Investigation on diethyl ether as an additive with Calophyllum Inophyllum biodiesel for CI engine application

Abstract

The aim of the present work deals with the investigation of compression ignition characteristics for different concentrations of diethyl ether in diesel - Calophyllum Inophyllum Methyl Ester blends. Initially, various experiments were conducted for diesel, neat biodiesel, 50% blends of diesel and biodiesel at various engine loads with constant speed conditions. All the ternary blends were prepared by adding 5%,7.5%, 10% and 12.5% of diethyl ether with diesel-biodiesel blends. The addition of diethyl ether was limited by 12.5% by volume because the engine was not running at higher engine loads. The experimental study revealed that the brake thermal efficiency was reduced by 5.3% with increase in brake specific fuel consumption for 12.5% addition of diethyl ether in the blend when compared to diesel fuel. Further, the diesel engine operation with diesel-biodiesel-diethyl ether ternary blends has shown 84%, 4.6% and 57% reduction in unburned hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen emissions than that of diesel fuel at 100% engine load. The carbon dioxide emission formation was similar to diesel fuel at lower concentration of diethyl ether and 5.2% reduction was noted for higher fraction in the blend. Meanwhile, the smoke opacity has increased to 80.1% for 12.5% of diethyl ether addition in the blend. However, the combustion characteristics are slightly dropdown when the diesel engine was operated with all the ternary blends of diethyl ether.