Performance and emission levels of butanol, acetone-butanol-ethanol, butanol-acetone/diesel blends in a diesel engine

This paper evaluates and compares the effect of using three types of alcohol as additives butanol (B), Acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) and Butanol-acetone (BA) each blended with diesel (D). The test was conducted on a single-cylinder diesel engine at 10% and 20% of B, ABE, BA and D by volume at different engine speeds of 1400, 2000 and 2600 rpm. Diesel fuel was also tested as a baseline for comparison. This study has shown that the brake power (BP) was like all B, ABE and BA-diesel blend ratios and comparable with the brake power of diesel fuel at all engine speeds. Brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) was increased in all alcohol blend. The maximum reduction of exhaust gas temperature (EGT) compared to D100 was by 5% for 20BA. The maximum reduction of NOx emission by 7% was observed for 10B90D and 10BA90D at all engine speeds. However, the mixture with 10% ABE showed a higher NOx emissions at all engine speeds. The maximum reduction in CO emission was observed in 20B80D, 20ABE80D and 20BA80D blend at all engine speeds when compared with pure diesel. The mixture with 10% and 20% ABE presented a significant decrease in unburnt hydrocarbon (UHC) emission with a 20% reduction compared to those of D100. However, the mixture with 10% BA and 20BA showed a significant increase in UHC emissions in all engine speeds when compared with those of D100.