Experimental studies on quaternary blends diesel biodiesel pentanol vegetable oil as alternative fuel in single cylinder DI diesel engine

Abstract

Environmental constraints associated with fossil fuels have driven researchers to find a novel, potential and environmentally benign alternative fuel. Biodiesel, vegetable oil, and alcohol have gained rapid momentum thanks to their renewable nature and comparable energy contents in recent years. National Biofuel Policy of Government of India (2009) advocates blending of 10% alcohol in the transportation sector along with 20% blending of biodiesel. This shall facilitate partial replacement of 30% of mineral diesel, thereby lowering the emissions. Complete replacement (100%) of conventional diesel with alternate fuel possessing higher viscosity demands for total alteration/replacement of engine components requiring significant investment. Hence, the proposed research is focused towards 50% replacement of mineral diesel with alternate fuels that require minimal engine alterations yet yielding a comparable efficiency. Accordingly, a blend is proposed comprising four fuels namely diesel, biodiesel, neat vegetable oil and pentanol. This proposed quaternary fuel will be beneficial in newline meeting the energy demand with minimal derating in engine power newline lowering the fuel cost newline minimising the usage of stabilisers newline reduces the fuel processing cost (transesterification) and associated time newline using non-edible vegetable oil. Jatropha was identified as the source for both biodiesel and neat vegetable oil for its proven and wider usage as alternate fuel in CI engines. Jatropha biodiesel became popular owing to its non-edible nature and higher oil content (31-40%). The waste by-product from residues of Jatropha seeds can be utilised as cattle feedstock and fertilisers. Pentanol was chosen among various alcohol alternatives due to improved energy density, reduced toxicity, easier handling, transportation and engine storage. The properties of proposed quaternary fuel upon comparison with diesel was inferior on two front s, namely calorific value and viscosity impacting the efficiency.