PERFORMANCE AND EMISSIONS OF DUAL ALCOHOL FUEL BLEND WITH B20 POME BIODIESEL IN DIESEL ENGINE

Biodiesel-diesel blends are known to result in increased NOx emissions compared to diesel alone, while ethanol as a ternary fuel in diesel-biodiesel shows that the blend successfully lowers diesel fuel NOx emissions but increases BSFC consumption. Hypothetically, pentanol, when added to blends as a second alcohol, may enhance engine performance and lower NOx emissions because pentanol exhibits superior characteristics including cetane number (CN) and viscosity, which is closer to diesel, as well as a higher calorific value. Therefore, this research aims to investigate engine performance and exhaust emission diesel engine operating with dual alcohol (ethanol and pentanol) +B20 POME biodiesel blend. The experiments involved evaluating different engine loads (25%, 50%, and 75%) at a constant speed of 1800 RPM. The findings indicate that the BSFC of dual alcohol blends are higher than diesel and B20 for all tested loads, with B20E10P10 showing least increment by 6.56% and 11.18% respectively. At 75% engine load, B20E10P30 exhibits a higher BTE by 2.11% compared to Diesel. The addition of dual alcohol in the blend significantly reduces NOx emissions, especially with B20E10P30. CO₂ emissions from B20E10P30 are closer to diesel fuel and B20, being only 1.54% lower than diesel and 0.79% higher than B20 at lower engine loads. For CO emissions, B20E10P10 shows the lowest CO emissions compared to B20E10P20 and B10E10P30. The findings suggest that combining higher alcohol with lower alcohol can effectively enhance the overall performance and emission characteristics of the fuel blend, supporting the hypothesis above.