Performance and emission of compression ignition (CI) engine using ethanol-diesel blending as a fuel

Abstract

Ethanol-Diesel blended fuel is usually known as ‘E-Diesel’, ‘Diesohol’ or ‘Oxygenated Diesel’ that has been performed on the unmodified compression ignition engine. Three different proportions of 5%, 7.5% and 10% ethanol (by volume) are blended with diesel that being used as fuel. Biodiesel was added at the range of 5-10% into the blended fuels as emulsifier and balancing the overall fuel properties. Based on the properties test, it was found that the blended fuels have lower heating value, kinematic viscosity and density as the percentage of ethanol was increased. For the engine performance characteristics, no significant reduction in brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) due to slight difference in heating values between diesel and blended fuels. The percentage deviation of brake thermal efficiency (BTE) for blended fuels from diesel were less than 4% showing the engine converted the chemical energy in fuels into mechanical energy almost the same efficiency. Whilst for emissions, the blended fuels reduced in oxides of nitrogen (NOX) at the range of 24.1-43.1% compared to diesel. As conclusion, the best blended fuel is E5 which contained 5% ethanol, 7.5% biodiesel and 87.5% diesel (D87.5B7.5E5) that contributed lower NOX emitted and performed better in term of BSFC and BTE.