Experimental investigation of ternary biodiesel blends combustion in a diesel engine to reduce emissions

The study presents an experimental investigation of two new ternary biodiesel blends, namely, ManCr_Pa (a mixture of Mandarin, Crambe biodiesel and paraffin as an additive) and AvBn_Pa (mix of Avocado, Bush nut biodiesel and paraffin) by modifying the critical fuel properties closer to the diesel fuel. Those ternary blends’ performance, emission and combustion characteristics were compared with diesel and typical B5 blends at the same engine conditions. The result reveals that at high engine rpm, the new ternary biodiesel blends exhibited nearly similar engine performance to that of diesel fuel with a significant reduction of carbon monoxide (33.3%), hydrocarbons (33.3 to 73.3%) and particulate matter (17.8 to 28.8%). For instance, brake power (BP), brake mean effective pressure (BMEP), and brake thermal efficiency (BTE) slightly decreased by 0.25 to 0.38, 0.27 to 0.42 and 0.04%, respectively, whereas brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) slightly increased by 0.52%. The ternary blends also demonstrated closer combustion behaviour, i.e. heat release rate (HRR) with diesel at full load conditions. Compared with the typical B5 blend, the modified ternary biodiesel blends showed better engine performance with a substantial reduction of emissions. Interestingly, the ternary blends exhibited lower NOx emissions than the B5 blend. The study concluded that the newly developed ternary biodiesel blends are superior to ordinary B5 blends and closely performing fuel to standard diesel. The results of this study have important implications for using these new blends as substitutes for diesel while realising similar benefits.