Experimental Studies on Utilization of Biogas with Biodiesel/Diesel Blends in a CI Engine

The present study covers the utilization of a gaseous alternative fuel, raw biogas, in a diesel engine. Biogas alone cannot run a diesel engine, because gaseous fuel cannot burn by compression. It can be supplied to the CI engines in dual fuel mode by using an air-biogas mixer device. In this work, it is aimed to investigate the performance and emission characteristics of a biogas-biodiesel/diesel dual fuel mode diesel engine by employing a venturi gas mixer device for providing a homogeneous mixture. The performance and emission characteristics of the engine operated by dual-fuel mode were experimentally investigated, and compared to diesel. The results indicated that biogas inducted at a flow rate of 1L/min was found to have better performance and lower emission, than that of the other flow rates. On the other hand, dual-fuel mode with a biogas flow rate of BD10 BG@1L/min showed an average reduction in BTE of 9.94% and an average increment of 8.82% in BSFC as compared to diesel. Whereas an increment in CO and HC by 5.18% and 3.01% respectively and an average reduction in NOx emissions by 14.91% as compared to diesel. Keywords: Alternative Fuel, Biogas, Biodiesel, Diesel Engine, Dual-fuel, Venturi Gas Mixer