Investigation of the effect of adding carbon nanotubes, lower and higher level alcohol additives, in Yellow oleander methyl ester-diesel blend on diesel engine performance

Abstract

ABSTRACT The current study is to determine the overall performance of a compression ignition engine (CI) employing a B30 (30% Yellow Oleander Methyl Ester (YOME) and 70% diesel) sample including nano and alcohol additives. Initially, the surface-modified carbon nanotubes (CNTs) (at a dosage of 60 mg/L) are sonicated in the B30 blend for 30 mins at 40 kHz and termed B30CNTs60. It was found to be quite stable as evidenced by characterization. The B30CNTs60 blend is then blended with a fixed volume (10%) of n-Butanol, iso-Butanol, and Dimethyl Carbonate (DMC), and referred to as B30CNTs60+n-Butanol10%, B30CNTs60+iso-Butanol10%, and B30CNTs60+DMC 10%. The physicochemical properties of all fuel samples met ASTM criteria and samples were experimented on a 1-cylinder, 4-stroke diesel engine under varying loads. The results revealed that the B30CNTs60+DMC 10% blend enhanced heat release rate (HRR), cylinder pressure (CP), and brake thermal efficiency (BTE) by 11.2%, 8.64%, and 11.92%, respectively. Furthermore, with B30CNTs60+DMC 10% blend, the combustion duration, brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and smoke opacity were reduced by 10.9%, 15.62%, 18.24%, 18.78%, 8.12%, 6.75%, and 10.92% respectively. Finally, the B30CNTs60+DMC 10% blend was suggested to use in CI engines.