Investigation of performance and emission characteristics of IC engine using sunflower oil methyl ester as fuel with oxygenated additive and EGR

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the diesel engine performance and exhaust emissions with biodiesel as fuel and diethyl ether (DEE) as additive. Sunflower methyl ester was selected as a base fuel for the engine and DEE as an oxygenate with varying percentages. The experiment was conducted on a single-cylinder naturally aspirated direct-injection diesel engine with constant speed. Engine emissions are one of the major sources of pollution in the atmosphere. An approach to solve this problem is to add oxygenates to biodiesel. In this research work, an attempt has been made to analyze the effect of diethyl ether as an additive. Parameters such as brake thermal efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption and exhaust emission of CO, CO₂, HC, NO_x and smoke intensity were measured, and significant improvements were observed with the addition of diethyl ether with biodiesel as a blend. The brake thermal efficiency of biodiesel varied from 11.91 to 20.9%. NO_x emission was reduced from 469 to 261 ppm in full load. Hydrocarbon (HC) varied from 200 to 130 ppm in full load. Similar variations were inferred for other emissions also.

KEYWORDS:

• Biodiesel
• sunflower oil methyl ester (SOME)
• diethyl ether (DEE) and EGR

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

C. Swaminathan

The author of this thesis, C. Swaminathan was born on 4 March 1974. He obtained his bachelor of engineering degree in mechanical engineering in May 1998, and a master of engineering in thermal power engineering in November 1999, both from Annamalai University. He has 16 years of teaching experience and 10 years of research experience. He has served as lecturer, assistant professor and professor. He is now a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Aarupadai Veedu Institute of Technology, Chennai – 603104. He has published three papers in international journals, presented two papers at international conferences and presented three papers in national conferences. He has attended three short-term courses.