Author : Dr.K.Thirupathi Reddy 1
Date of Publication :16th March 2017
Abstract: Using renewable oxygenated fuels such as ethanol is a proposed method to reduce diesel engine emission. Ethanol has lower density, viscosity, cetane number and calorific value than petroleum diesel (PD). Microalgae oil is renewable, environmentally friendly and has the potential to replace petroleum diesel. In this paper, microalgae oil (10%) and ethanol (10%) have been mixed and added to (80%) diesel fuel as a renewable source of oxygenated fuel. The mixture of microalgae oil, ethanol and petroleum diesel (MOE20%) has been found to be homogenous and stable without using surfactant. The presence of microalgae oil improved the ethanol fuel demerits such as low density and viscosity. The transesterification process was not required for oil viscosity reduction due to the presence of ethanol. The MOE20% fuel has been tested in a Variable Compression Ratio Research Engine at different speed. The engine test results with MOE20% showed a very comparable engine performance of in-cylinder pressure, brake power, torque and brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) to that of petroleum diesel. The NOx emission and HC have been improved while CO and CO2 were found to be lower than those from petroleum diesel at low engine speed.
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