Influence of Zr2O3 nano additives on particle size diameter (PSD), mass fraction burnt (MFB) and engine characteristics of Jatropha biodiesel fuelled DI diesel engine

Abstract

ABSTRACT The current work is focused on analysing the influence of zirconium oxide (Zr2O3) nano-additives as fuel-borne additives on Jatropha biodiesel fuelled single-cylinder diesel engine. Zr2O3 nano-additives were selected on doping fractions of 10 ppm, 20 ppm and 30 ppm and the base fuel chosen is B20 (20% Jatropha biodiesel + 80% diesel fuel). Although several literatures focused on usage of different nano-additives (alumina, cerium, silica, CNT, etc.) at various dosing fractions, there were merely very less works focused on using Zr2O3 nano-additives at different doping fractions. Most of the literatures focused only on performance, combustion and emission characteristics, while there is a lack of insight on mass fraction burnt and particle size diameter (PSD) from soot emissions when the test engine is operated at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% loads. With this strategic conception, the current work is intended to analyse the influence of Zr2O3 nano-additives on mass fraction burnt (MFB), particle size diameter (PSD), performance, combustion emission characteristics of a single-cylinder DI diesel engine fuelled with B20 blend (20% Jatropha biodiesel + 80% diesel fuel). Experimental results revealed that, on fuelling B20 blend with 20 ppm Zr2O3 nano-additives, BSEC is lowered by 4.87%, BTE is improved by 7.92%, CO, HC, smoke and NOx emissions were reduced by 11.32%, 5.73%, 6.56% and 9.42%, respectively. Further, 20 ppm Zr2O3 nano-additives in B20 resulted in improved pressure, CHRR and HRR of 72.68 bar, 1173.4 J and 76.37 J/°CA which are marginally high in comparison with diesel and B20. Maximum MFB is reported for B20 + 20ppm Zr2O3 and least PSD were reported B20 + 20ppm Zr2O3 blend throughout the engine load conditions.