SOME EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS ON TERNARY BLENDS OF DIETHYL ETHER IN COMPRESSION IGNITION ENGINE

Abstract

Due to huge reduction in crude oil resources as result of excessive utilization of oil products soon there will be a scarcity of transportation fuels in the world. The scarcity has to be remunerated by exploring some substitute fuels. This work deals with finding a diesel alternative as consumption of diesel is roughly four times the consumption of gasoline as per the annual report of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, so, it is quite effectual to replace diesel with a suitable alternative viz alcohols, ethers, biodiesel etc. Ethers have shown some promising properties as a diesel fuel alternative, out of which dimethyl ether and diethyl ethers are most trending and booming alternatives among research fraternity most recently. So, in this work, ternary blends of diethyl ether and jatropha biodiesel in diesel are examined on various standards so as to proclaim that diethyl ether is the prospect substitute fuel for compression ignition engine. In this work, ternary blends of diethyl ether and jatropha biodiesel in diesel are prepared in different proportions and named as DEExBy where “x” is the % of DEE in blends and “y” is the % of biodiesel in blends. These blends are firstly monitored for a month after being prepared to check their stability. Once it is found that the blends are stable, physic-chemical properties of these blends are measured and compared with that of neat diesel. Spray characteristics of these blends are established using Malvern Spraytec Optical Spray Analyzer and these characteristics are compared with that of diesel, as spray characteristics are quite significant in estimating quality of combustion of a fuel in combustion chamber. Lastly, when the blends passed every prerequisite test to be used for engine trials, they are tested in unmodified Single Cylinder Air Cooled Diesel Engine. Various performance parameters of engine are measured with these blends at different loads viz no load, 20% load, 40% load, 60% load, 80% load and at full load. Emission vi

characteristics are also examined using AVL gas and smoke analyzer. Emission characteristics or variation of amounts of gases emitted by engine at different loads are estimated and examined including smoke opacity and plotted against BMEP (brake mean effective pressure).