Combustion, performance, and emission characteristics of diesel engine with nanocera added water emulsified Mahua biodiesel blend

The present study was conducted to investigate the combustion, performance, and emission characteristics of a 10 kW, single cylinder, direct injection diesel engine using cerium oxide nanoparticles (nanocera) added water emulsified Mahua biodiesel blend (NWEB) vis-a-vis water emulsified Mahua biodiesel blend (WEB), B20, and diesel. NWEB was prepared with 69.7 ppm of cerium oxide nanoparticles, 1% surfactants, 10% water, and 2,500 rpm of stirrer. After measuring the fuel properties of test fuels, these were used to run the diesel engine at different engine loads and combustion, performance, and emission parameters were measured. The peak pressure rise rate significantly reduced with NWEB replacing diesel. CA10 and C50 points were observed earlier for NWEB as compared to base fuels. The rapid combustion, controlled combustion, and total combustion duration reduced by more than 5.0, 4.0, and 4.6%, respectively, in engine operation with NWEB over diesel and B20. The maximum brake thermal efficiency of 30.41% was recorded for NWEB as compared to 28.25% for diesel. The mean brake-specific fuel consumption was 3.76 and 3.93% lesser with NWEB as compared to B20 and WEB, respectively. The mean EGT, BSCO, BSHC, and BSNOx were reduced by 5.4, 30.8, 43.7, and 26.9%, respectively, with NWEB over diesel.