Combustion and emission characteristics of high-compression-ratio diesel engine fueled with bio oil-ethanol blended fuel

Abstract

Bio-oil derived from biomass through fast pyrolysis process has the potential to displace a significant amount of petroleum fuels. However, the use of bio-oil in a diesel engine is very limited because of its poor properties, e.g., its low energy density, low cetane number, and high viscosity. Therefore, bio-oil should be emulsified or blended with other fuels that have high centane numbers. Because bio-oil has poor miscibility with petroleum fuels, the most suitable candidate fuels for direct mixing are alcohol fuels. In this study, bio-oil was blended with ethanol, and two types of cetane improvers were added to a blended fuel to improve the self-ignition property. The two types of cetane improvers, PEG 400 and 2-EHN, made it possible for bio-oil blended fuels to combust in a diesel engine with a maximum bio-oil content of 15 wt%. A high-compression-ratio piston is also proposed for the combustion of bio-oil in a diesel engine. © 2014 The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers.