Application Characteristics of Bioethanol as an Oxygenated Fuel Additive in Diesel Engines

Abstract

In this study, pure diesel fuel (E0), 5% bioethanol blended with 95% diesel fuel (E5), 10% bioethanol blended with 90% diesel fuel (E10) and 15% bioethanol blended with 85% diesel fuel (E15) were tested on a diesel engine. The 40, 60 and 80 Nm were the main experimental variables, while the engine speed was kept constant at 1500 rpm. The main results show that the addition of ethanol slightly reduced the maximum combustion pressure and delayed the combustion start, but increased the heat release rate (HRR) to varying degrees. Although the addition of ethanol was not very helpful for reducing hydrocarbon (HC), it could reduce carbon monoxide (CO) under appropriate load conditions (60 Nm and 80 Nm). Additionally, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and smoke emissions were reduced with the addition of ethanol under all test conditions.