.5 mm and 110mm the lower calorific value of ethanol, which reduces the energy
Max. Power 5.2 kW density inside the combustion cylinder. Again, it can also be
CR Range 12-18 noticed from the graph that the Brake thermal efficiency of the
Swept Volume 661 cc engine has improved with biodiesel inclusion. As the
Combustion Direct Injection. percentage of biodiesel and ethanol in the blend has increased,
System
the engine has shown batter brake thermal efficiency. The
Fuel Injection 205 BAR
Pressure highest efficiency among all of these fuel samples is shown by
D30E20B50 blend, which produces an increase in efficiency of
12.5% at 40% load, 18.34% at 80 load, 22% at full load, and
23.20% at 120% load condition. This gradual increase in Bth
with load is due to the rise in the mean effective pressure rises,
causing a higher in cylinder temperature, which causes better
combustion and higher brake thermal efficiency. Further, the
increase in Bth with increasing biodiesel is due to increase in
calorific value of the blend owing to the inclusion of biodiesel.
Moreover, increase in Bth with biodiesel and ethanol
concentration is an indication that oxygen rich content of both
biodiesel and ethanol supports complete combustion of the
charge resulting in better brake thermal efficiency. Hulwan and
Joshi Also obtained similar results [17].
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combustion which in terms suggests a batter possibility of
completeness of combustion. Fig-6 shows the CO2 emission of
the engine for different fuel combinations. It can be noticed
that the CO2 emission of the engine consistently increased with
increasing percentage of ethanol as well as biodiesel. The
increasing trend of CO2 is more prominent in case of diesel-
ethanol-biodiesel blends (D45E15B40 and D30E20B50).
Among diesel-ethanol blends, on an average CO2 emission
increased by 23% for D95E5 and almost 53% for D90E10
blend. For diesel-ethanol-biodiesel blends, the average increase
in CO2 emission was 85.36% for D45E15B40 and 110% for
D30E20B50. These increasing trends of CO2 emission may be
due to high oxygen content of biodiesel and ethanol, which
promotes further oxidation of CO. Similar results were
Fig-4: Variation of Bth for different fuel blends.
obtained by Barabas [19] and Hulwan and Joshi [17].
Fig-5: Variation of BSFC Diesel equivalent for different fuel blends. Fig-6: Variation of CO2 emission for different fuel blends.
789
570KJ extra heat per kg to convert from liquid to gaseous state
), and the temperature in the cylinder was also lower after
combusted; this caused less NOx formation. Another is that the
lower calorific value of ethanol blends, which caused lower
combustion temperature [10]. The increase in NOx emission
with increasing load can be explained as an effect of increased
combustion rate. This also proves that one the most important
factors for the emissions of NOx is the combustion
temperature in the engine cylinder [10]. These results are in
agreement with the results obtained by Huang [10]. For diesel-
ethanol-biodiesel blends (D45E15B40 and D30E20B50), the
increase in NOx emission may be attributed to higher in
cylinder temperature caused by complete combustion of
charge and presence of excess oxygen inside the combustion
cylinder and higher calorific value of biodiesel. Fig-9: Variation of Exhaust smoke opacity for different fuel
blends.
4. Smoke Opacity
Smoke opacity signifies the amount of soot particles present in
the exhaust. It interns works as n suggestive indices to the
completeness of combustion inside the combustion chamber.
Better combustion produces less soot, hence opacity of smoke
remains low. Fig- 9 shows the test results of smoke opacity
from the engine when fuelled by different fuels. The results
show that ethanol inclusion increases the smoke opacity,
which suggest that ethanol may reduce the combustibility of
the charge, resulting in higher soot and higher smoke opacity.
On the other hand, biodiesel inclusion in the blends produces
relatively lower smoke opacity. This may be due to the fact
Fig-8: Variation of UBHC emission for different fuel blends.
that biodiesel endorses complete combustion of the charge,
hence producing less soot and smoke opacity.
3. Unburned Hydrocarbon emission
HC emission variation with engine loads for the analyzed fuels IV. CONCLUSION
is shown in Fig- 8. It may be observed that, there is an The stability of the diesel-ethanol blends and the effect of
increasing trend in UBHC emission with increase in ethanol Karanja biodiesel on it were carried out at the initial stage of
content of the blends especially at low and medium load this experimental study. Tests have been carried out to
conditions. This trend of increased HC emissions can be determine different fuel properties of the base fuels and these
attributed to incomplete combustion resulting from the larger values have been used to calculate the respective fuel
ignition delay for higher value of latent heat of vaporization properties of the fuel blends. In the later stage of this study,
and lower cetane number of ethanol. The incomplete the performance and emission characteristics of the CI engine
combustion providing the precursor to aldehyde radical with diesel- ethanol and diesel-ethanol-biodiesel blends were
formation .The higher ignition delay is a direct cause of over compared with diesel and biodiesel. The major findings of this
leaning while the higher value of latent heat of vaporization study may be summarized as,
contributes to bulk quenching of the charge, both contributing
to higher HC emissions. Huang et al. [10] also observed The brake thermal efficiency of the engine obtained for
similar trends. It can also be noticed that the quantity of D30E20B50 blend is higher than diesel or diesel-ethanol
UBHC emission decreases significantly with diesel-ethanol- blends.
biodiesel blends. This decrease may be due to the fact that The average fuel consumption of diesel-ethanol-biodiesel
biodiesel has a higher cetane number than conventional diesel, blends is lower than that diesel or diesel-ethanol blends
resulting in more complete combustion in the cylinder and less and D30E20B50 has the lowest fuel consumption.
unburned hydrocarbon in emission [16]. CO2 emission for the diesel-ethanol blends was lower
than diesel-ethanol-biodiesel but was higher than diesel.
NOx emission from the engine for diesel-ethanol-biodiesel
blends was significantly higher than diesel or diesel-
ethanol blends.
The emission of unburned hydrocarbon was significantly
lower for diesel-ethanol-biodiesel blends.
790
Diesel-ethanol-biodiesel blends produced comparatively [15] M. Lapuerta,O. Armas,JM. Herreros. Emissions from a diesel
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