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The quaternary blends (diesel-biodiesel-vegetable oil-alcohol) offer enormous potential for reducing fossil fuel usage and mitigating air pollution caused by marine diesel engines. Biodiesel and alcohol are alternate fuels possessing high oxygen content, ensuring clean combustion. Vegetable oil is beneficial in saving diesel contribution and increasing engine lubrication. The objective of the present work was to reduce the dependency on conventional diesel and to come up with cleaner fuel that can also improve engine performance. This experimental work aims to lower exhaust emissions by fueling a single-cylinder, four-stroke direct-injection diesel engine with novel quaternary blends comprising diesel (50%), sunflower biodiesel (25%), sunflower oil (5%), and alcohol (20%). In order to develop cleaner fuel than diesel, different quaternary blends were prepared by varying the length of the carbon chain of alcohols in the blends, namely, DBOEth20, DBOProp20, DBOBut20, DBOHep20, and DBODec20. The performance emissions of quaternary blends were tested at varied engine loads from 5 to 20 Nm (full load), while engine speed was fixed at 1800 rpm. The results indicate that DBOProp20 resulted in the lowest fuel consumption and highest thermal efficiency. DBOProp20 reduced CO

Diesel emissions have resulted in air pollution, which is harmful to the sustaining of life. The concerns of energy security and poor air quality have propelled researchers to seek alternate and environment-friendly fuels for the transport sector, keeping diesel engines at the core. Thus, a quaternary blend (diesel-biodiesel-vegetable oil-alcohol) proves to be a promising key to address the above problems. This experimental work focuses aims on investigating the performance and emissions of a diesel engine powered with quaternary blends by changing the fuel injection pressure. The quaternary blend comprised of diesel, neem biodiesel, pure neem oil, and decanol was used to prepare quaternary blends of varied volumetric proportions. This study involves the testing of quaternary blends at varied fuel injection pressure (IP) ranging from 400–500 bar. The engine load varied from 10 Nm to 20 Nm, and the shaft speed was constant at 2000 rpm. It was evident from the outcomes that the least DBODec45 resulted in minimum carbon monoxide (CO) and un-burnt hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions, which were obtained to be 83.33% and 54.5% less than diesel at 500 bar and at a load of 10 Nm and 20 Nm, respectively. Moreover, the blend containing 45% of decanol led to the lowest NOx and smoke concentrations. The lowest brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) was achieved at 500 bar and 20 Nm for the same blend and was found to be 3.22% higher than diesel. Moreover, at the same IP and load, DBODec45 led to highest BTE, which was 3.26% lower than pure diesel.

The growing energy demand and non-renewable nature of conventional diesel had shifted the focus of researchers on the search for alternate fuels. Intensive research works, experiments and tests have been conducted in alternate fuels by keeping in view their non-polluting, environment-friendly, sustainable and renewable nature at the core. Consequently, biodiesel and alcohols have emerged as promising oxygenated fuel additives blended with conventional diesel and can be employed in modern-day diesel engines with the least modifications in them. The current work presents a review analysis of the performance and emissions characteristics of blended fuels comprising biodiesel, alcohols, and pure diesel in different blend ratios. The similarity in the physical-chemical properties of biodiesel and alcohol with pure diesel makes them suitable for diesel engines. The higher oxygen content of biodiesels and alcohol ensures complete combustion, thus reducing diesel engines’ detrimental exhaust emissions. However, the lower calorific value of biodiesels and alcohols negatively affects engine performance. In general, biodiesel-diesel blends in varied volumetric proportions were used in diesel engine, however, many researches have shown that B20 blend (biodiesel – 20%, diesel – 20%) offers optimized performance and emissions. The ternary blends comprised of biodiesel-alcohol-diesel offer tremendous potential as future fuel. The inclusion of alcohols as fuel additives in the form of ternary blends needs fresh review and compilation of the updated works. Therefore this review analysis is based on the contribution of ternary blends in increasing the performance and mitigating the emissions of the diesel engine. The appropriate blend composition of biodiesel and alcohol in pure diesel has been scrutinized. The inclusion of biodiesel in the range of 10% to 80% and alcohol around 5% to 45% in diesel proved suitable. Thus, ternary blended fuels prove to be promising alternate fuel in meeting the fuel demand and simultaneously addressing the present and future environmental concerns.

The quaternary blends (diesel-biodiesel-vegetable oil-alcohol) offer enormous potential for reducing fossil fuel usage and mitigating air pollution caused by marine diesel engines. Biodiesel and alcohol are alternate fuels possessing high oxygen content, ensuring clean combustion. Vegetable oil is beneficial in saving diesel contribution and increasing engine lubrication. The objective of the present work was to reduce the dependency on conventional diesel and to come up with cleaner fuel that can also improve engine performance. This experimental work aims to lower exhaust emissions by fueling a single-cylinder, four-stroke direct-injection diesel engine with novel quaternary blends comprising diesel (50%), sunflower biodiesel (25%), sunflower oil (5%), and alcohol (20%). In order to develop cleaner fuel than diesel, different quaternary blends were prepared by varying the length of the carbon chain of alcohols in the blends, namely, DBOEth20, DBOProp20, DBOBut20, DBOHep20, and DBODec20. The performance emissions of quaternary blends were tested at varied engine loads from 5 Nm to 20 Nm (full load), while engine speed was fixed at 1800 rpm. The results indicate that DBOProp20 resulted in the lowest fuel consumption and highest thermal efficiency. DBOProp20 reduced CO2, NOx, and smoke emissions by 19.6%, 9.9%, and 85.7%, as compared to diesel.