https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8586-0549
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ABSTRACT
From last two decades, research in the field of alternative, clean and renewable bio-fuels has been increased dramatically for performance improvement, emission control, and running cost reduction in internal combustion engines due to the continuous increase of fuel pricing and depletion of the available nonrenewable fuels. In the present study, mixture of diethyl ether and nitromethane is proposed as a bio-fuel to evaluate the feasibility of diesel-diethyl ether-nitromethane (D-DEE-NM) ternary blends as compared to pure diesel. For the experiments, a VCR diesel engine was used to determine the performance and emission characteristics of D-DEE-NM ternary fuel blends at different concentrations, loads, and compression ratios. In the first phase of experiments, D-DEE7.5-NM2.5 blend (diesel 90%, diethyl ether 7.5 %, nitromethane 2.5 %) was observed as best fuel at standard engine parameters. The improvement in engine performance (BTE increased 17.39% and BSFC decreased 19.44%) and emission reduction (smoke 27.94%, NOx 23.33%, and CO 28.57%) was noticed using D-DEE7.5-NM2.5 blend as compared to pure diesel at full load condition; however, slight increment (3.57%) was found in HC emission. Further, the experiments were performed using selected blend (D-DEE7.5-NM2.5) at different compression ratios (CR), in which CR 19.5 was found best among all CRs under existing engine conditions. By increasing CR from 18.5 (standard) to 19.5, improvement in engine performance (3.70% increment in BTE and 6.89% decrement in BSFC) and emission reduction (smoke 12.24%, CO 20.00%, and HC 65.51%) were found using D-DEE7.5-NM2.5 blend; however, slightly higher level of NOx with tolerable increment of 6.52% was observed. D-DEE7.5-NM2.5 fuel blend was also found economic as compared to pure diesel.
Acknowledgments
The authors are very thankful to Swami Keshvanand Institute of Technology, Management and Gramothan (SKIT), Jaipur and Rajasthan Technical University (RTU), Kota for providing the research facility to conduct this study.
Nomenclature
| btdc | = | Before top dead center |
| BSFC | = | Brake specific fuel consumption |
| BTE | = | Brake thermal efficiency |
| CA | = | Crank angle |
| CI | = | Compression ignition |
| CN | = | Cetane number |
| CO | = | Carbon monoxide |
| CR | = | Compression ratio |
| CV | = | Calorific value |
| D | = | Diesel |
| DEE | = | Diethyl ether |
| EGR | = | Exhaust gas recirculation |
| HC | = | Hydrocarbons |
| INR | = | Indian rupee |
| IC | = | Internal combustion |
| IP | = | Injection pressure |
| IT | = | Injection timing |
| NE | = | Nitroethane |
| NM | = | Nitromethane |
| NOx | = | Nitrogen oxides |
| NREL | = | National renewable energy laboratory |
| PM | = | Particulate matter |
| VCR | = | Variable compression ratio |
| v/v | = | Volume/volume |
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Chandan Kumar
Chandan Kumar is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Swami Keshvanand Institute of Technology, Management and Gramothan, Jaipur, India. He received his M.Tech. in 2015 from the Rajasthan Technical University Kota, India. He has worked for research project sponsored by Rajasthan Technical University, Kota under CRS scheme of Technical Education Quality Improvement Program (TEQIP), MHRD, India. He is a member of Society of Automotive Engineers India (SAEINDIA). His research interests include alternative fuels used in IC engines, renewable energy system, heat transfer, etc.
Kunj Bihari Rana
Kunj Bihari Rana is currently working as an Assistant Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajasthan Technical University, Kota, India. He received his PhD in 2015 and M.Tech in 2009 from the Malviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur, India. He has worked for various research project sponsored by different funding agencies such as Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), India; National Project Implementation Unit, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), India; etc. He is a life member of Institution of Engineers, India (IEI) and Indian Society for Heat and Mass Transfer (ISHMT). His research interests include wind and solar based renewable energy systems, alternative fuels for IC engines, nano-fluid technology, etc.
Brajesh Tripathi
Brajesh Tripathi received his PhD in 2008 from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. He holds an Associate Professor positions at the Rajasthan Technical University Kota and Assistant Professor position at the Gautam Buddha University, Gr. Noida, India, 2011–2015, he was a post doc Fellow at the Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA from 2009 to 2011, he is working on practical problems related with applications of computational fluid dynamics in diesel engine, performance and unconventional energy systems apart from HVAC and meshless methods.