Biodiesels derived from the mahua seeds are established as a promising alternative for the diesel fuel owing to its non-edible nature and improved properties. TiO nanoparticle in powder form is added to neat mahua oil biodiesel (BD100) to examine its effect on emission characteristics. TiO nanoparticle is chosen as an additive owing to its catalytic effect, higher surface energy, and larger surface to volume ratio. TiO nanoparticle with an average size of 60 nm was synthesized by sol-gel route. TiO nanoparticles are added with mahua biodiesel (BD100) at 100 and 200 ppm. Mahua oil biodiesel doped with 100 and 200 ppm of TiO nanoparticles are referred as BD100T100 and BD100T200. A constant speed diesel engine is employed for the experimental trail. Engine is fueled with diesel, BD100, BD100T100, and BD100T200, respectively. Experimental result confirmed that the modified fuels (BD100T200 and BD100T100) showed a significant reduction in all the emissions. Further, the addition of TiO nanoparticle (200 ppm) to mahua biodiesel gave respective reduction of 9.3, 5.8, 6.6, and 2.7% in carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, nitrogen oxide, and smoke emissions when compared to neat mahua biodiesel.

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In this study, the effect of doping hexanol into biodiesel which is from neat cashew nut shell biodiesel oil on the emissions and the performance characteristics was studied in a constant speed diesel engine. The main purpose of this work is to reduce various emissions and also to improve the performance of the diesel engine when fueled with blends of hexanol and neat cashew nut shell biodiesel. Cashew nut shell oil is not edible, and hence it can be used as a viable alternative to diesel. Cashew nut shell biodiesel is prepared by conventional transesterification. Hexanol with 99.2% purity was employed as an oxygenated additive. Experimental studies were conducted by fueling diesel as a baseline and by fueling hexanol and neat cashew nut shell biodiesel mixture. A fuel comprising 10% (by volume) of hexanol and 90% (by volume) neat cashew nut shell biodiesel was referred to as CNSBD900H100 and fuel comprising 20% (by volume) of hexanol and 80% (by volume) of neat cashew nut shell biodiesel was referred to as CNSBD800H200. This study also investigated the possibility of using pure biofuel in an unmodified naturally aspirated diesel engine. The outcome of this study showed that adding hexanol at 10% and 20% (by volume) to cashew nut shell biodiesel results in a reduction in emissions. In addition, a significant improvement in brake thermal efficiency and reduction in brake-specific fuel consumptions were achieved. Hence, it could be concluded that hexanol could be a viable and promising additive for improving the drawbacks of biodiesel when it was used to fuel an unmodified diesel engine.

Biodiesel obtained from mustard seed is found to be a promising alternative for petroleum diesel fuel owing to its similarity in physical and chemical properties. In this work, TiO 2 nano-fluid which acts as an oxygen buffer during combustion was added to mustard oil biodiesel (MOBD) to study its effect on emission characteristics of MOBD. TiO 2 nano-fluid can provide high surface energy during the course of combustion and reduces the limitations of neat biodiesel. A four-stroke, multi-cylinder, water-cooled, diesel engine was used in the experiments and was fueled with diesel, neat MOBD and MOBD with TiO 2 nanoparticles at 100 ppm (MOBDT100), 200 ppm (MOBDT200) and 300 ppm (MOBDT300). Experimental results revealed that the TiO 2 nanoparticles had positive effect on the emission characteristics of MOBD as it acted as an oxidation buffer. MOBDT300 showed a reduction in HC, CO and smoke emissions as compared to pure MOBD. In addition, NO x emissions were also reduced by the catalytic activity of the TiO 2 nanoparticles which reduce the peak combustion temperature. Therefore, TiO 2 nano-fluid had a positive effect on reducing the emissions associated with neat biodiesel.