Experimental Evaluation of a Diesel Engine Performance and Emission Characteristics Powered by Hybrid Biodiesel and Butanol Blends

The increased demand of fossil fuels used in a diesel engine might be taken as one of the important aspects which inspire researchers to look for alternative fuels. This current study evaluates the performance and exhaust gases of hybrid biodiesel from waste vegetable oil and soybean oil with the addition of n-butanol (butanol) blends. The different percentages of butanol such as 5, 10, and 15 with hybrid biodiesel were experimentally compared to hybrid biodiesel (BM100) and standard diesel (D100). The parameters of the diesel engine comprise the brake power, brake specific fuel consumption, and brake thermal efficiency, whereas the emissions comprise hydrocarbons and Bosch smoke number. It was found that the hybrid biodiesel-butanol blends (BMBT5, BMBT10, and BMBT15) decreased the brake power by 12.0, 13.0, and 14.4% compared to hybrid biodiesel. For brake specific fuel consumption, hybrid biodiesel-butanol blends (BMBT5, BMBT10, and BMBT15) increased by 13.6, 14.9, and 16.8% whereas brake thermal efficiency increased by 1.5, 1.6, and 1.8% compared to hybrid biodiesel at the maximum speed. For exhaust gas emissions, hybrid biodiesel (BM100) and its butanol blends (BMBT5, BMBT10, and BMBT15) decreased hydrocarbons by 4, 5.6, 8, and 28.8% compared to diesel whereas Bosch smoke emissions decreased by 21.1, 31.6, 31.0, and 29.9% compared to diesel at the maximum speed. It can be concluded that hybrid biodiesel and butanol blends appear as a superior alternative fuel for neat diesel in a diesel engine.