Abstract
Problem statement: Depleting petroleum reserves on the earth and increasing concerns about the environment leads to the question for fuels which are eco-friendly safer for human beings. The objective of present work was to investigate the effect of coating on piston, cylinder head and valves of a Diesel engine on the performance and emission characteristics of exhaust gases using wet ethanol (5% water) as a fuel. Approach: In this study the effect of Zirconia coating on the performance and emission characteristics of diesel engine was investigated using ethanol as sole fuel. For this purpose the cylinder head, valve and piston of the test engine were coated with a partially stabilized Zirconia of 0.5 mm thick by the plasma spray coating method. For comparing the performance of the engine with coated components with the base engine, readings were taken before and after coating. To make the diesel engine to work with ethanol a modification was done. Results: The engine’s performance was studied for both wet ethanol and diesel with and without Zirconia coating. Also the emissions values are recorded to study the engine’s behavior on emissions. Satisfactory performance was obtained with Zirconia coating compared with a standard diesel engine. The brake thermal efficiency was increased up to 1.64% for ethanol with coating and there was a significant reduction in the specific fuel consumption. The NOx, CO and HC emissions in the engine exhaust decreases with coating. Conclusion: Using ethanol as sole fuel for a LHR diesel engine causes an improvement in the performance characteristics and significant reduction in exhaust emissions.
Highlights
The rapid depletion of petroleum fuels and their ever increasing costs have lead to an intensive search for alternate fuels
Replacing diesel fuel entirely by alcohols is very difficult, an increased interest has emerged for the use of alcohols and lower alcohols with different amounts and different techniques in diesel engines as a dual fuel operation during recent years
Exhaust gas temperature: From the Fig. 8 it is (b) inferred that the exhaust gas temperature is higher for the engine runs under zirconia coated conditions than the engine runs under normal conditions. This is due to Thermal efficiency is the true indication of the efficiency with which the chemical energy input in the form of fuel is converted into useful work
Summary
The rapid depletion of petroleum fuels and their ever increasing costs have lead to an intensive search for alternate fuels. It is high time that scientists and technologists developed an alternate fuel that would run on the existing engines without many modifications and one that would cater to the ever increasing power needs of the countries and domestic market (Beele et al, 1999). Replacing diesel fuel entirely by alcohols is very difficult, an increased interest has emerged for the use of alcohols and lower alcohols (methanol and ethanol) with different amounts and different techniques in diesel engines as a dual fuel operation during recent years. Ethanol is one of the possible fuels for diesel replacement in Compression Ignition (CI) engines. It can be made from raw materials such as sugarcane, sorghum, corn barley and cassava, sugar beets using already improved and demonstrated technologies.
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