Effects of ternary fuel blends (diesel-biodiesel-n-butanol) on emission and performance characteristics of diesel engine using varying mass flow rates of biogas

Currently, diesel engine specialists and experts have established that combination of biodiesel higher alcohols and gaseous fuel can be an apposite substitute for the existing conditions. In the present study, an investigation and analysis were done by fueling a dual fuel engine with blends of diesel, rice bran biodiesel, and n-butanol as liquid fuel and biogas as gaseous fuel. Performance and exhaust emissions parameters of the dual-fuel engine energized with ternary blends utilizing diesel-biodiesel-n-butanol along with biogas were evaluated and compared with baseline diesel. Results depicted that brake thermal efficiency (BTE) was reduced by 14.68% on an average in relation to baseline diesel. Emissions characteristics illustrated that CO and HC emissions on average were higher by 45.58 and 17.74%, while NOx and smoke opacity on an average were lowered by 39.06 and 46.85% in relation to pure diesel. Therefore, utilization of cost-effective gaseous fuel, for instance biogas, would be a feasible recommendation to deal with the existing and upcoming complications of energy insufficiency and accompanying conservational apprehensions.