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h i g h l i g h t s
Dieselbiodieselalcohols (ethanol, methanol and butanol)vegetable oil blends are tested.
Exhaust gas emissions are reported.
Advantages and disadvantages of alcohols and vegetable oil as additives are discussed.
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 24 September 2013
Received in revised form 15 December 2013
Accepted 24 January 2014
Available online 6 February 2014
Keywords:
Blended fuels
Simple alcohols
Ethanol
Methanol
Butanol
a b s t r a c t
In this work, diesel fuel was mixed with biodiesel, biodieselalcohol, and biodieselalcoholvegetable oil
blends using the basic alcohols of ethanol, methanol and butanol. The exhaust gas emissions of a small
diesel generator running on different fuel blends were compared and the combined effects of alcohol
vegetable oil fuel blends were studied. Blend ratios used in this study were dieselbiodiesel (7030%),
dieselbiodieselalcohol (702010%) and dieselbiodieselalcoholvegetable oil (702055%). As
compared to dieselbiodiesel blends, dieselbiodieselalcohol and dieselbiodieselalcoholvegetable
oil blends increase CO and HC emissions while reducing NOx emission. It was also shown that adding
vegetable oil to dieselbiodieselalcohol blends improved emissions All the tested fuel blends produced
the highest difference in CO and HC emissions at no-load and the smallest difference at full-load.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Implementation of alternative fuels in internal combustion
engines has been an important research area in recent years
because of the high demands to lower dependency on fossil fuels.
Vegetable oils, simple alcohols such as methanol and ethanol, as
well as biodiesel fuels of different origins have been widely investigated and used in compression ignition engines with a focus on
performance and emission characteristics.
Vegetable oils have been evaluated in compression ignition engines as alternatives to substitute petroleum fuels. However, they
cause potential problems without engine modication and have
several disadvantages. Some of these disadvantages include poor
atomization due to high viscosity, incomplete combustion, and
carbon deposit build-up on several engine parts such as injectors,
piston rings, cylinder walls, and valve seats. However, the problem
of high viscosity can be solved by preheating the vegetable oils [1].
It has been reported that a diesel engine can operate without any
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 575 8355304; fax: +1 575 8355209.
E-mail address: yilmaznadir@yahoo.com (N. Yilmaz).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.01.075
0016-2361/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Table 1
Specications for diesel engine generator.
Manufacturer
Kubota
Generator type
Rated output (kW)
Engine cooling
Combustion system
Intake system
Cooling system
No. of cycles
Engine model
Bore stroke (mm)
Displacement (cm3)
No. of cylinders
Combustion system
Compression ratio
GL-7000
6.5
Horizontal liquid-cooled
E-TVCS
Natural aspirated
Radiator cooling
4-Cycle
Z482
67 68
479
2
Indirect injection
23.5:1
169
170
Thermocouple
Fuel
Mixture
Fuel
Gas Analyzer
Exhaust Gas
Scale
Fig. 1. A schematic of the experimental set-up.
Table 2
Properties of biodiesel, diesel, butanol, methanol, ethanol, and vegetable oil [14,18,19].
Fuels
Biodiesel
Diesel
Butanol
Methanol
Ethanol
Vegetable oil
40.5
44.8
33.1
19.8
28.6
40.4
855
815
808
792
790
916
1,000
1,000
D70-B30
D70-B20-E10
D70-B20-E5-V5
900
BSFC (g/kW-hr)
Cetane number
4.57
2.95
2.63
0.59
1.1
34.2
126
70
35
11
13
274
52
52
25
<5
6
37
1,000
D70-B30
D70-B20-M10
D70-B20-M5-V5
900
800
800
800
700
700
700
600
600
600
500
500
500
400
400
400
300
0%
20%
40%
60%
80% 100%
300
0%
20%
40%
60%
D70-B30
D70-B20-Bu10
D70-B20-Bu5-V5
900
80% 100%
300
0%
20%
40%
60%
80% 100%
Load
Load
Load
Fig. 2. Brake specic fuel consumption as a function of load for combinations of biodiesel, alcohol (ethanol, methanol, butanol), diesel and vegetable oil.
350
300
D70-B30
D70-B30
D70-B30
D70-B20-E10
D70-B20-M10
D70-B20-Bu10
D70-B20-E5-V5
D70-B20-M5-V5
D70-B20-Bu5-V5
250
200
150
100
50
0
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
0%
20%
Load
40%
60%
80%
100%
0%
20%
Load
40%
60%
80%
100%
Load
Fig. 3. Exhaust gas temperature as a function of load for combinations of biodiesel, alcohol (ethanol, methanol, butanol), diesel and vegetable oil.
171
0.18
0.14
D70-B30
D70-B20-Bu10
D70-B20-Bu5-V5
D70-B30
D70-B20-M10
D70-B20-M5-V5
D70-B30
D70-B20-E10
D70-B20-E5-V5
0.16
CO (%)
0.12
0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Load
Load
Load
Fig. 4. CO emissions as a function of load for combinations of biodiesel, alcohol (ethanol, methanol, butanol), diesel and vegetable oil.
60
HC (ppm)
50
D70-B30
D70-B30
D70-B30
D70-B20-E10
D70-B20-M10
D70-B20-Bu10
D70-B20-E5-V5
D70-B20-M5-V5
D70-B20-Bu5-V5
40
30
20
10
0
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
0%
20%
40%
Load
60%
80%
100%
0%
20%
40%
Load
60%
80%
100%
Load
Fig. 5. HC as a function of load for combinations of biodiesel, alcohol (ethanol, methanol, butanol), diesel and vegetable oil.
350
300
D70-B30
D70-B30
D70-B30
D70-B20-E10
D70-B20-M10
D70-B20-Bu10
D70-B20-E5-V5
D70-B20-M5-V5
D70-B20-Bu5-V5
NOx (ppm)
250
200
150
100
50
0
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
0%
20%
Load
40%
60%
Load
80%
100%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Load
Fig. 6. NOx as a function of load for combinations of biodiesel, alcohol (ethanol, methanol, butanol), diesel and vegetable oil.
172
promise, but if vegetable oil and ethanol are used together in biodieseldiesel, such blends could be used as alternatives.
References
NOx emissions increased as the load increased for all the cases,
as expected, shown in Fig. 6. Because simple alcohols have higher
heat of vaporization requirements and lower cetane numbers than
vegetable oil, adding 10% methanol to dieselbiodiesel blends as
compared to 5% methanol and 5% vegetable oil creates lower incylinder temperatures and thus lower NOx emissions, while causing more incomplete combustion. Unburned fuel may react during
the exhaust process causing higher exhaust gas temperatures
which are relatively low enough and do not affect NOx formation
furthermore. Thus, exhaust gas temperature may not necessarily
correlate to the in-cylinder combustion temperature which affects
NOx formation.
4. Conclusions
In this work, alcohols (ethanol, methanol and butanol) and alcoholvegetable oil mixtures as additives to biodieseldiesel blends
were investigated in terms of performance and emission characteristics of a small diesel engine running on several fuel blends. Vegetable oil is used to improve low lubricity characteristics. In
addition, vegetable oil has a higher heat of combustion and cetane
number which contribute to better combustion. Overall, adding
alcohols or alcoholvegetable oil mixtures to biodieseldiesel
blends increases CO and unburned HC emissions while reducing
NOx emissions. But, although this may lead to the expectation of
lower combustion temperatures, exhaust gas temperatures shows
higher values for blends that contain alcohols or alcoholvegetable
oils mixtures. One possible explanation is that unburned fuels with
alcohols do not vaporize until the exhaust process due to insufcient time. During the exhaust process, alcohol blended fuels nally react while increasing the exhaust gas temperature, which is
relatively lower and may not affect NOx formation. However, this
possibility may need to be checked with a chemical kinetics study.
When comparing alcohols to alcoholvegetable oil mixtures as
additives, the data shows that adding alcohols alone increases CO
and HC emissions and decreases NOx emission more than the alcoholvegetable oil mixture does. This is perhaps due to the higher
heat of vaporization requirements of alcohols than that of vegetable oil, leading to less complete combustion. However, this work