Performance, Combustion and Emission Characteristics of Oxygenated Diesel in DI Engines: A Critical Review

The transition from non-renewable to renewable energy sources is a significant challenge of our time. In the fuel industry, oxygenated additives such as butanol are transforming conventional fuels into renewable biofuels. This technology has been utilized in reciprocating engines for decades. This paper reviews the viability of using an n-butanol blend as a short-term replacement for diesel by analyzing its physical and chemical properties, combustion, performance, and emission characteristics in compression ignition (CI) engines under various conditions, including variable load, speed, acceleration, and both stationary and transient cycles. N-Butanol exhibits higher viscosity, better lubricity, higher heating value, improved blend stability, enhanced cold-flow properties, and higher density. These factors influence spray formation, injection timing, atomization, and combustion characteristics. Its higher oxygen content improves the diffusion combustion stage and efficiency. Adding 5% and 10% n-butanol to diesel increases pressure and apparent heat release rate, slightly reduces temperature, and improves thermal efficiency, with mixed effects on CO and THC emissions and a notable decrease in particulate matter emissions. Fuel consumption increases, while the impact on NOx emissions varies. A 10% butanol blend is considered optimal for enhancing performance and reducing particulate emissions without significantly affecting NOx emissions. Blending up to 40% butanol with diesel does not require engine modifications or ECU recalibrations in engines calibrated for pure diesel. Due to its advantageous properties and performance, n-butanol is recommended as a superior alcohol-diesel blend than ethanol for short-term diesel replacement.

Correlation of Performance, Exhaust Gas Temperature and Speed of a Spark Ignition Engine Using Kiva4

The objective of this study was to investigate performance characteristics of a spark ignition engine, particularly, the correlation between performance, exhaust gas temperature and speed, using Kiva4. Test data to validate kiva4 simulation results were conducted on a 3-cylinder, four-stroke Volkswagen (VW) Polo 6 TSI 1.2 gasoline engine. Three different tests were, therefore, carried out. In one set, variations in exhaust gas temperature were studied by varying the engine load, while keeping the engine speed constant. In another test, exhaust gas temperature variations were studied by keeping the engine at idling whilst varying the speeds. A third test involved studying variations in exhaust gas temperature under a constant load with variable engine speeds. To study variations in exhaust gas temperatures under test conditions, a basic grid/mesh generator, K3PREP, was employed to write an itape17 file comprising of a 45° asymmetrical mesh. This was based on the symmetry of the combustion chamber of the engine used in carrying out experimental tests. Simulations were therefore performed based on the input parameters established in the conducted tests. Simulations with the kiva4 code showed a significant predictability of the performance characteristics of the engine. This was evident in the appreciable agreement obtained in the simulation results when compared with the test data, under the considered test conditions. A percentage error, between experimental results and results from simulations with the kiva4 code of only between 2% to 3% was observed.

Performance Characteristics of n-Butanol-Diesel Fuel Blend Fired in a Turbo-Charged Compression Ignition Engine

In this study, n-butanol-diesel blends were burned in a turbo-charged, direct injection diesel engine where the brake thermal efficiency, (BTE) or brake specific fuel consumption, (BSFC) was compared with that of ethanol-diesel or methanol-diesel blends in another study by other authors. The test blends used were B5, B10 and B20 (where B5 is 5% n-butanol by volume and 95% diesel fuel-DF). In this study, the BTE was higher and the BSFC improved more than in the other study. Because of improved BTE with increasing brake mean effective pressure, BMEP, the BSFC reduced, however the increased shared volume of n-butanol in DF increased BSFC. Adding n-butanol in DF slightly derated the torque, brake power output with increasing speed, and caused a fall in exhaust gas temperatures, (EGT) which improves the volumetric efficiency and reduces compression work. Therefore, a small-shared volume of n-butanol in DF fired in a turbo-charged diesel engine performs better in terms of BTE and BSFC than that of ethanol or methanol blending in DF.

Design of Circular Arc Blade Hydrokinetic Turbine—A Case of Rural Electrification in Zambia

The rate of electrification in rural areas in Zambia is very low, currently standing at less than 5% despite having abundant flowing water resources. Hydrokinetic technology is an alternative among other promising technologies for rural area electrification because of availability of abundant flowing Rivers and low population in rural settlement. In this paper, the author designed and numerically simulated a circular arc blade hydrokinetic turbine system. The design power for the horizontal axis hydrokinetic turbine was 3 kW at water velocity of 3 m/s with the tip speed ratio of 2.5, angle of attack of 10 degrees and power coefficient of 0.4. In this work, a numerical simulation was employed to characterize and develop the horizontal axis hydrokinetic turbine. The prototype circular arc blade horizontal axis hydrokinetic turbine was tested in one of stream in Zambia and the results were compared with the numerical simulation results.

Numerical Accuracy of the Kiva4 Code under Different Ignition Timing on the Combustion Characteristics of Gasoline in a Spark Ignition Engine

The purpose of this work was to show that kiva4 is more accurate than kiva3vr2 under different ignition timings. The numerical accuracy of kiva4 was compared with the numerical results obtained by other researchers who used kiva3vr2 as the simulation code. The combustion characteristics of gasoline under different ignition timings are obtained using the kiva4 code. For achieving this, two cases were investigated;a complete engine cycle was successfully simulated using a four-valve pent-roof engine and a comparison was made with experimental results by other researchers. At a constant speed of 600 rpm, a BASF (Badische Anilin-und Soda Fabrik) octane rating engine-single cylinder was used where ignition timing was changed in the range of 4&deg BTDC to 18&deg BTDC. Kiva4 generates more accurate results than kiva3vr2. The experimental results were more in agreement with kiva4 than kiva3vr2 results. The average temperature and pressure in kiva4 were 640 K and 16.48 bars while in kiva3vr2 were 600 K and 14.83 bars, the peak temperature and pressure in kiva4 were 2316.3 K and 21.5 bars while in kiva3vr2 were 2171.5 K and 19.4 bars. The peak temperature and pressure increase with increasing spark advance until the most favorable instant time is determined. Best performance was achieved when the ignition time was set to 10 degrees before top dead center.