Performance, emission and combustion study on neat biodiesel and water blends fuelled research diesel engine

This work investigates the experimental study to examine the operation characteristics of an orange peel oil biodiesel (BD100) along with water as an oxygenated additive in various volume fractions. Hard water is mixed into 100% of BD100 at 4 and 8% volume. Span 80 was employed as a nonionic surfactant, which emulsifies water into biodiesel. The experimental investigation on diesel engine reveals that the addition of water to BD100 resulted in enhancement of brake thermal efficiency (BTE) with a reduction in brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC). The tested emission parameters such as CO, HC, NOx and smoke were decreased by 11.4, 9.89, 3.36 and 5.14% for BD94W4S2 (94% volume of biodiesel) + (4% volume of water) + (2% volume of surfactant) and 12.22, 10.11, 4.85 and 6.18% for BD90W8S2 (90% volume of biodiesel) + (8% volume) + (2% volume) respectively when compared to BD100. Further, the cylinder pressure and heat release rate and were enhanced by adding water to base fuel (BD100). Overall, improvement in ignition characteristics of the engine was finer by adding, 4 and 8% volume of water to BD100 on account of its chemical properties.