Energy, exergy and sustainability analyses of nanoparticles added to fuels to reduce carbon footprint

In this study, experimental and thermodynamic analyses were used to investigate the use of fuel blends created by adding cerium oxide (CeO2) and aluminium oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles to diesel/heavy fuel oil (HFO) fuel blends in a compression ignition engine. In the study, a single-cylinder compression ignition engine was tested at four different engine loads at a constant engine speed of 3000 rpm. The experiments measured engine power, fuel consumption, exhaust gas temperature, engine casing temperature and exhaust pollutants. Thus, a study on energy, efficiency and sustainability was carried out by comparing fuel blends. All fuel blends were subjected to energy and exergy efficiency, lost exergy and sustainability index calculations. The addition of nanoparticles to the fuel increases the energy loss compared to the D80F20 (80% Diesel + 20% HFO) fuel blend. Comparing D80F20AL100 (80% Diesel + 20% HFO + 100 ppm Al2O3) and D80F20CE100 (80% Diesel + 20% HFO + 100 ppm CeO2) fuel blends, the exergy loss of D80F20 fuel is 10.76% and 14.23% higher when the engine power is 4000 W, respectively. The energy efficiency of D80F20 fuel increases as more nanoparticles are added and reaches 12.60% and 12.80% for D80F20CE25 (80% Diesel + 20%HFO + 25 ppm CeO2) and D80F20CE100 fuels under 3000 W engine load, respectively. The inclusion of nanoparticles in diesel/HFO fuel blends gives results in line with the sustainability index.