Performance analysis of biofuel–ethanol blends in diesel engine and its validation with computational fluid dynamics

The engine tests aimed to produce comparable data for fuel consumption, exhaust emissions, and thermal efficiency. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) program FLUENT was used to simulate the combustion parameters of a direct injection diesel engine. In-cylinder turbulence is controlled using the RNG k-model. The model’s conclusions are validated when the projected p-curve is compared to the observed p-curve. The thermal efficiency of the 50E50B blend (50% ethanol, 50% biofuel) is higher than the other blends as well as diesel. Diesel has lower brake thermal efficiency among the other fuel blends used. The 10E90B mix (10% ethanol, 90% biofuel) has a lower brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) than other blends but is slightly higher than diesel. The temperature of the exhaust gas rises for all mixtures as the brake power is increased. CO emissions from 50E50B are lower than diesel at low loads but slightly greater at heavy loads. According to the emission graphs, the 50E50B blend produces less HC than diesel. NOx emission rises with increasing load in the exhaust parameter for all mixes. A 50E50B biofuel–ethanol combination achieves the highest brake thermal efficiency, 33.59%. The BSFC for diesel is 0.254 kg/kW-hr at maximum load, while the BSFC for the 10E90B mix is 0.269 kg/kW-hr, higher than diesel. In comparison to diesel, BSFC has increased by 5.90%.