The Influence of Silicon Dioxide as a Fuel Additive in a Diesel Engine Fuelled by Pure Palm Oil

Abstract In the last decade, the Indonesian government has implemented a program to use biodiesel as a substitute for fossil diesel to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. On the other hand, the development of biodiesel as an alternative fuel to replace fossil diesel has several challenges, one of which is the production of biodiesel, which is more complicated and requires a long process. However, the direct use of crude palm oil (CPO) in diesel engines is not recommended because it has many drawbacks. Research recently shows that fuel additives in diesel engines have promising prospects. Therefore, to solve the problem, this study used pure palm oil (PPaO) as the primary fuel, with the addition of silicon oxide (SiO2) as a fuel additive in diesel engines. The results showed that using SiO2 additive in PPaO can increase thermal efficiency by 18.8% at 60% load compared to diesel fuel (DF). Nevertheless, using this fuel increased specific fuel consumption (SFC) by 3.9% on average and increased the opacity by 153% compared to diesel fuel. These results indicate that SiO2 has the potential to be developed as an effective additive to PPaO fuel that can improve the efficiency and performance of diesel engines.