Combustion of Microalgae Oil and Ethanol Blended with Diesel Fuel

Saddam H. Al-lwayzy and Talal Yusaf
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Saddam H. Al-lwayzy: National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture (NCEA), University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia
Talal Yusaf: School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences (HES), University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia

Energies, 2015, vol. 8, issue 12, 1-11

Abstract: Using renewable oxygenated fuels such as ethanol is a proposed method to reduce diesel engine emission. Ethanol has lower density, viscosity, cetane number and calorific value than petroleum diesel (PD). Microalgae oil is renewable, environmentally friendly and has the potential to replace PD. In this paper, microalgae oil (10%) and ethanol (10%) have been mixed and added to (80%) diesel fuel as a renewable source of oxygenated fuel. The mixture of microalgae oil, ethanol and petroleum diesel (MOE20%) has been found to be homogenous and stable without using surfactant. The presence of microalgae oil improved the ethanol fuel demerits such as low density and viscosity. The transesterification process was not required for oil viscosity reduction due to the presence of ethanol. The MOE20% fuel has been tested in a variable compression ratio diesel engine at different speed. The engine test results with MOE20% showed a very comparable engine performance of in-cylinder pressure, brake power, torque and brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) to that of PD. The NO x emission and HC have been improved while CO and CO 2 were found to be lower than those from PD at low engine speed.

Keywords: microalgae oil; ethanol; diesel engine; performance; exhaust gas emission (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: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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