Sustainability evaluation of green microalgae biofuel production and reducing the engine emissions in a common rail direct engine

Abstract

The goal of this study is to find a way to run a diesel engine entirely on spirulina microalgae (SMA) and base fuel (BF) in a dual fuel mode. This study looks at the effects of keeping the injection settings and compression ratio fixed on the performance and burning of a diesel engine that has been changed to run on SMA-BF. The test is done with three different engine loads of low, medium, high and two different mixes of SMA20BF80 and SMA40BF60 at 18.5 compression ratio (CR) and 1500 rpm. The Diesel-RK model has looked at how well the engine works, how much fuel it uses, how long it takes to start, how much smoke it makes, and how much nitrogen oxides (NOx) it makes. The results show that the fuel sample (SMA20BF80) makes the engine work 0.35% less efficiently and uses 6.5% more fuel than the BF. At its peak, the SMA20BF80 blend has a heat release rate of 73.7 J/°CA and a cylinder pressure of 92.5 bar. Also, compared to BF, the SMA20BF80 mixture gives off less NOx and smoke at high load by 11.2% and 5%, respectively. But the SMA20BF80 mixture releases almost 2% more carbon dioxide than the BF mixture. NOx emissions go up as the load goes up.