Macroscopic spray behavior in pressurized chamber alongside thermal performance of quaternary castor biodiesel with butanol and 1-butoxybutane

Biofuels derived from non-edible resources such as castor biodiesel have gained considerable attention. However, a combined spray and performance analysis of ternary and quaternary blends of castor biodiesel has not been performed. Hence, we investigated the effect of butanol and 1-butoxybutane on castor biodiesel. Macroscopic spray properties at 500 &1000 bar injection and 2 & 8 bar chamber pressures were investigated, while the performance was evaluated in diesel engine under 4 different loads ranging from 1.43 kW to 4.23 kW. Spray analysis revealed that the 20% castor biodiesel blend on average showed the maximum variation from diesel with difference of +7.24% for penetration length,-13.51% for spray cone angle and-10.12% for spray area. The quaternary blend with 10% butanol and 1-butoxybutane on average showed the least variation from diesel in terms of spray penetration (+2.07%), cone angle (-1.21%) and area (-2.11%). All the fuels showed greater fuel consumption than diesel except BB10BT10 (-2.5%) which also had better thermal efficiency (+1.72%). Hence, BB10BT10 had the optimum performance and spray quality among the tested fuels. The findings will be helpful for environmentally friendly and economically viable renewable energy sources based on castor biodiesel.

Automated summary

This study investigates the effect of butanol and 1-butoxybutane on castor biodiesel and analyzes the spray performance. The results show that the quaternary blend with 10% butanol and 1-butoxybutane has the closest spray performance to diesel, and it also exhibits better fuel consumption and thermal efficiency.