Experimental investigation on the effect of optimized dimethyl carbonate on CI engine performance & Emissions at various engine operating parameters using Taguchi method

Abstract

The control of harmful emissions from diesel engines has always been one of the primary elements in obtaining improvement in air quality and number of innovations has been performed in this domain in past many years. In the present work effect of Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) as fuel additive on CI engine is investigated regarding reduction in Smoke and NOx emissions and effect of engine parameter on effective of DMC on them. Also, present work tried to optimize the percentage of Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and operating parameter to achieve better engine economy and emissions control using Taguchi method. Present study evaluated the impacts different blending ratio of DMC (0 - 20%) in diesel fuel. This DMC blends are tested with three significant parameters as compression ratio (CR 15:1 to 19:1), fuel injection pressure (FIP, 200 to 280 bar), fuel injection timing (FIT, 21° to 24°, b°TDC). After analyzing SN Ratio and Contour Interaction Plots, the optimum effect of dimethyl carbonate is obtained at 5-10% blending with diesel with engine operating conditions of Compression Ratio at 18, Injection Pressure at 250 Bar and Injection Timing at 23 °bTDC. It is also observed that single objective method used here was not able identify the exact optimize combinations of DMC with engine operating parameter hence selection of suitable multi objective method of optimization is necessary for further study and optimization process.