AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AIMED AT DETERMINING THE EFFECTS OF BLENDING SYNTHETIC KEROSENE (SK) WITH DIESEL ON THE PERFORMANCE AND COMBUSTION OF CI ENGINES

Abstract

The current energy crisis is disrupting long-standing demand trends. Due to the enormous instability in the energy markets caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the human race has moved quickly towards alternative fuel sources to become independent of other countries. This experimental investigation's goal is to learn more about how a single-cylinder CI engine responds to the combination of Synthetic Kerosene (SK) and diesel fuel. The behavior of the CI engine was experimentally examined utilizing different SK and conventional diesel fuel mixtures. Under various load situations, SK blends in the ratios of 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% by volume are created and studied in a constant speed engine. Data were compared with diesel fuel to determine various characteristics, including BTE, BSFC, exhaust gas temperature; HRR (J/°CA), peak pressure, and cylinder mean gas temperature. Minimum BSFC is observed at load of 60% - 70% engine load. SK20 blend achieved minimum BSFC which is approximately 7.5% lower than the diesel fuel. For blends of SK10, SK30 it is in between of SK20 and diesel fuel. For SK40 there is increase of 3% at minimum BSFC load condition which is range of 60% - 70%. Maximum brake thermal efficiency is observed in range of 60% - 70% of engine for all blends. SK20 is having maximum BTE, approximately 5.5% higher than diesel reference fuel. For blends S10, SK30 it is in-between SK20 and diesel. For SK40 blends there is drop in BTE in comparison to diesel fuel and a drop of nearly 4% is observed. In comparison to the trend for diesel alone, the plot for SK10, SK20 and SK30 of the synthetic kerosene blends is seen to be slightly higher because of better combustion due to presence of oxygenates. Further blending of SK leads to lower exhaust temperature due to lower calorific value of SK fuel. Maximum peak pressure is achieved in case of SK20 blend, approximately 3.5% higher than diesel for the idle condition and 1.75% higher for 100% loading condition. The percentage change for iv SK10, SK30 is in-between to SK20 and diesel fuel. For SK40 blend, drop of 1.7% for idle and 0.5% for 100% loading condition is observed with respect to base line diesel fuel. Maximum rate of pressure rise (RPP) is observed in case of SK20 blending which is approximately 7%, 6.5% higher than the diesel reference fuel data for idle and 100% loading conditions. Higher percentage blending of synthetic kerosene results in drop of rate of pressure rise for all loading conditions and drop of 9%, 3.5% is observed for idle and maximum loading condition in present study. The maximum temperature is observed in case of SK20, which nearly 3% and 2% higher is for idle and 100% loading condition respectively in comparison of diesel reference fuel. The SK40 blend is having drop of approximately 2% and 0.8% for idle and 100% load respectively. The mean gas temperature of SK10 and SK30 is between to that of SK20 and diesel reference fuel.