EMISSIONS ANALYSIS ON DIESEL ENGINE FUELED WITH PALM OIL BIODIESEL AND PENTANOL BLENDS
ITRODUCTIONEscalating environmental issues coupled with depletion in petroleum resources have paved the way for global efforts to search for eco-friendly fuels (Amirnordin et al., 2013). Automobiles are widely acknowledged as the major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Diesel engines play a significant role in the power and automobile sectors of industry largely because of its durability and economy. However, diesel engines emit higher emissions when fueled with diesel.A lower emission alternative is needed to lessen the demerits of fossil fuel (Harmiwati and Rahmad, 2015). Biodiesel is made up of long chain alkyl esters produced by reacting lipids with alcohols (Lam et al., 2011). Biodiesel can be deployed in diesel engines without any modification. It can also be blended with petroleum diesel. In spite of its many advantages, the major drawbacks of biodiesel concern higher NO X emissions, viscosity and density and lower calorific value (Jaat et al., 2014). Many studies have proven that by appending higher alcohols to biodiesel much of the drawbacks are reduced (Karabektas et al., 2009; Murcak et al., 2013;Wang et al., 2015). Higher alcohols such as butanol, hexanol and pentanol are incorporated in biodiesel as an oxygenated additive (Rakopoulos et al., 2010). Blending, fumigation, emulsion and dual fuel injection are the existing techniques to append alcohols to fuel. Alcohols can be blended to liquid fuel in the range of 10%-30% by volume. Many DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2017DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr. .2903 JOURNAL OF OIL PALM RESEARCH 29 (3) (SEPTEMBER 2017)
In this study, the effect of blending pentanol to biodiesel derived from mahua oil on emissions and performance pattern of a diesel engine under exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) mode was examined and compared with diesel. The purpose of this study is to improve the feasibility of employing biofuels as a potential alternative in an unmodified diesel engine. Two pentanol-biodiesel blends denoted as MOBD90P10 and MOBD80P20 which matches to 10 and 20 vol% of pentanol in biodiesel, respectively, were used as fuel in research engine at 10 and 20% EGR rates. Pentanol is chosen as a higher alcohol owing to its improved in-built properties than the other first-generation alcohols such as ethanol or methanol. Experimental results show that the pentanol and biodiesel blends (MOBD90P10 and MOBD80P20) have slightly higher brake thermal efficiency (0.2-0.4%) and lower brake-specific fuel consumption (0.6 to 1.1%) than that of neat biodiesel (MOBD100) at all engine loads. Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission and smoke emission are reduced by 3.3-3.9 and 5.1-6.4% for pentanol and biodiesel blends compared to neat biodiesel. Introduction of pentanol to biodiesel reduces the unburned hydrocarbon (2.1-3.6%) and carbon monoxide emissions (3.1-4.2%) considerably. In addition, at 20% EGR rate, smoke, NO emissions, and BTE drop by 7.8, 5.1, and 4.4% respectively. However, CO, HC emissions, and BSFC increased by 2.1, 2.8, and 3.8%, respectively, when compared to 0% EGR rate.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.