Effects of Oxygenated Additives and Al2O3-TiO2 Thermal \ Barrier Piston Coating on Diesel Engine Fueled with Non-Edible Biodiesel.

In the growing energy demand, the use of alternate fuels plays a major role for significant improvements in the emission characteristics and performance of diesel engines. This paper proposed the usage of additives to biodiesel blends combined with thermal barrier coating on the piston crown that will lead to better performance and emission characteristics of diesel engines. From results obtained through various experiments it was determined that the B30 biodiesel blend is the most optimum blend as it has performance characteristics comparable to that of conventional diesel and emissions lower than conventional diesel. The thermal coating of the piston crown encourages better combustion efficiency. The effect of the additives in the fuel blends have led to the decrease of CO, smoke and unburned hydrocarbons emissions. The thermal barrier coating causes the improvement of combustion efficiency in the engine. The performance of the engine is found better with conventional diesel than any biodiesel blends, however the addition of oxygenated additives to the biodiesel blends enables the biodiesel blend to perform in par with conventional diesel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]