Studies on Correlation between NOx and In-cylinder Temperature in a D.I Diesel Engine using FLUKE Thermal Imager for different Alternate Fuel Blends

Abstract

This research paper aims at investigating the relationship between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emission and in-cylinder temperature of the compression ignition engine fuelled with different alternative fuels at various loads. Experiments were conducted without any modifications in the engine with 20% volume concentrations of animal fat based biodiesel (AFO20), waste cooking oil biodiesel (WCO20), camphor oil (CMO20) and also including pure diesel fuel (D100). The biodiesel AFO is extracted from tallow i.e., mutton fat and WCO biodiesel from the used cooking oil via trans-esterification process. As the camphor oil (CMO) having comparable physical properties like diesel, it is blended at 20% volume concentration directly with the base fuel diesel. While fuelling CMO20, AFO20 and WCO20, the NOx concentration in the emission shows 7.52%, 10.352% and 16.405% increment respectively with the biodiesel addition to diesel. However, significant reduction in NOx of about 43.8% was observed for camphor oil-diesel blend when compared to other biodiesel blends. The correlation between NOx emission level and in-cylinder temperature was premeditated by using FLUKE thermal imager through the calculated temperature by sensing the infrared energy from the hot surface of the engine cylinder head. The result shows that the increase in in-cylinder temperature contributed to the augmentation in NOx concentration.