Experimental investigation to improve performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine by using n-butanol as additive to the biodiesel-diesel blends

摘要

Fossil fuels are non-renewable resources and are limited in supply. The combustion of these fuels produces environmental pollution with the release of dangerous gases like Nitrogen oxides, Carbon monoxide and Carbonaceous soot. In this sense, fuel like biodiesel produced from vegetable oils can be considered as a better alternative to the fossil fuels. For this study, waste cooking oil biodiesel is used. In this work, the effect of addition of n-butanol on the performance and emission characteristics of diesel engine running at the speed of 2300 rpm is investigated. The biodiesel is prepared by transesterification process using KOH as catalyst. n-Butanol is added to B20 blend in varying volume percentages of 5, 10 and 15 to evaluate its effect on performance and emission characteristics. It is observed that BUI5 possesses better performance characteristics among n-butanol blends compared to B20 with an average decrease of 18% in BSFC and increase of 21% in BTE at high loads. The experimental results showed that NOx and CO2 emissions were further reduced by 19% and 28% respectively with the addition of butanol. There has been reduction in smoke emissions by 4.7% but an increase of 22% in HC emissions for n-butanol blends.