A critical evaluation of additive blended cashew nut shell liquid blended biodiesel performance in compression ignition engine

Towards environmental sustainability, plant-based biofuels are utilized in diesel engines as an alternative to depleting fossil fuels for improved performance and emission reduction. In this research, experimental investigation of compression ignition (CI) diesel engine performance is done with two different fuels; neat diesel and 10% cashew nut shell liquid (CSNL) blended diesel (B10) with varying proportions of Diethyl ether (DEE) additive (5, 10 and 15%) running at different injection pressure (190, 210 and 230 kgf/cm(2)). The engine is operated at rated speed and load condition for evaluation. The split-plot design of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is considered for designing the experiment and analysis. Total fuel consumption (TFC) and mechanical efficiency (ME) are optimised based on the desirability approach. The optimum condition of 15% DEE addition and 190 kgf/cm(2) injection pressure produces a lower TFC of 0.845 kg/hr and a higher ME of 68.096% for diesel. Similarly, the optimised injection pressure of 230 kg/cm(2) and 5% DEE addition also produces a lower TFC of 0.9145 kg/hr and a higher ME of 71.007% for B10 fuel. Observation shows that the increase in injection pressure and DEE addition significantly improves the ME of B10 blend and slightly increases fuel consumption. Higher ME is obtained for B10 due to the higher calorific value of CSNL.

Automated summary

In this research, the performance of a diesel engine is experimentally investigated with different fuel compositions and injection pressures. The results show that adding Diethyl ether (DEE) and increasing injection pressure can improve the mechanical efficiency of the blended fuel, but slightly increase fuel consumption.