Effect of n-butanol/diesel blends on performance, emission, noise and vibration characteristics of a diesel engine generator

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD Student,

2 Automotive Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Minia University, Egypt

Abstract

Simple diesel engine generators in general are noisy and pollute air. It is urgently
needed to find alternative fuels applicable for new as well as old engines without
structural modifications and along with keeping the environment clean. Diesel-alcohol
blends could be such alternatives fuels. For that purpose, in this study tests were
carried out using diesel fuel first then, were carried out using three of n-butanol/diesel
blends on volume bases with n-butanol concentrations of 5, 10 and 15%, identified as
nBu5, nBu10 and nBu15. The engine under study is a single cylinder, four stroke, air
cooled diesel engine generator and the tests have been carried out at a fixed 3000 rpm
and five different load conditions without any hardware modifications. Total noise,
engine block vibration, NOx, HC, CO, BSFC, BTE and EGT have been observed of
diesel and n-butanol/diesel blends. The following conclusions can be drawn with nbutanol/
diesel fuel blends against diesel fuel; (i) According to engine performance test
results; a little higher specific fuel consumption was observed with corresponding
slight increase of brake thermal efficiency and little lower exhaust gas temperatures.
(ii) According to engine emission test results; the NOx was slightly reduced, this
reduction being higher the higher the percentage of butanol in the blend. The CO
emissions were reduced, on the contrary, HC emissions were increased, this increase
being higher the higher the percentage of butanol in the blend. According to engine
vibration and noise test results; Noise and vibration characteristics are somewhat better
especially at lesser loads.

Keywords

Engineering Research Journal
Volume 163, Issue 0
September 2019
Pages 203-217

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