Performance, combustion and emission analysis of mustard oil biodiesel and octanol blends in diesel engine

Biodiesels from the mustard oil promise to be an alternative to the conventional diesel fuel due to their similarity in properties. Higher alcohols are added to neat Mustard oil biodiesel (M100) to vary the properties of biodiesel for improving its combustion, emission and performance characteristics. N-Octanol has the ability to act as an oxygen buffer during combustion which contributes to the catalytic effect and accelerates the combustion process. N-Octanol is dispersed to neat Mustard oil biodiesel in the form of emulsions at different dosage levels of 10, 20 and 30% by volume. Three emulsion fuels prepared for engine testing constitutes of 90% of biodiesel and 10% of n-Octanol (M90O10), 80% of biodiesel and 20% of n-Octanol (M80O20) and 70% of biodiesel and 30% of n-Octanol (M70O30) by volume respectively. AVL 5402 diesel engine is made to run on these fuels to study the effect of n-Octanol on combustion, emission and performance characteristics of the mustard oil biodiesel. Experimental results show that addition of n-octanol has a positive effect on performance, combustion and emission characteristics owing to its inbuilt oxygen content. N-octanol was found to be the better oxidizing catalyst as it was more effective in reducing HC and CO emissions. A significant reduction in NOx emission was found when fuelled with emulsion techniques. The blending of n-octanol to neat Mustard oil biodiesel reduces the energy and fuel consumption and a marginal increase in brake thermal efficiency. Further, n-octanol also reduces the ignition delay and aids the combustion.