Combustion of Microalgae Oil and Ethanol Blended with Diesel Fuel

Energies

Saddam H. Al-lwayzy¹  Talal Yusaf² 

[1] National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture (NCEA), University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, AustraliaSchool of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences (HES), University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia;

关键词: microalgae oil;    ethanol;    diesel engine;    performance;    exhaust gas emission;   

DOI  :  10.3390/en81212409

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

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 PD. 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 diesel 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 PD. The NO_x emission and HC have been improved while CO and CO₂ were found to be lower than those from PD at low engine speed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.