Experimental investigation of performance, emission and combustion characteristics of olive mill wastewater biofuel blends fuelled CI engine

The current study investigates the opportunity of using olive mill wastewater (OMWW) as a renewable fuel in internal combustion engines. The biofuel was made from the hydrothermal conversion of OMWW using sub-/ supercritical alcohol-water system. OMWW biofuel was blended with pure diesel (designated B0). Three blends namely B10, B20 and B30 containing respectively 10%, 20% and 30% by volume of biofuel were tested. This paper focuses on the experimental study of the performance, combustion and emission characteristics of a diesel engine using OMWW biofuel as a partial replacement of conventional diesel fuel. All experiments were performed with constant engine speed (1500 rpm). The engine load was varied from 20 to 100% of full load. It is found that B10 blend offers the best results, compared to B20 and B30, in terms of performance and pollutant emissions. Using B10 showed a lower emission levels for unburned hydrocarbons (12%), particulate matter (12%) and carbon monoxide (26%) under high load conditions, compared to that of B20. Moreover, under medium load conditions, B10 further reduced the concentration of pollutants such as particulate matter (55%) and carbon monoxide (65%) compared to that of B30. In addition, the use of B20 and B30 blends resulted in a lower thermal efficiency than that of diesel fuel. Conversely, the thermal efficiency obtained with B10 was the highest even compared to diesel fuel.

Automated summary

The study found that the blend B10 with 10% biofuel offered the best performance and lowest pollutant emissions, especially under high load conditions. B10 showed lower emissions of pollutants such as particulate matter and carbon monoxide at different load conditions, compared to blends B20 and B30.