Investigations of combustion, performance, and emission characteristics in a diesel engine fueled with Prunus domestica methyl ester and n-butanol blends

The chief objective of this study is to utilize non-edible, carbon-rich oil derived from Prunus domestica seeds as blended fuel. The combustion efficiency of derived blends shall further be enhanced by blending higher alcohol into biodiesel/diesel blends. This work details the impact of effectively utilizing waste and non-edible oil to replace fossil fuels partially. In this study, the P. domestica is trans-esterified to methyl ester and blended with diesel at 20%. Further to enhance the ignition nature, butanol, higher alcohol, is blended to P. domestica biodiesel/diesel blends at 5% and 10%. The ignition pattern of the modified fuels is extensively studied and compared with diesel in a stationary research diesel engine. This study involves four fuel samples, namely, neat P. domestica methyl ester and is termed PDME. 20% of PDME is blended with 80% diesel is referred to as PDME20. 20% of PDME with 5% n-butanol and 75% diesel is termed PDME20Bu5D75, 20% of PDME with 10% n-butanol and 70% diesel is termed as PDME20Bu10D70 and diesel. Addition of PDME and butanol at different blends found miscible with diesel. PDME and butanol provided a suitable time for reaction and mixing, complete combustion, higher O-2 content, and rich fuel-air mixture, resulting in lower emissions than diesel. Further, butanol aided better atomization, effective combustion and resulted in higher efficiency with lower fuel consumption. Adding butanol also lowered the viscosity and improved the mixing process, and produced better in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate.