Studies on influence of additives added biodiesel blend on diesel engine

The feed-stock of the biodiesel should be non-edible so that the food versus fuel issues can be overcome. Hence, in this work, waste cooking oil was used as biodiesel feed-stock. The novelty of this work lies in the use of hybrid additives comprising graphene (G) and diethyl ether (DEE), which has significant potential to enhance fuel properties and both G and DEE could be produced from renewable energy sources. The dosage of G considered in this work were 30, 40 and 50 mg /L and 50 mL of DEE was added to B20 blend. The engine tests were performed on the engine by varying the loads. The addition of additives to B20 blend enhances the engine performance with lower emission level as compared to B20, due to improvement in volatility and atomisation of the fuel droplet caused by both G and DEE. The engine test results show 4.52% improvement in brake thermal efficiency and reduction in carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon level by 15% and 19.44%, respectively, except oxides of nitrogen, for the G dosage of 30 mg/ L as compared to B20 blend and other dosages, due to enhanced thermal characteristics of optimised dosage of 30 mg/L of G.