Applied Thermal Engineering 98 (2016) 670682

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Applied Thermal Engineering

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s e v i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / a p t h e r m e n g

Research Paper

Impact of alcohol addition to diesel on the performance combustion

and emissions of a compression ignition engine
Ambarish Datta, Bijan Kumar Mandal *
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah 711103, West Bengal, India

H I G H L I G H T S

The study investigates the effect of alcohol addition to diesel on CI engine performances.
Thermal eciency increases marginally with addition of ethanol and methanol to diesel.
Ignition delay for blended fuels is increased, resulting to higher heat release.
Peak pressure rise is lower for alcohol blended fuels.
NOx, specic PM and smoke emissions decrease signicantly.

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: An attempt has been made to simulate a compression ignition engine using diesel-ethanol and diesel-
Received 16 June 2015 methanol blends as fuels. The engine considered for the simulation is a single cylinder, naturally aspirated,
Accepted 17 December 2015 water cooled, direct injection, four stroke diesel engine. During the simulation, the speed and the static
Available online 12 January 2016
injection timing are kept constant at 1500 rpm and 23bTDC respectively. The commercial software named
Diesel-RK used for this work is capable of predicting performance and combustion characteristics of the
Keywords:
engine as well as the formation and emission of different harmful pollutants from it. The analysis of the
Ethanol
predicted results shows that the eciencies increase slightly and BSFC increases with methanol as well
Methanol
Performance as ethanol addition to diesel. Most of the harmful pollutants in the exhaust are reduced signicantly except
Combustion CO2 with the use of alcohol blended fuels. Reduction in NOx emission is more with diesel-ethanol blend
Emission compared to diesel-methanol blend. The reverse trend was observed in the case of particulate matter
Diesel engine and smoke emission.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction dustry is one of the largest in the world. It is quite evident that the
problem cannot be solved with the conventional fossil fuels as their
Most of the automobile sectors use conventional fuels as their reserve is limited and also the emission norms are expected to be
primary sources of energy and the demand for fuels is constantly more stringent in the future [3]. This situation can be handled by
increasing with the recent rise in the population, urbanization of using biofuels for compression ignition (CI) engines. Biodiesel is the
the world and development in the eld of science and technology. smartest choice among the biofuels throughout the world and also
However, these conventional fuels being non-renewable in nature in India [4]. But the use of biodiesel in a CI engine is facing some
are depleting at an alarming rate and thus are in a process of ex- diculties also. So there is a need for supplementary fuel that can
tinction. In addition to that, the harmful greenhouse gases that are be mixed with biodiesel so that the blended fuels can enhance the
emitted due to the burning of these fossil fuels are constantly de- overall engine characteristics. Many of the researchers choose ethanol
grading the environment. This puts a question mark on the as the supplementary fuel or oxygenated additive [5] to biodiesel
sustainability of the use of rampant use of conventional fuels in the and diesel also [69]. The diculty in meeting the increasingly strin-
transportation sector. International pressures have already started gent limitations on particulate matter (PM) and NOx emissions has
mounting on several countries to curb their GHG and other pol- stimulated interest in ethanol-fueled compression ignition engines
lutant emissions [1,2]. The vehicle population throughout the world because ethanol diffusion ames produce virtually no soot. Ethanol
is increasing rapidly, and in India the growth rate of automotive in- has limited solubility in diesel; hence the amounts of ethanol in
ethanol-diesel solutions are restricted to small percentages (typi-
cally up to 20%). Also, the use of ethanol provides better energy
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 98300 17592; fax: +91 33 2668 2916. security to the developing countries. In a similar way, methanol can
E-mail address: bkm375@yahoo.co.in (B.K. Mandal). be added to diesel, but several researchers [10,11] have also

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.12.047
1359-4311/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal/Applied Thermal Engineering 98 (2016) 670682 671

reported that there are some diculties to form homogeneous for dieselethanol blend compared to those with neat diesel. Kannan
diesel-methanol mixtures. Methanol can be added to diesel either et al. [20] used a two zone combustion model for predicting the per-
in the blended mode or in the fumigation mode. In the blended formance, combustion and emission characteristics of a diesel engine
mode, in most of the cases methanol and diesel fuel are blended fuelled with jatropha biodiesel, ethanol and diesel. They observed
with an additive [12]. In the fumigation mode, diesel fuel is in- higher thermal eciency with dieselethanol blends than with neat
jected through the injector and methanol is injected with the air diesel. However, the lower caloric value of ethanol led to higher
intake system into the cylinder. However, methanol has an advan- amount of fuel consumption for the blended fuel. The higher latent
tage because of its low price and higher oxygen fraction. heat of vaporization of ethanol resulted to slightly higher heat release
Zhu et al. [13] investigated the combustion, performance and and longer combustion duration. They also noted reductions in the
emission from an ISUZU, four cylinder, naturally aspirated inline emissions of CO, THC and smoke, and increase in NOx emission with
diesel engine using diesel-ethanol blends (maximum up to 15% by the addition of ethanol as well as biodiesel to diesel. Li et al. [21]
volume) as fuels. They observed that maximum pressure, heat release numerically investigated the combustion and emission character-
rate and ignition delay period increased with the addition of ethanol istics of dieselmethanol fueled reactivity controlled compression
to diesel. Brake specic fuel consumption and brake thermal e- ignition (RCCI) engine with the aid of KIVA-3V code. They ob-
ciency were increased with the addition of ethanol. The emissions served that the peak heat release rate decreased with the increase
of CO, HC, NOx and PM were found to be less with the use of ethanol- of methanol fraction in the blended fuels. The HC, CO and NOx emis-
diesel blends. Ajav et al. [7] experimented on a four stroke, single sion was reduced due to homogeneous charge distribution of the
cylinder, naturally aspirated diesel engine with ethanol-diesel fuel. They also observed an improvement in fuel economy due to
blended fuel and noted a decrease in CO and NOx emission. Li et the addition of methanol to diesel.
al. [14] noted an increase in brake specic fuel consumption and The literature survey shows that some experimental works have
brake thermal eciency and decrease in CO and NOx emission with been carried out to investigate the performance, combustion and
the increase in ethanol percentage in the blended fuel. emission characteristics of compression ignition engines fueled with
Chao et al. [15] investigated the emission characteristics of a six dieselmethanol and dieselethanol blends. Some ideas about the
cylinder, naturally aspirated, direct injection diesel engine using actual behavior of dieselalcohol blends as diesel engine fuels can
dieselmethanol blends (up to 15% by volume) with an additive. be generated from the experimental studies. But the experimen-
They found a decrease in NOx emissions but an increase in CO and tal procedures are not always feasible from the perspective of time,
HC emissions as the methanol content in the blended fuel was in- manpower and cost. Thus, numerical simulation, using proper math-
creased. The emission of PM was found to be dependent also on the ematical models, to evaluate the effect of ethanol and methanol on
operating conditions. Huang et al. [12,16] experimentally investi- diesel engines can prove to be an economic approach in engine
gated the performance, combustion and emission characteristics of design. The engine design parameters can easily be changed in a
a single cylinder, direction injection diesel engine with stabilized numerical simulation work and nally an optimum design condi-
dieselmethanol blends having methanol up to a maximum amount tion may be recommended. Also, there is a lack of numerical study
of 18% by weight. They found that increasing the methanol per- on these blended fuels in the literature. Some commercial softwares
centage in the blended fuel increased the ignition delay, causing an are available for the simulation of diesel engines, Diesel-RK being
increase in the heat release rate in the premixed combustion phase one of them which predicts reasonably well if the uncertainties in
and a reduction in the combustion duration in the diffusion com- the input parameters are properly resolved. Keeping this in mind,
bustion phase. A signicant reduction of smoke and CO emission the performance, combustion and emission parameters of a diesel
was noted by them. However, HC emission remained almost unal- engine using pure diesel, diesel+5% ethanol (DE5), diesel+10% ethanol
tered and NOx emission increased with the addition of methanol (DE10), diesel+15% ethanol (DE15), diesel+5% methanol (DM5),
to diesel. diesel+10% methanol (DM10) and diesel+15% methanol (DM15) as
In an experimental study made by Sayin [17], it was observed fuels have been simulated using the Diesel-RK software.
that addition of methanol to diesel reduced CO, HC and smoke emis-
sions because of oxygen content of methanol. On the other hand, 2. Properties of fuels
the oxygen content led to an improved combustion which in-
creased the emission of CO2. The NOx emission was also increased The performance, combustion and emission characteristics of the
due to the higher peak temperature rise during the time of com- engine depend heavily on the type of fuel used and its thermo-
bustion. The low heating value of methanol increased the brake physical properties. Properties of conventional fossil fuels as well
specic fuel consumption also. as alternative or supplementary fuels depend on its chemical com-
Sayin [18] experimentally investigated the performance and emis- positions and the methods of preparation. Ethanol can easily be
sion behavior of a four stroke diesel engine using dieselalcohol produced from sugar cane, corn or lignocellulosic biomass. The
blended fuels (both ethanol and methanol up to 10%). They ob- oxygen present in the ethanol molecules helps in the reduction of
served a reduction in CO, HC and smoke emissions and an increase soot and particulate matter formation during the combustion. The
in NOx emission with both the blended fuels. It was reported that combustion process is also enhanced by the use of ethanol blended
brake specic fuel consumption increased and brake thermal e- diesel compared to that of neat diesel. Due to lack of miscibility,
ciency decreased with the addition of methanol as well as ethanol only a small percentage of ethanol can be added to diesel in blended
to diesel, but the effect was more in case of methanol. form. The addition of ethanol to diesel changes the physiochemical
A few numerical investigations on the characteristics of direct properties of the blend. It reduces the cetane number of the blended
injection diesel engines using diesel alcohol blends as fuels have fuel which increases the delay period. Viscosity and energy density
also been reported in the literature. Rakopoulos et al. [19] devel- are also reduced by the addition of ethanol. The dynamic viscosity
oped a two dimensional, multi-zone model for direct injection diesel of ethanol is much lower than diesel which can cause a lubricity
engine and examined the performance and emission characteris- problem, which is a drawback of the system also. On the other hand,
tics of dieselethanol blend. It was reported that ethanols low cetane methanol is one of the most attractive alternative fuels for com-
number resulted higher ignition delay compared to that of diesel. pression ignition engine with a chemical formula of CH3OH. It can
It was also observed that the peak heat release rate during pre- be readily made from widely available fossil raw materials includ-
mixed combustion was much higher and sharper for diesel ing coal, natural gas and bio substances. Methanol is also a clean
ethanol blend. The emissions of NOx and soot were found to be lower fuel when judged by regular emission standard. Methanol has many
672 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal/Applied Thermal Engineering 98 (2016) 670682

Table 1 heat release rate. In this particular study, the speed, injection timing
Properties of ethanol, methanol and diesel. and compression ratio of the engine are kept constant at 1500 rpm,
Properties Ethanol Methanol Diesel 23bTDC and 17.5:1 respectively.
Chemical formula C2H5OH CH3OH C10~H15
Molecular weight (g mol1) 46 32 190-220 4. Simulation model using Diesel-RK
Density @ 20 C (g cm3) 0.763 0.764 0.830
Viscosity @ 20 C (m Pa S) 1.20 0.59 2.8
Thermodynamic models are based on the rst law of thermo-
Carbon content (%wt) 52.2 37.5 87
Hydrogen content (%wt) 13.1 12.6 12.6 dynamics and are used to analyze the performance characteristics
Oxygen content (%wt) 34.7 49.9 0.004 of engines in Diesel-RK software. Pressure, temperature and other
Sulfur content (ppm wt) 0 0 <350 required properties are evaluated with respect to crank angle or with
Cetane number 8 5 48
respect to time. The engine friction and heat transfer are taken into
Auto ignition temperature (C) 423 464 316
Heat of vaporization (kJ/kg) 846 1100 250
account using semi-empirical correlations derived from experi-
Stoichiometric fuel/air ratio 0.11111 0.155038 0.068027 mental results. The combustion process inside the engine is
Lower heating value (MJ/kg) 20.094 19.9 42 simulated using multi-zone model. The model takes into account
Flash point (C) 13 11 52 the following conservations equations as described by Fiveland and
Assanis [22].

desirable combustion and emission characteristics. It has a lower 4.1. Conservation of mass
viscosity compared to diesel fuel, which enhances the atomiza-
tion process. Higher oxygen content and low sulphur content result According to this, the rate of change of mass within any open
in a lesser amount of pollutant emission. The higher laminar ame system is the net ux of mass across the system boundaries and
propagation speed leads to nishing the combustion earlier, thus mathematically it can be expressed as:
improving the thermal eciency of the engine. Lower heating value
(LHV) of methanol has an average value of 19.9 MJ/kg which is much dm
= mj (1)
lower than that of diesel and this increases the fuel consumption dt j
of the blended fuel. The high stoichiometric fuel/air ratio, higher
oxygen content and higher C/H ratio enhance the combustion
4.2. Conservation of species
process, resulting in lower soot and smoke emission [11]. The prop-
erties of ethanol, methanol and diesel are listed in Table 1 for
The species conservation equation considering the evaluation and
comparison.
destruction of each species within the combustion chamber has been
considered on mass fraction basis and the mass fraction is dened
3. Methodology
as:
The authors have used commercial software Diesel-RK for the mi
simulation of a direct injection diesel engine with different fuels. Yi = (2)
m
It needs the specic information related to the engine geometry like
piston and bowl shape, connecting rod length, operating condi- where mi is the mass of the ith species and m is the total mass within
tions like rpm, compression ratio, injection timing and fuel properties the control cylinder. The species equations are deduced from their
as inputs. The simulation has been carried out for a Kirloskar make multi-dimensional counterparts by neglecting species diffusion terms,
TV1 compression ignition engine at its rated condition. The de- consistent with the zero-dimensional assumption and are written
tailed specications of the engine are given in Table 2. After as:
developing the engine model, the fuel gallery is to be prepared for
d (mYi )
the simulation. For that purpose, the different thermo-physical prop- = m jYi j + S gen (3)
erties of diesel, ethanol, methanol, ethanoldiesel and methanol dt j
diesel blends (5%, 10% and 15%) have been incorporated into the
software as input data. In order to predict the compatibility of the where S gen is the net generation rate of the ith species and is given
different fuels for the engines, different performance parameters, by
such as brake thermal eciency, brake specic fuel consumption,
exhaust gas temperature and environmental parameters such as NOx, S gen = iWmw v (4)
PM and smoke emissions have been computed. It also predicts com-
bustion characteristics in terms of in-cylinder pressure, ignition delay, Combining Eq. (3), Eq. (4) and continuity equation, the species
maximum pressure and temperature rise inside the cylinder and conservation equation can nally be re-written as:

m j j iWmw
Yi = (Yi Yi ) +
cyl
(5)
Table 2 j
m
Engine specication.

Manufacturer Kirloskar Oil Engine Ltd. 4.3. Conservation of energy

Model TV1
Type 4 stroke, direct injection The generalized energy equation for an open thermodynamic
No. of cylinders 1
system may be written following Fiveland and Assanis [22] as:
Rated power 3.5 kW @ 1500 rpm
Bore diameter 87.5 mm
d (mu) dv dQ ht
Stroke length 110 mm = p + + m jh j (6)
Connecting rod length 234 mm dt dt dt j
Method of cooling Water cooled
Number of nozzle 3 The left hand side of the above equation denotes the rate of
Nozzle hole diameter 0.3 mm
change of energy within the system. The rst, the second and the
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal/Applied Thermal Engineering 98 (2016) 670682 673

third terms on the right hand side of the equation represent the rate on the heat release rate. The ignition delay period is the rst phase
of displacement work, heat transfer rate and enthalpy ux of the heat release and it is calculated by using modied Tolstovs
respectively. equation [27] as follows,
Some additional information, in the form of sub-models, is nec-
essary in order to close the above-mentioned equations. The energy T Ea 70
= 3.8 106 (1 1.6 104.n) exp (10)
conservation equation is written for the cylinder volume, from inlet p 8.312T CN + 25
valve closing time to exhaust valve opening time. Some assump-
tions are also made to simplify the above said equations. During the During premixed combustion (the second phase) the heat release
compression as well as the expansion processes, pressure is invari- rate is given by
ably assumed to be uniform throughout the cylinder, with xed
dx
unburned and burned gas regions in chemical equilibrium. During = o ( A0 (m f Vi ) ( ud x ) (0.1 ud + x0 )) + 1 (d u d ) (11)
ame propagation, burned and unburned zones are assumed to be d
separated by an innitely thin ame front, with no heat exchange
between the two zones. All gases are considered ideal in nature. The The heat release rate during the third phase (called mixing-
deviation from ideal gas law at high pressures is counter balanced controlled combustion phase) is calculated using the following
by the associated high temperatures during combustion inside the equation:
engine.
dx
Air/fuel mixture equivalence ratio, , is dened as the ratio of = 1 (d u d ) + 2 ( A2 (m f Vc ) ( u x ) . ( x ) (12)
actual air/fuel ratio and the stoichiometric air/ fuel ratio and is d
written as: After the fuel injection, at late combustion phase, which is the
( A F ) (m a m f ) last stage, the heat release rate is given by
= = (7)
( A F )S (m a m f )S dx
= 3 A3K T (1 x ) (b x ) (13)
The stoichiometric air/fuel mixture contains just sucient amount d
of air required to fully burn the fuel. In those equations it is assumed that 0 = 1 = 2 = which de-
scribes the completeness of fuel vapor combustion in the zones. The
heat transfer in the cylinder is taken into account and the corre-
4.4. Engine friction modeling
sponding heat transfer coecients for its different zones are
evaluated using Woschnis correlation [28].
The modeling of engine friction and the determination of the as-
In the equations used to describe heat release model, the fol-
sociated losses are necessary to evaluate brake mean effective
lowing notation is used: mf is the fuel mass per cycle, Vi and Vc
pressure and brake power. Several models of engine friction with
are cylinder volumes at injection timing and at TDC, ud and u are
varying accuracy are available in the literature. McAulay et al. [23]
fuel fractions evaporated during ignition delay period and up to the
proposed that the total loss in single cylinder compression igni-
current moment respectively. A0, A1, A2 are empirical factors de-
tion engine varied linearly with peak pressure inside the cylinder
pending on engine speed and swirl intensity and A3 can be found
and also with the piston speed. Chen and Flynn [24] also pro-
from Eq. (13). b is the eciency of air use and is the air-fuel equiv-
posed similar correlation for the modeling of engine friction. Diesel-
alence ratio.
RK software has the option to use different friction models. The
The simulation nally predicts the performance of the engines
present simulation has been carried out using the friction model
in terms of parameters like brake power, brake mean effective
of Chen and Flynn. It provides a simplied formula considering most
pressure, brake thermal eciency, specic fuel consumption
of the losses in terms of frictional mean effective pressure (FMEP)
and mechanical eciency. These parameters are calculated sepa-
as:
rately for the fuels investigated in this work for different engine
FMEP = + Pmax + S p (8) loads.

where , and are constants, which depend on engine geome-

try. Pmax is the maximum cylinder pressure in bar and Sp is the mean 4.6. NOx formation modeling
piston velocity in m/s. For the present simulation, the values of ,
and are taken as 0.1 bar, 0.005 and 0.142 bar-s/m. Out of all the oxides of nitrogen, NO (nitric oxide) is predomi-
Once the FMEP is calculated, the BMEP can be calculated by nant in diesel engine [29] emissions. Therefore, only NO formation
knowing IMEP from the PV plot (indicator diagram). Brake power following Zeldovich mechanism is considered in this study. Kuleshov
(Pb) is then calculated from the known value of swept volume of [30] described the procedure and that has been adapted in this
the engine cylinder considered for the simulation. model. It consists of step by step calculation of equilibrium
Brake specic fuel consumption, BSFC, is the fuel amount con- composition of combustion products for eighteen species in the
sumed per unit of brake power produced by the engine and burnt gas zone. Thermal NO is calculated using chain Zeldovich
mathematically it can be written as: mechanism and the basic reactions for NO formation are as
follows:
f
m
BSFC = (9)
O2 2O
Pb
N 2 + O NO + N (14)
N + O2 NO + O
4.5. Heat release model
Rates of the above reactions depend on concentration of atomic
Diesel-RK software uses a multi-zone combustion model [25] oxygen. The volume concentration of NO in combustion products
where the heat release process is described in four main phases [26]. formed in a current calculation step is obtained from the follow-
Their physical and chemical features are different but each has effect ing equation:
674 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal/Applied Thermal Engineering 98 (2016) 670682

38020
36
{ } 1

[N 2 ]e . [O ]e . 1 ([NO ] [NO ]e )
2
d [ NO ] p 2.333 10 .e
7 TZ

=
d 2365 Tz [ NO ]
3365

Brake thermal efficiency (%)

TZ . 1 +
R.T .e .
Tz [O2 ]e (15) 30

The equilibrium concentrations of eighteen species are calcu-

lated on every time steps. The overall system of equations includes
24
fourteen equilibrium equations, three material balance equations
and Dalton equation of partial pressure.
NO concentration in a cylinder is given by rNOC = rNOrbc , with rbc
being the burnt gas fraction. 18
NO concentration in dry burnt gas within the cylinder is ob-
tained as rNOdry = rNO (1 rH2O ) ,
where rH2O is a volume fraction of water vapor in a combustion 12
chamber. Experimental
Specic NO emission in g/kWh unit is dened as: Numerical
30rNO Mbg 0 1 2 3 4
eNO = (16)
LC M Brake power (kW)
where Mbg is mass of burnt gas in a cylinder at the end of com-
Fig. 1. Variation of brake thermal eciency with brake power.
bustion in kmol, LC is working cycle work in kJ and M is the
mechanical eciency of engine.

4.7. Formation of soot and particulate matter

predicts higher eciency for the fuel. At low load condition (around
Formation of soot is a major problem in diesel engines and it is 0.5 kW), eciency values are found to be 12.8% and 9.4% from
formed due to incomplete combustion of hydrocarbon fuels. Soot simulation and experiment, respectively, for diesel fuel. However,
may be described as ne dispersion of black carbon particles in a at maximum load condition (3.5 kW), the difference between simu-
vapor carrier. Soot is formed mainly due to the chain destructive lated value and experimental value of eciency decreases and the
transformation of molecules of fuel diffusing from the surface of corresponding values are noted to be 32.9% and 31.4% respective-
drops to the front of a ame and high-temperature thermal poly- ly. Numerical result predicts a higher peak pressure (around 9.8%)
merization and dehydrogenization of a vaporliquid core of than the experimental one seen in Fig. 2. The peak cylinder pres-
evaporating drops. Simultaneously, the process of burning or oxi- sures for numerical result and experimental result are found to be
dation of soot particles reduces their volumetric concentration. Soot 79.45 bar and 72.31 bar respectively. Also, the minute depression
formation rate in the burning zone is calculated using the follow- representing the start of combustion is obtained slightly earlier
ing equation as mentioned by Alkidas [31]: for simulated result. Fig. 3 shows that at low load, Diesel-RK pre-
dicts almost similar NOx emission to that obtained from experimental
d [C ] qC dx results. However, at higher loads Diesel-RK predicts higher NOx
= 0.004 (17)
dt K V dt emission than experimental results. The values of NOx emission
for numerical results and experimental results at low load (0.5 kW)
The level of soot formation can be expressed as Hartridge smoke are 104.73 ppm and 98 ppm, respectively, and that at full load (3.5
level or Bosch smoke number or Factor of absolute light absorp- kW) are 866.62 ppm and 775 ppm respectively. The simulated results
tion coecient. Hartridge smoke level is calculated using the match well qualitatively with the experimental results for all the
following equation and Bosch smoke number is evaluated in Diesel- parameters. The quantitative matching is also reasonably good for
RK software using suitable relation. most of the parameters. The differences between the experimen-
tal and numerical results are mainly due to various assumptions
Hartridge = 100 {1 0.9545 exp ( 2.4226 [C ])} (18)
made for the mathematical model used in Diesel-RK software. The
Alkidas [31] also presented a correlation for particulate matter predicted results from this software have also been validated with
emission as a function of Bosch smoke number and is given by experimental observations for Kirloskar made double cylinder engine
and the details can be obtained from our earlier work [32]. The
1.206 next section deals with the analysis of different engine param-
[PM ] = 565 ln
10
(19) eters including combustion and emission using various diesel-
10 Bosch
alcohol blends by utilizing the simulated data obtained using Diesel-
RK software.
5. Validation of simulated results

In this section, the simulated results obtained from Diesel-RK 6. Results and discussion
are validated with results obtained from the experiments con-
ducted on the single cylinder diesel engine (details of the engine Before adopting any alternative or supplementary fuel for re-
are given in Table 2) for the same operating conditions. Validation placing conventional fossil fuel partly or fully in a diesel engine, its
has been carried out for different performance, combustion and suitability should be judged on the basis of its performance, com-
emission parameters using mineral diesel (B0) as fuel. The com- bustion and emission characteristics. Accordingly, the effects of
parisons of experimental and numerical results for brake thermal alcohol addition to diesel on different performance indices, com-
eciency, cylinder pressure and NOx emission have been shown bustion characteristics and environmental parameters have been
in Figs. 13 respectively. From Fig. 1, it is observed that Diesel-RK investigated and discussed in this section.
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal/Applied Thermal Engineering 98 (2016) 670682 675

90 6.1. Brake thermal eciency

Experimental
Numerical The ratio of the brake power output from the engine and the
energy released due to complete combustion of fuel is called brake
Cylinder pressure (bar)

thermal eciency (BTE) of the engine. BTE also indicates the ability
of the combustion system and provides the knowledge for assess-
60 ing how eciently the fuel energy is converted to mechanical power
[18]. Fig. 4a,b indicates the variation of brake thermal eciency of
the engine with diesel and different blends of ethanol (DE5, DE10
and DE15) and methanol (DM5, DM10 and DM15), respectively, with
diesel at different brake power in the range of 0.5 to 3.5 kW. From
30 the gures, it is observed that with the increase of brake power, the
brake thermal eciency for each fuel (pure or blended fuel) in-
creases. It can be observed from the same gure that pure diesel
and dieselalcohol blends follow similar trend, but brake thermal
eciency increases with the increase of alcohol share in the blend
particularly at higher load range. The maximum thermal ecien-
0 cies are found to be 32.954%, 33.729% and 33.873% for neat diesel,
-60 -30 0 30 60 DE15 and DM15 respectively. Slight improvement in brake thermal
Crank angle () eciency with dieselethanol blend as fuel was also predicted by
Kannan et al. [20] using a two zone combustion model. The addi-
Fig. 2. Variation of cylinder pressure with crank angle. tion of oxygenated fuels such as ethanol and methanol to diesel
improves the combustion [14]. Also, as the boiling point of ethanol
is lower than that of diesel, the quality of spray is improved with
ethanol addition to diesel. This enhances combustion eciency, re-
900 Experimental sulting in slight improvement in thermal eciency.
Numerical The oxygen content of methanol (50% by mass) blended fuels
enhances the combustion eciency and decreases the heat losses
750 in the cylinder due to lower ame temperature [16]. In addition to
that, the vaporization of the fuel continues in the compression stroke
600 as the latent heat of vaporization is more with methanol blended
NOx (ppm)

fuel than neat diesel fuel. As the fuel absorbs heat from the cylin-
der during the vaporization, the work required for compressing the
450 airfuel mixture decreases and this enhances the thermal ecien-
cy of the engine.
300
6.2. Brake specic fuel consumption
150
Brake specic fuel consumption (BSFC) is dened as the fuel con-
sumption rate to produce unit brake power. Generally, the specic
0 fuel consumption of the alcohol blended fuel is more because of
0 1 2 3 4
the lower heating value of ethanol and methanol. The heating value
Brake power (kW) of ethanol and methanol is less than that of diesel due to 34.7% and
50% oxygen content (mass basis) in the fuel, respectively, which
Fig. 3. Variation of NOx emission with brake power. lowers the volumetric energy density of the fuel in proportion to

35 35
Diesel Diesel
DE 5 DM 5
Brake thermal efficiency (%)

Brake thermal efficiency (%)

30 DE 10 30 DM 10
DE 15 DM 15

25 25

20 20

15 15

(a) (b)
10 10
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
Brake power (kW) Brake power (kW)

Fig. 4. Variation of brake thermal eciency with brake power for diesel and (a) dieselethanol blends, (b) dieselmethanol blends.
676 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal/Applied Thermal Engineering 98 (2016) 670682

Brake specific fuel consumption (kg/kWh)

Brake specific fuel consumption (kg/kWh)

0.8 0.8
Diesel Diesel
0.7 DE 5 0.7 DM 5
DE 10 DM 10
DE 15 DM 15
0.6 0.6

0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3
(a) (b)
0.2 0.2
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
Brake power (kW) Brake power (kW)

Fig. 5. Variation of brake specic fuel consumption with brake power for diesel and (a) dieselethanol blends, (b) dieselmethanol blends.

the alcohol content in the blended fuels [14]. The oxygen present of alcohol along with the lower heating value decide the fuel con-
in the fuel does not contribute to heat generation during combus- sumption rate [7].
tion inside the cylinder and it normally increases fuel consumption
for alcohol and its blends. However, the consumption rate is also 6.3. Exhaust gas temperature
dependent on the engine operating conditions like load condition
and speed. Fig. 5a,b shows the variation of the brake specic fuel Fig. 6a,b shows the variation of exhaust gas temperature (EGT)
consumption of diesel and blends of ethanol (DE5, DE10 and DE15) with brake power for the different fuels. It is clear from the gure
and blends of methanol (DM5, DM10 and DM15), with diesel at dif- that as the load increases, the exhaust gas temperature increases.
ferent brake power. From the gure, it is observed that the brake It can be further seen from the said gure that the lowest exhaust
specic fuel consumption of pure diesel as well as the blends of diesel gas temperature is obtained for pure diesel. There is a slight in-
with both ethanol and methanol decrease with increase in load. It crease in EGT when the blended fuels are used, the maximum being
can be clearly seen from the gure that brake specic fuel con- for DE15 and DM15. The same trend was also observed experimen-
sumption increases with the addition of ethanol as well as methanol tally by Ashok and Saravanan [33]. It can be explained on the basis
to diesel. The increase in BSFC at full load condition for DE5, DE10 of improved combustion with the help of oxygen present in the fuel
and DE15 are 1.92%, 3.72% and 5.99% respectively over diesel fuel. itself. The higher latent heats of vaporization of ethanol and meth-
The corresponding values with DM5, DM10 and DM15 are noted anol will also be an important factor in deciding the exhaust gas
to be 1.64%, 3.41% and 5.62% respectively. In this connection it may temperature and this will try to decrease it. In line with that, Ajav
be noted that Kannan et al. [20] predicted higher increase (about et al. [7] observed a decrease in exhaust gas temperature with the
15%) in BSFC with dieselethanol blend. On the other hand, a slight increasing percentage of ethanol in the blended fuel. Similar results
improvement in fuel economy was reported by Li et al [21]. with were reported by Canakci et al. [34] in case of methanol.
dieselmethanol blend using KIVA-3V code. The lower energy
content of ethanol and methanol enhances the fuel consumption 6.4. Maximum temperature rise
rate for producing same amount of power [14]. In this connection,
it may be noted that only lower heating value of alcohol is not re- The variations of temperature rise with brake power for diesel
sponsible for higher fuel consumption. The low density and viscosity ethanol blends and dieselmethanol blended fuels have been shown

560 Diesel 560 Diesel

Exhaust gas temperature (K)

DE 5 DM 5
Exhaust gas temperature (K)

DE 10 DM 10
520 DE 15 520 DM 15

480 480

440 440

(a) (b)
400 400
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
Brake power (kW) Brake power (kW)

Fig. 6. Variation of exhaust gas temperature with brake power for diesel and (a) dieselethanol blends, (b) dieselmethanol blends.
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal/Applied Thermal Engineering 98 (2016) 670682 677

1680 1680
Diesel Diesel
1600 DE 5 1600 DM 5
DE 10 DM 10
1520 DE 15 1520 DM 15

1440 1440

Tmax (K)
Tmax (K)
1360 1360

1280 1280

1200 1200

1120 (a) 1120 (b)

0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
Brake power (kW) Brake power (kW)

Fig. 7. Variation of maximum temperature rise with brake power for diesel and (a) dieselethanol blends, (b) dieselmethanol blends.

in Fig. 7a,b respectively. Clearly, the temperature within the cylin- the cases, the maximum pressure is noted to be after the TDC.
der increases with the increase of load for all fuel blends. The gure However, with the addition of ethanol and methanol, the position
shows the lowest temperature for DE15 and DM15, followed by DE10 where maximum pressure is reached moves further away from TDC.
and DM10, thereafter DE5 and DM5 with the maximum being for Fang et al. [37] reported similar trend of results from their exper-
pure diesel. The higher latent heat of vaporization of ethanol and imental study. The numerical study of Kannan et al. [20] also showed
methanol compared to diesel lowers the ame temperature and thus decrease of maximum in-cylinder pressure from 68 bar to 67 bar
the in-cylinder temperature decreases [35,36]. The oxygen present with 5% ethanol addition to diesel. This P- diagram is also an in-
in ethanol and methanol blended fuels enhances the combustion dicator for the start of combustion and is delayed because of the
eciency and it may increase the in-cylinder temperature [14]. lower cetane number of ethanol. Due to the lower ame temper-
However, the present investigation shows that the rst factor pre- ature and lower in-cylinder pressure rise with ethanoldiesel blended
dominates and thus the temperature is lowered with alcohol blended fuels, the in-cylinder temperature rise is also lower for ethanol
fuels. diesel blended fuel compared to that with diesel. Canakci et al. [34]
also reported this type of behavior for methanoldiesel blended fuels.
6.5. Cylinder pressure With the addition of methanol, the cetane number of the blends
gets lowered and causes increase in ignition delay. This increase in
The variations of in-cylinder pressure with crank angle for the ignition delay eventually burns more fuel in the premixed phase
different ethanol blended fuels and different methanol blended fuels of combustion, thus the rate of pressure rise increases and peak pres-
are shown in Fig. 8a,b respectively for the engine load of 12 kg sure decreases.
(maximum load considered here). It can be seen that the in-
cylinder pressure for all the fuel blends is almost similar in shape, 6.6. Net heat release rate
but there is a variation in the maximum pressure reached during
combustion. The maximum pressure observed for diesel fuel is 79.45 The net heat release rates for the tested fuels are shown in Fig.
bar at 4aTDC, followed by DE5 (78 bar at 5aTDC), DM5 (77.65 bar 9a,b for the full load condition of the simulated engine. In the gure,
at 5aTDC), DE10 (75.39 bar at 6aTDC), DM10 (73.95 bar at 6aTDC), it is observed that the heat release rate increases with the in-
DE15 (71.49 bar at 7aTDC) and DM15 (67.32 bar at 9aTDC). In all crease of ethanol and methanol mass fraction in the blended fuel

80 80
Diesel Diesel
70 DE 5 70 DM 5
Cyclinder pressure(bar)

Cyclinder pressure(bar)

DE 10 DM 10
60 60
DE 15 DM 15
50 50

40 40

30 30

20 20

10 10
(a) (b)
0 0
-30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30
Crank angle ( ) Crank angle ( )

Fig. 8. Variation of in-cylinder pressure with crank angle for diesel and (a) dieselethanol blends, (b) dieselmethanol blends.
678 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal/Applied Thermal Engineering 98 (2016) 670682

Fig. 9. Variation of heat release rate with crank angle for diesel and (a) dieselethanol blends, (b) dieselmethanol blends.

[13,37]. The longer ignition delay leads to longer mixing time of 6.7. Ignition delay period
intake charge, thus more fuel get combusted in the premixed zone
resulting in higher heat release rate for ethanoldiesel and methanol The increase in alcohol fraction in the blended fuels decreases
diesel blended fuel. Also, the heat release rates of all the fuels have the cetane number of the fuel blends which in turn results in a longer
similar shape, having a premixed combustion phase followed by a ignition delay [13,14]. Form Fig. 10a,b this above-mentioned state-
diffusion combustion phase. The maximum heat release rate is found ment can easily be observed. It is observed that, at full load condition,
for DE15 and DM15 and the minimum is found for diesel. From Fig. diesel has the shorter ignition delay (15.7) compared to DE15
9a, it can be observed that during diffusion combustion phase, the (23.189) and DM15 (25.44). The increase in ignition delay for
heat release rate is higher for ethanoldiesel blends compared to dieselethanol blends compared to diesel was also predicted by
neat diesel. This is due to the higher oxygen content of ethanol Rakopoulos et al. [19]. The higher ignition delay causes more fuel
diesel blends. The increase of ethanol share in the blended fuel to be burned in the premixed burning phase and thus thermal ef-
increases combustion in premixed mode due to higher ignition lag ciency improves. The longer ignition delay leads to longer air and
of blended fuel. This eventually increases the heat release rate and fuel mixing time also results to higher maximum heat release rate
the fraction of fuel burned in the premixed combustion phase. Similar [37]. The longer delay of ethanol blended fuel leads to a leaner air
trend was also reported by Rakopoulos et al. [19] and Kannan et fuel mixture, which also causes a decrease in combustion
al. [20] from their numerical studies on dieselethanol blends as temperature and decrease in NOx emission [35]. In case of meth-
fuels for diesel engines. In the case of methanol blended diesel, in- anol blended fuel, the longer ignition delay with the methanol
crease in the methanol mass fraction decreases the cetane number blended fuel attributed to the lower temperature during the igni-
of the blended fuel, which in turn resulted into a longer delay period tion which leads to cooling effect by the vaporization of methanol
and leads to an increase of premixed combustion fuel preparation [38]. It can also be noted from Fig. 10a,b that the delay is more in
within the delay period. This results into a rapid increase of heat case of methanol than ethanol blended fuels with same percent-
release rate for DM15 blend [13]. Also, the oxygen enrichment im- age of alcohol and this is mainly due to the lower cetane number
proves the combustion during the diffusion combustion phase. of methanol in comparison to ethanol.

Fig. 10. Variation of ignition delay with brake power for diesel and (a) dieselethanol blends, (b) dieselmethanol blends.
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal/Applied Thermal Engineering 98 (2016) 670682 679

Fig. 11. Variation of NOx emission with brake power for diesel and (a) dieselethanol blends, (b) dieselmethanol blends.

6.8. NOx emission sponding value for DM15 is 15.96%. The oxygen mass fraction in
methanol is more than that in ethanol and this higher oxygen content
A mixture of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is creates a favorable condition for more NOx formation in case of meth-
formed due to the oxidation of nitrogen from the intake air in the anol blended diesel. However, this cannot counter balance the
combustion process. These oxides of nitrogen found in the exhaust temperature effect fully. The reduction in NOx emission was also pre-
emissions are together referred to as NOx. The variations of NOx dicted by Rakopoulos et al. [19] and Li et al. [21] due to addition
present in the exhaust gas with brake power are graphically rep- of ethanol and methanol, respectively, to diesel fuel. On the con-
resented in Fig. 11a,b for ethanol blended and methanol blended trary, the numerical investigation of Kannan et al. [20] showed slight
fuels respectively. The gures clearly show that NOx emission in- increase in NOx emission with ethanol addition to diesel. Thus, most
creases sharply with load for diesel, ethanol blended diesel and of the experimental as well as numerical studies and the present
methanol blended diesel fuels. With the addition of alcohol (both predicted results conrm the decrease of NOx emission with addi-
ethanol and methanol) to diesel, NOx emission is found to be reduced, tion of alcohol (ethanol and methanol) to diesel.
but the reduction is more with ethanol for the same percentage of
blending. The amount of NOx formed mostly depends on the com- 6.9. Specic CO2 emission
bustion temperature, the oxygen concentration and residence time
for the reaction to take place. One can note from Fig. 4a,b that the It is well-known that complete combustion inside the combus-
maximum temperature rise during combustion inside the cylin- tion chamber helps in increasing CO2 emission. Although there is
der decreases with the addition of ethanol and also methanol to the no possibility of complete combustion occurring, there may be a
base fuel (diesel). Accordingly, the NOx emissions are found to be nearly complete combustion depending upon the engine operat-
minimum for DE15 and DM15 fuels among the ethanol blended and ing condition and the nature of fuel used for running the engine.
methanol blended fuels respectively. Another possible reason for Specic CO2 emission may be dened as the amount of CO2 formed
this kind of behavior is the lower airfuel ratio of the blends com- during the combustion of fuel to produce unit power. Fig. 12a,b shows
pared to diesel. Also the higher latent heats of ethanol and methanol the variations of specic CO2 emission with brake power for dif-
as mentioned in Table 1 limit the temperature and hence NOx for- ferent alcoholdiesel blends (DE5, DE10, DE15 and DM5, DM10,
mation [18]. The percentage reduction of NOx with DE15 fuel DM15) and diesel. It can be seen from the gure that with alcohol
compared to neat diesel is 39.08% at rated power and the corre- (both ethanol and methanol) blending, the specic CO2 emission is

Fig. 12. Variation of specic CO2 emission with brake power for diesel and (a) dieselethanol blends, (b) dieselmethanol blends.
680 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal/Applied Thermal Engineering 98 (2016) 670682

Fig. 13. Variation of specic PM emission with brake power for diesel and (a) dieselethanol blends, (b) dieselmethanol blends.

not changed much. The low C/H ratio in case of alcohol will be re- in smoke emission from diesel engine due to addition of ethanol
sponsible for CO2 reduction. On the other hand, the presence of to diesel. Smoke formation occurs at the extreme air deciency due
oxygen in the alcohol molecules helps in better combustion and tries to incomplete combustion of the fuels [17]. The high temperature
to increase CO2 emission. These two opposing phenomena deter- during combustion and the formation of fuel rich zone help in soot
mine the nal CO2 emission. In the present case for the fuels tested, inception or nucleation which further increases in size due to soot
the above-mentioned phenomena almost balance each other, re- surface growth. The high ignition delay of alcohols can also be a
sulting to no signicant variation in CO2 emission. reason for low smoke emission [37]. It can also be stated that oxy-
genated blends effectively deliver oxygen to the pyrolysis zone of
6.10. Specic PM and smoke emission the diesel spray combustion, resulting to a reduced smoke emis-
sion. Several factors can be identied as reasons for the reduction
Smoke opacity is an indication of dry soot emissions which is of PM emission with ethanol blended fuels. Firstly, compared to
the main reason behind the formation of particulate matter (PM). diesel, ethanol blended fuels contain more oxygen, which may
The variations of the specic PM and smoke [in terms of Hartridge improve the combustion process and reduce PM emission and last
smoke unit (HSU)] emissions with brake power have been shown but not the least, more complete combustion also can be respon-
in Figs. 13 and 14, respectively. The gures show the similar trend sible for lowering the emission of smoke and particulate matter. In
for both specic PM and smoke emissions. The highest emissions the case of methanol, no such pyrolysis reaction occurs as it con-
are found with the use of pure diesel followed by DE5 and DM5, tains no carboncarbon bonds. As a result, smoke formation is more
with the lowest being for DE15 and DM15 blend. The primary reason reduced with methanol blended diesel compared to ethanol blend-
of the particulate emission from CI engine is improper combus- ing [36].
tion and burning of heavy lubricating oil; smoke formation occurs
primarily in the fuel-rich zone of the cylinder, at high tempera- 7. Conclusions
tures and pressures [18]. With the increase of alcohol percentage
in the blended fuel, the smoke formation and particulate matter are A numerical investigation on CI engine characteristics has been
reduced. Based on the results of their numerical simulation, carried out using the commercial software Diesel-RK. A marginal
Rakopoulos et al. [19] and Kannan et al. [20] reported a reduction improvement in brake thermal eciency is observed and BSFC

Fig. 14. Variation of smoke emission (in Hartridge smoke unit) with brake power for diesel and (a) dieselethanol blends, (b) dieselmethanol blends.
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal/Applied Thermal Engineering 98 (2016) 670682 681

increases to some extent with ethanol and methanol addition to x0 Fraction of burnt fuel during ignition delay
diesel due to lower energy density of the alcohol. An addition of Angular crank velocity
alcohol to diesel enhances the combustion eciency and de-
creases heat losses in the cylinder due to lower ame temperature
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