Comparative experimental investigation on the effects of heavy alcohols-safflower biodiesel blends on combustion, performance and emissions in a power generator diesel engine

The experimental works carried out in this article evaluates the potential of using heavy alcohol and safflower biodiesel as the blended fuel mixtures without making any modifications in the tests diesel engine. For this purpose, volumetrically 20% of Propanol, Pentanol, Butanol, and Octanol were blended with safflower biodiesel fuel and they were named as PR20, PE20, BU20, and OC20, respectively. The performance, combustion, and emission data were found out at the same conditions of constant engine speed and various loads and compared with pure biodiesel (B100) and diesel fuel(ULSD). In the experiments, a four-cylinder, water-cooled diesel engine that was loaded by an electrical power generator was used for the tests. The addition of alcohol causes an increase in fuel consumption due to a decrease in lower thermal performance. The use of heavy alcohols in diesel engine in specific quantities by mixing with biodiesel significantly increases engine brake thermal efficiency. Negative effects of low cetane number and high latent heat of vaporization that may decrease ignition delay and decrease cylinder pressure while increase peak heat release was considered to be compensated by the better mixing properties and atomization of alcohol blended biodiesel thus eventually improve the combustion. Alcohol addition to biodiesel fuel can be accepted as a useful application to increase brake thermal efficiency and reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions by reducing the density and viscosity.

Automated summary

The experiments in the article showed that adding alcohols to biodiesel fuel can increase fuel consumption, but blending specific quantities of heavy alcohols with biodiesel can significantly improve engine brake thermal efficiency, combustion, and reduce emissions.