Experimental investigation on diesel engine operated with ternary fuel diesel biodiesel ethanol blends

Abstract

Rapid increase in number of vehicle industries has escalated the exhaust emissions along with health hazards and global environment degradation. The air quality degrades tremendously with increasing vehicular emissions such as hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and smoke emissions for which the transportation sector is hugely responsible. There is an inherent need for searching a suitable alternative fuel for transportation sector due to twin problems of stringent emission norms and depleting fossil fuel reserves. Biodiesel and ethanol received severe attention in recent years as it can be blended with mineral diesel for achieving both energy and environmental benefits. Biodiesel cannot be utilized up to 100% as alternative fuel, owing to its highly viscous nature and essential minor engine alterations The usage of alcohols (ethanol, methanol, n-butanol etc.,) and its blends with diesel emerged as a typical binary fuel pattern at the beginning of 21st century. However, binary blends posed a serious issue of phase stratification or mixture stratification which were minimized by appending mixture stabilisers that were pretty costlier. Among various alcohol alternatives, ethanol is preferred widely due to its higher oxygen content (34% by weight) which helps in improving the combustion rate. Ethanol has higher octane number and hence it is utilized directly in spark ignition (SI) engines. newline