Investigation of the DI Diesel Engine Performance using Ethanol-Diesel Fuel Blends

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Thammasat University, Pathumthani, Thailand 12120
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Thammasat University, Pathumthani, Thailand 12120

Abstract

Ethanol-diesel blend is a promising candidate as a fuel for direct injection (DI) diesel engine. In this research, solubility of different compositions of ethanol-diesel blends from 2 to 15% (v/v) ethanol were tested for 20 days. Significant increases in solubility of the blends were observed after addition of 1% (v/v) n-butanol. The Kubota’s RT140 diesel engine was operated using E7B1D92 blend at several engine speeds (1,000 to 1,600 rpm). The obtained results demonstrated that, when using E7B1D92 blend at an engine speed of 1,500 rpm, the engine power and torque of the RT140 engine were increased from 8.6 PS to 10.1 PS and 4.1 kg_f-m to 5.1 kg_f-m compared to pure diesel fuel. However, specific consumption fuel increased when E7B1D92 blend was used during the engine test. Additionally, analysis of exhaust gas revealed a decrease in smoke density when E7B1D92 was used instead of pure diesel.