Experimental characterization of CI engine performance, combustion and emission parameters using various metal oxide nanoemulsion of grapeseed oil methyl ester

The main aim of this work was to utilize the winery biomass waste as a useful feedstock for CI engines, which otherwise would have been disposed as solid waste, leading to environmental pollution. Maximum utilization of this fuel in CI engines with reduced emissions was the motivation of this study. In this work, grapeseed oil derived from winery biomass waste was used. The trans-esterified methyl ester was blended with varying dosage of nanofluid additives to improve the engine performance characteristics and reduce the emission parameters. Zinc oxide (ZnO) and cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoemulsions were prepared by mixing them with water at concentration levels of 50 and 100 ppm each. Five percent of nanoemulsion and 1% Span 80 surfactant were mixed with grapeseed biodiesel to obtain biodiesel nanoemulsion blends. The test fuels were neat diesel, grapeseed biodiesel (GSBD), GSBD ZnO50, GSBD ZnO100, GSBD CeO(2)50 and GSBD CeO(2)100, respectively. Analysis of experimental results shows an improvement in brake thermal efficiency of 29.34% and 29.23% for GSBD ZnO100 and GSBD CeO(2)100, respectively. Combustion phenomena and emission values were satisfactory for GSBD ZnO100. Peak pressure attained and heat release rate were better than GSBD fuel due to the improved thermophysical properties, however lesser than that of neat diesel. NOx emissions were slightly reduced by 10.8% due to fast evaporation rate of water particles in the nanoemulsion. HC and CO emissions were reduced by 13% and 4.6% for GSBD ZnO100 blend. Summary of results shows that GSBD produced from winery waste is suitable for use in CI engines, and the additives helped in improving the combustion efficiency and reducing the exhaust emissions.