Comparative Assessment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Toxicity in a Diesel Engine Powered by Diesel and Biodiesel Blends with High Concentrations of Alcohols

Nadir Yilmaz (), Alpaslan Atmanli, Francisco M. Vigil and Burl Donaldson
Additional contact information
Nadir Yilmaz: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, USA
Alpaslan Atmanli: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Defense University, Ankara 06654, Turkey
Francisco M. Vigil: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
Burl Donaldson: Department of Mechanical Engineering, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 22, 1-10

Abstract: Higher carbon alcohols such as n -propanol, n -butanol, and n -pentanol that can be produced from biomass can be used as alternative fuels in diesel engines. These alcohols can mix with both diesel fuel and biodiesel without any phase separation. Currently, unregulated emissions such as toxicity and total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) from the use of these alcohols are not monitored. Investigating the effects of increasing the alternative fuel concentration for use in a diesel engine on PAH emissions will contribute to the protection of the environment and extend the engine’s operating life. In this study, the effects of adding 35% (by volume) n -propanol, n -butanol and n -pentanol to diesel and biodiesel on unregulated emissions in a diesel engine were compared. In the total PAH emission of biodiesel, the mixture containing n -pentanol stood out compared to other mixtures with a decrease of 39.17%. In higher alcohol-diesel mixtures, the highest reduction was observed in the n -butanol mixture as 80.98%. With respect to toxic emissions, very close values were obtained in biodiesel blends up to 94.15%, although n -butanol showed a maximum reduction of 84.33% in diesel blends. All these reductions also prevented the formation of high-cycle PAHs. The results obtained showed that the use of high carbon alcohols in a high mixing ratio contributed to the improvement of the fuel properties of biodiesel and to an increase in the alternative fuel mixing ratio with the reduction of PAH emissions from diesel fuel.

Keywords: diesel fuel; biodiesel; mixing ratio; higher alcohol; toxicity; total PAHs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/22/8523/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/22/8523/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:22:p:8523-:d:972754

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().