Performance Characterization of Gasoline Engine with Patchouli Oil as Bio-Additive for Gasoline with an Octane Number 90

Abstract

Nowadays, Indonesia as the largest country in ASEAN has a huge fuel consumption due to the increasing numbers of vehicles using fossil fuel. Considering the limited national and global oil reserves as well as environmental issues, efforts are needed to reduce fossil fuel consumption. One of the solutions to this problem is by utilizing the abundantly available natural resources in Indonesia such as essential oils. In this study, patchouli oil as bio-additive and gasoline with an octane number of 90 with a volumetric percentage of 1%, 0,6%, and 0,3% were used. The mixtures of these gasoline and bio-additive were tested on a generator-set engine at varied output electrical load of 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1400, 1600, 1800, and 2000 Watt at a constant engine speed of 2500 rpm. Output power, fuel consumption and exhaust temperature were measured, while torque, BMEP, SFC and fuel consumption were calculated. Results showed that the addition of 1%, 0.6%, and 0.3% patchouli oil into a 90 octane gasoline reduced fuel consumption by 21%, 16%, and 19%, respectively. Maximum reduction of fuel consumption was 33% at 1200 W electrical load with 1% of patchouli oil additive.