Effect of Diethyl Ether (DEE) on Performances and Smoke Emission of Direct Injection Diesel Engine Fueled by Diesel and Jatropha Oil Blends with Cold EGR System

Abstract

A widely use of diesel engines increases the scarcity of fossil fuels and air pollution. Jatropha was proved potentially to be used as alternative diesel fuel. However, adding jatropha to diesel fuel increases smoke emissions due to higher their viscosity than diesel fuel. Therefore diethyl ether is substituted into a mixture of diesel and jatropha fuel to solve the problem. However, the use of diethyl ether may have an impact on diesel engine performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of the addition of diethyl ether on thermal efficiency, exhaust gas temperature and smoke emissions from diesel engines. This study used Isuzu 4JB1 engine equipped with EGR system. The diethyl ether composition in the mixed fuel was varied at 5, 10 and 15% of the total fuel volume. Jatropha in this mixed fuel was set at only 10%. Based on the experimental results, the use of DJ10DEE15 fuel showed the highest increase of 16% in hot EGR systems compared to those without EGR and cold EGR using D100 fuel at full engine load. In addition, the use of DJ10DEE15 fuel with cold EGR system resulted in 8% reduction of exhaust gas temperature compared to the use of D100 fuel at full engine load, while smoke opacity was decreased to 33%.