Experimental analysis on performance of diesel engine using mixture of diesel and bio-diesel as a working fuel with aluminum oxide nanoparticle additive

Petroleum products such as petrol and diesels are being used as a fuel to the running of Internal Combustion Engines. Day by day demands for the petroleum products is increasing since its rate of consumption is increasing. If the trend will continue the whole world may suffer from shortage of petroleum products. Therefore it is necessary to find different ways of reducing fuel consumption and at the same time to improve the performance of IC engine; it is necessary to find out some additives to mix it with the mixture of petroleum product and alternative fuel and one can formulate a new fuel. So the project's focus is given to improve the performance of CI engine using diesel and bio-diesel by adding appropriate amount of nano-aluminum oxide (n-Al2O3). An experimental investigation was carried out to find out the performance of Single cylinder, 4 stroke diesel engine using Jatropha oil bio diesel and n-Al2O3 mixed diesel. The n-Al2O3 of size <50 nm was mixed into the mixture of diesel and bio-diesel at the rate of 0.25 g/l, 0.5 g/l, 0.75 g/l and 1.00 g/l for formulation of new fuels. Nano-Al2O3 posses better combustion characteristics and enhanced surface area to volume ratio which results in better oxidation of the fuel mixture and hence enhances the combustion sufficiency of the test fuel. The diesel fuel without and with Jatropha oil bio-diesel and n-Al2O3 additive were tested in a direct injection diesel engine at different load conditions and results shown a considerable enhancement in the brake thermal efficiency compared to mixture of diesel and bio-diesel without n-Al2O3 because the additive has improved degree of mixing with air and better combustion characteristics. By the project it had been found the better results while using n-Al2O3 nano particle as an additive. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.