Experimental Investigation of Effects of Graphene Nano Particles (GNP) on the Combustion Behaviors of Renewable Jet Fuel Droplets

Abstract Due to the impact of fossil fuel use on the environment, renewable jet fuel has been pursued as an alternative fuel for aircraft engines. Several renewable jet fuels are developed with minimal carbon footprint and pollutants emission to replace petroleum jet fuels. To modify certain combustion behaviors such as combustion rate, ignition delay and total combustion time, colloidal suspension of carbon-based nanoparticles to liquid fuels has proven to be an effective mechanism. But the influence of carbon-based nanoparticles on the combustion behaviors of renewable jet fuels at different concentrations has not yet been investigated. Researchers have been exploring ways to modify the combustion performances of renewable jet fuel, and in this work, the addition of carbon-based nanoparticles (Graphene Nano Particles) is examined as a potential performance enhancing additive for fuel transport safety. The effects of Graphene Nano Particles (GNP) on the ignition and combustion characteristics of soy oil and canola oil based renewable jet fuel at different mass concentrations (1%, 2% & 3%) loading are investigated in this manuscript. The impact of different mass concentrations loading of GNP on the combustion behavior is analyzed by post-processing the high-speed images. It is observed that the ignition delay decreased by 8.52% and combustion rate decreased by 7.26% for renewable jet fuel at 3% GNP loading. GNP also caused a maximum decrease of total combustion time by 13.61% at 3% loading. It is expected that this study will drive further interest in fuel characteristics improvement of renewable jet fuel and will provide experimental data for future computational modeling.