Effect of renewable fuel and injection strategies on combustion characteristics and gaseous emissions in diesel engines

ABSTRACT

‏Renewable fuels and injection strategies can both provide cleaner combustion and more efficient internal combustion (IC) ‎engines. The effect of fuel injection strategies (injection timings and pressures) and renewable fuel (B20)‎ on engine performance, and gaseous emissions have been studied ‎in this experimental work. The results showed that the combustion performance improved from the combustion of B20 than to the diesel fuel under advanced injection timings. Furthermore, the high fuel injection pressure (100 MPa) was enhances the combustion performance more comparedthan low injection pressure (65 MPa) for both fuels studied. It can be concluded that B20 improved the combustion performance rather than diesel fuel for different injection pressures. Therefore, the experimental results showed that the combination of advanced injection timing and B20 were beneficial to improve the combustion performance, which in turn reduced the level of harmful gaseous emissions such as total hydrocarbons (THC) and carbon monoxide (CO) in the exhaust duct. In addition, it can be concluded that the high injection pressure reduced the level of the engine-out emissions. It was found that gaseous emissions such as CO and THC were reduced from the combustion of B20 fuel. In contrast, the nitrogen oxide (NO_x) was found to be slightly higher than diesel fuel for different injection timings and pressures.

KEYWORDS:

• Renewable fuel
• combustion performance
• gaseous emissions
• injection timing
• injection pressure; internal combustion (IC)

Highlights

• Renewable fuels improve the combustion characteristics.

• Advanced injection timing reduced the gaseous emissions more than retarded injection timing.

• Gaseous emissions reduced with high injection pressure.

• Combination between injection strategy and renewable fuels enhances combustion performance and reduced the pollution emissions compared to the diesel fuel.

Abbreviations

aTDC, after top dead center; B20D80, butanol 20%, and Diesel 80%; bTDC, before top dead center; CAD, crank angle degree; CI, compression ignition; CO, carbon monoxide; CO₂, carbon dioxide; HC, hydrocarbons; IMEP, indicated mean effective pressure; NO_x, nitrogen oxides; ROHR, rate of heat release; PM, particulate matter; TDC, top dead center; THC, total hydrocarbons.