Utilization of Diesel-Ethanol Blends in a CI Engine as a Fuel with Nano Alumina as Combustion Enhancer

Alcohols are the renewable liquid fuels. These can be blended with diesel fuel for fuelling compression ignition (CI) engine. This experimental investigation includes in finding a blend containing maximum volume of ethanol, which was taken as base blend that can be blended with into diesel and can be utilized as fuel in CI engine. Also, this study includes the influence of addition of nano alumina as combustion enhancer into base blend-diesel. The experimentation was carried out in four stages, viz. (i) Solubility test of diesel ethanol in various proportions in a range of temperature 5°C to 25°C and above; (ii) Testing of properties that are essential for fuelling CI engine; (iii) Modifying the injection timing to suit the maximum possible blend and (iv) Testing the influence of nano alumina into diesel ethanol blends. Initially various proportions of diesel ethanol blends were prepared and tested for solubility in the above said range of temperature using butanol as co- solvent. Stable blends were tested for properties such as cetane number, kinematic viscosity, oxygen content and flash point. Base blend and diesel was tested in CI engine with and without modification of injection timing. Base blend -diesel was ultrasonicated with two proportions of nano alumina (50 ppm & 100 ppm) and these blends were tested in the CI engine for performance at the modified injection timings (26° & 29° before top dead centre). Results of the solubility test indicate that ethanol can be blended up to 45% by volume (base blend) to diesel with 10% butanol as co- solvent and this blend was stable up to a lower temperature of 5°C. Results of the property test also depicts that the properties of base blend & diesel meets the minimum requirement of ASTM standards to fuel CI engine. The addition of nano alumina into Maximum Volume of Ethanol - diesel blend showed significant improvement on the performance and emission characteristics. This indicates that blend containing 100 ppm of nano alumina with base blend & diesel produced similar brake thermal efficiency as that of diesel and the emissions produced by the base blend diesel blend were also found lesser than diesel at rated power condition. This enhances 55% of diesel reduction and conserves the diesel for some more periods.