The Effect of Ethanol Addition in a Biodiesel Operated DI Diesel Engine on Combustion, Performance, and Emission Characteristics

In this study, diesel fuel, biodiesel, and biodiesel–ethanol blends (BEBs) were tested in a single cylinder direct-injection (DI) diesel engine to investigate the combustion, performance, and emission characteristics of the engine at the maximum torque and an engine speed of 1500 rpm. The results indicate that when compared with biodiesel, the combustion characteristics of BE blends changed; the engine performance has improved slightly with 5% ethanol in biodiesel (BEB5). The brake thermal efficiency increases slightly with lower blends and no significant improvement with higher ethanol blends. The effectiveness of NOx and smoke density increases with increasing ethanol in the blends. With a high percentage of ethanol in the BE blends, the hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions could increase. But the use of BEB5 could reduce the HC and CO emissions as well. In general, the BE blends have lower NOx emissions, compared with biodiesel and diesel fuel. The smoke density decreases for lower ethanol blends compared with diesel and biodiesel fuel. On the whole, the BE blends give lower HC, CO, smoke density, and NOx emission compared with diesel fuel. But the additions of more ethanol with biodiesel have no significant improvement in the emission levels.

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