Effect of EGR on emissions of a modified DI compression ignition engine energized with nanoemulsive blends of grapeseed biodiesel

Abstract

This research work investigates the effect of Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) in a CI engine fueled with Grapeseed oil biodiesel derived from winery biomass waste. As the brake thermal efficiency of any biodiesel are generally lesser compared to diesel, fuel modification and design changes in combustion chamber geometry are made to improve the thermal efficiency. The above strategy not only decrease fuel consumption, but also reduces the engine emissions like HC, CO and NO. To further reduce NO emission that is formed due to high combustion pressure and temperature, EGR technique is used at four different rates, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% and the optimum rate is decided based on NO soot tradeoff. Engine tests were conducted at various loads to study the performance of nanoemulsive grapeseed biodiesel with modified combustion chamber shape. NO emissions were noticed to increase at high loads. Nano blends of grapeseed oil biodiesel injected at 23°bTDC at 5% EGR rate was found to reduce NO emissions from 8.07 g/kWh to 5.5 g/kWh with a slight compromise in smoke. UBHC and BSCO emissions were reasonably reduced at this EGR rate by 20.7% and 6.2% compared to diesel. The novel finding of this investigation is that biomass derived from winery waste could be a viable fuel for CI engines with suitable engine modifications.