Experimental study on performance, combustion and emission characteristics of a four-stroke diesel engine using blended fuel

Abstract

In day today's applications, it is obligatory to devise the usage of diesel in an economic and environmentally benign way. The present work was aimed at studying the performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a four-stroke diesel engine by adding n-pentane at different proportions such as 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% by volume with diesel. The performance, combustion and emission characteristics obtained from the experiment revealed that the addition of n-pentane augments the brake thermal efficiency of the engine. At full load, the brake thermal efficiency increased by 3.17% for an addition of 6% n-pentane, 4.31% for an addition of 8% n-pentane and 6.36% for an addition of 10% n-pentane. From the emission test, it was concluded that at full load, the NOx emission decreased by 8.67% for an addition of 6% n-pentane, 17.43% for an addition of 8% n-pentane and 18.09% for an addition of 10% n-pentane.