The Effect of TiO2 Nanoparticle Blended Water Diesel Emulsion Fuel on CI Engine Performance and Emission Characteristics

Abstract

Environmental degradation due to increase in pollution is the serious problem in the front of the whole world. This problem further deteriorates with the depletion of natural resources. In addition, the fight against the inflation in energy prices and the dependency on the foreign oil has intensified the efforts to develop alternative fuel. Scientists and researchers all over the world are doing their best to develop alternative fuels, which will solve both the problems (pollution and depletion of resources) at the same time. A number of alternative fuels (emulsions, biodiesels etc.) have already been discovered, but most of them are still in research and development sector. Moreover, water-diesel emulsion is viewed more favourable as compared to other alternative fuel due to easy availability of water. Due to the superior properties of nanofluids, many researchers have examined the impact of varies nanoparticles on the performance and emission characteristics of CI engine but most of the current research have been focused solely on nanoparticles dispersed in diesel or biodiesel as base fluid. However, the experimentation done on the emulsion prepared by dispersing water in diesel have shown promising results, hence the effect of nanoparticles in emulsion used as a fuel for compression ignition needs to be studied because experimental data of nanoparticles in diesel and biodiesel had encouraging results. In the present work, the effect of titanium oxide nanoparticle blended water-diesel emulsion on the performance and emission characteristics of constant speed (1500 rpm) VCR diesel engine are studied. Water-diesel emulsions with 10% and 15% water by volume are used as a base fluid for the addition of 50 ppm and 70 ppm titanium oxide nanoparticles. The mixture of span 80 and tween 80 with Hydrophilic and Lipophilic Balance value of 8 is used as surfactant for the preparation of stable water-diesel emulsion. All the prepared blends (E10, E10TiO250, E10TiO270, E15, E15TiO250 and E15TiO270) are examined at three-compression ratios (14, 16 and 18) with varying loads and the obtained results of performance and emission are compared with that of conventional diesel. All the results are compared and it is concluded that the titanium oxide nanoparticle blended water diesel emulsion not only enhance the performance characteristics (brake power, brake thermal efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption) but also helps in the reduction of harmful emissions from compression ignition engines