Materials Science for Energy Technologies (Jan 2022)
An assessment of alcohol inclusion in various combinations of biodiesel-diesel on the performance and exhaust emission of modern-day compression ignition engines – A review
Abstract
The growing energy demand and non-renewable nature of conventional diesel had shifted the focus of researchers on the search for alternate fuels. Intensive research works, experiments and tests have been conducted in alternate fuels by keeping in view their non-polluting, environment-friendly, sustainable and renewable nature at the core. Consequently, biodiesel and alcohols have emerged as promising oxygenated fuel additives blended with conventional diesel and can be employed in modern-day diesel engines with the least modifications in them. The current work presents a review analysis of the performance and emissions characteristics of blended fuels comprising biodiesel, alcohols, and pure diesel in different blend ratios. The similarity in the physical-chemical properties of biodiesel and alcohol with pure diesel makes them suitable for diesel engines. The higher oxygen content of biodiesels and alcohol ensures complete combustion, thus reducing diesel engines’ detrimental exhaust emissions. However, the lower calorific value of biodiesels and alcohols negatively affects engine performance. In general, biodiesel-diesel blends in varied volumetric proportions were used in diesel engine, however, many researches have shown that B20 blend (biodiesel – 20%, diesel – 20%) offers optimized performance and emissions. The ternary blends comprised of biodiesel-alcohol-diesel offer tremendous potential as future fuel. The inclusion of alcohols as fuel additives in the form of ternary blends needs fresh review and compilation of the updated works. Therefore this review analysis is based on the contribution of ternary blends in increasing the performance and mitigating the emissions of the diesel engine. The appropriate blend composition of biodiesel and alcohol in pure diesel has been scrutinized. The inclusion of biodiesel in the range of 10% to 80% and alcohol around 5% to 45% in diesel proved suitable. Thus, ternary blended fuels prove to be promising alternate fuel in meeting the fuel demand and simultaneously addressing the present and future environmental concerns.
