Experimental assessment of combustion performance in low-displacement stationary engines operating with biodiesel blends and hydroxy

Abstract

The global energy demand has motivated the investigation of profitable and environmentally friendly fuels. In the present study, the effect of hydroxy gas in blends of Karanja biodiesel and microalgae biodiesel (Chlorella protothecoides) was investigated. Therefore, the combustion characteristics, fuel consumption, overall efficiency, and emissions of biodiesel blends are addressed. For the development of the experimental tests, a low-displacement stationary diesel engine (300 cc displaced volume) was used, in which three different volumetric flows of hydroxy gas are injected while variating the engine load between 1 and 9 Nm. The results showed that oxygen enrichment due to the presence of hydroxy gas improved the combustion process of the KOME5MCP5 biodiesel blend since it improves the pressure and the heat released rate by 6.98% and 9.73%, respectively. Also, the hydroxy gas addition to the KOME5MCP5 biodiesel blend leads to maximum efficiency of 35.98%. Moreover, CO2, HC emissions, and smoke opacity can be reduced by 9.10%, 10.21%, and 7.56%, respectively, with the addition of hydroxy gas. In general, hydroxy gas fuel substitution emerges as a promising solution to reduce greenhouse emissions while enhancing the overall efficiency of the engine.