Optimization of Combustion Performance of Bioethanol (Water Hyacinth) Diesel Blends on Diesel Engine Using Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

In the current study, an attempt has been made to use water hyacinth plant (Eichhornia crassipes) as a raw material for production of bioethanol which is then blended with diesel to obtain biodiesel. To investigate the combustion performance, combustion simulation model was developed and compared with experimental results. Further, the combustion performance of bioethanol–diesel blends in diesel engine was evaluated using response surface methodology technique. Bioethanol extracted from water hyacinth is blended with commercial diesel fuel (BED) in different proportions (volume by volume (v/v)), i.e., 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25BED. This study illustrates the investigation of various compression ratio, loads and fuel injection pressures with different proportion of diesel bioethanol blends. The results show that single-cylinder diesel engine is capable to run up to 25 % bioethanol mixed with diesel by volume. The in-cylinder combustion pressure (Pmax) reduces while increasing bioethanol–diesel ratio. At higher engine loads, compression ratio and fuel injection pressure, bioethanol blends produce higher combustion pressure in comparison with pure diesel fuel. At lower load, compression ratio and fuel injection pressure, ignition delay increases and Pmax reduces. The 5BED (5 % bioethanol + 95 % diesel) and 10BED (10 % bioethanol + 90 % diesel) gave better combustion performance among all the bioethanol–diesel blends.