Performance and Emission Characteristics of Ternary Fuel Blends in Diesel Engines

Abstract

The unprecedented use of petroleum fuels in recent years has created an imbalance in the supply and demand. Moreover, fast depletion of these fuels, price perturbation and multi-fold increase in greenhouse gas emissions are debatable issues amongst the scientific fraternity. A sustainable solution to the above problems is to shift towards the renewable alternative fuels. In the Indian context, diesel substitute have special relevance. Ethers have some promising properties similar to diesel, out of which Diethyl ethers (DEE) are most promising alternatives. The present investigation deals with the effect of DEE blends on the performance and emission characteristics of unmodified compression ignition (CI) engines. During the present investigation, ternary blends of diethyl ether, jatropha biodiesel (JB) in diesel were prepared in different proportions. The physico-chemical properties and spray characteristics of the test fuels including density, viscosity, calorific value and Sauter mean diameter (SMD) were also calculated. The experimental results reveal that there is no significant effect of the addition of DEE and JB on the brake thermal efficiency. However, the ternary blend carrying 7.5 % of DEE and JB yields the maximum efficiency of 27.9% which is nearly equal to that of peak efficiency of diesel fuel i.e. 28.4%. The exhaust emissions studies reveal that the percentage of CO, HC, NOX and smoke opacity were reduced significantly. Therefore usage of ternary fuel blends of diesel, JB and DEE is a viable approach for the partial replacement of diesel.