Papers by Keyword: Ethanol

Abstract: In this work biodiesel of various proportions has been blended with E20 (20% ethanol and 80% diesel). Bio-diesel concentrations are varied at 10%, 20% and 30% while ethanol concentration was maintained at 20%. Performance, emission and variation of ignition lag of the fuel blends were analyzed. There was a very good reduction in CO emissions by 28% in comparison with E20 and 80% in comparison with diesel. NOx emissions of the blends were decreased by 16% compared with diesel and no variation with E20. Brake Thermal Efficiency (bte) of the blends was higher by 11% up to 75% load and 4% at full load compared with diesel and lesser by 2% in comparison with E20. Ignition-delay of the blends was longer than diesel, and the cetane number of the blends were lower than diesel. Brake Specific Energy Consumption (bsec) is slightly higher than diesel.

Abstract: In order to develop a process to produce polyfunctional materials from easily renewable plant biomass, an integrated flowsheet has been devised on the basis of Russian Miscanthus and oat hulls for the conversion of non-woody raw materials into cellulose, cellulose esters, glucose hydrolyzates, ethanol, and bacterial cellulose by using simple chemical agents, commercially available enzyme complexes, and microorganisms. The basic physicochemical properties of the target products were determined by standard chemical and biotechnological techniques.

Abstract: As Thailand is importantly an agricultural country driving the bio-ethanol production from agricultural feedstock via fermentation process and a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has been known as an attractive energy conversion device due to its high efficiency and fuel flexibility, SOFC fueled by ethanol for electrical power generation has been performed. Hydrogen-rich gas from ethanol steam reforming is used as fuel carrier converting to generate electrical energy in SOFC. This paper presents an energy analysis of integrated steam reformer and SOFC system to determine the suitable ethanol concentration giving the optimum SOFC electrical efficiency. In this study, the ethanol concentrations between 20 and 56 %wt corresponding to water-to-ethanol ratios from 10 to 2 were varied at a fixed feed flow rate of 1 g/s of ethanol solution for hydrogen production. The SOFC power efficiency increased although the amount of hydrogen and SOFC electrical power decreased with decreasing the ethanol concentration. However, for the first law analysis, the heat load of each unit was calculated and it can be concluded that the overall system efficiency increased with increasing the ethanol concentration.

Abstract: A great difficulty in spray analysis is the intrinsic subjectivity in the manual measurements of macroscopic spray characteristics. Within its contexts this work has the main objective to demonstrate a systematic methodology for the spray analysis adopted for acquiring the data results based on numerical criterion dealing with the numerical matrices that represent the spray images. The results shown in this work refers to EXXSOL D60 injection, a tested fluid used to simulate ethanol spray characteristics. The characteristics analyzed were spray penetration, spray pattern at various moments after start of injection and the total volume of the cone spray also as a function of time. The methodology applied uses the numerical matrices of images in different stages of injections. A computational routine written in Matlab environment deals with the numerical matrices of the spray images to localize the spray boundaries based on a numerical criterion. All the subsequent analysis is then performed with the boundaries location data in hand. The results show higher growth of penetration in the beginning of injections, higher displacements of the bottom part of the spray also in the beginning of injections and a linear growth of spray volume injected. The importance of all the results acquired in this work demonstrated that the proposed methodology is suitable for spray analysis.

Abstract: In the present study, ethanol combustion analysis was carried in a wall guided type GDI engine, to achieve combustion stability under lean burn operation and to expand the flammability limit for increasing engine efficiency. Tests were performed at constant engine speed, load and injection pressure (1000 rpm, NIMEP = 3 bar, 100 bar), for a wide range of injection, ignition and mixture formation parameters. NISFC, combustion stability, PMEP and burn duration were evaluated at each excess air ratio. An improvement on fuel economy and, consequently, increased engine efficiency was achieved for excess air ratios of λ = 1.1 and λ = 1.2.

Abstract: This study presents a methodology to validate CFD simulations of the spray fuel injection using an experimental bench and optical measurement tools along with the Shadowgraph Technique. The parameter used for validating the experiments is the penetration rate, under situations of 6 bar and 100 bar injection pressures. The results show a penetration rate difference lower than 3% between the numerical model and the physical test. The visual plots, considering the shape and angles of the spray, also matched. Once validated, the numerical model could be applied to dynamic models of internal combustion engines and used to elaborate injection strategies for future projects.

Abstract: Alternative fuel source such as ethanol possess great potential to replace conventional fuels such as petrol and diesel. There has been a great increase in the usage of such fuels in the developing world, of late, with many countries having already mandated the usage of ethanol blended petrol. In developing countries, two stroke internal combustion engines continue to be used for powering agricultural implements and auto rickshaws. This paper presents the experimental investigations carried out on the usage of petrol blended with different proportions of ethanol by volume (5%, and 10%) as a fuel for an unmodified and used 100cc two stroke SI engine. The objectives of the experimental investigations are to determine whether ethanol blended petrol can be used as a suitable fuel for the commonly used two stroke internal combustion engine without any modifications. Tests were carried out on the engine, with petrol as the fuel initially and then with ethanol blended petrol with increasing proportion of ethanol. The total fuel consumption rate seemed to increase upon addition of ethanol. However, the brake specific fuel consumption remained fairly constant. The fact that brake specific fuel consumption varies only marginally indicate that ethanol can be used as a substitute for petrol, as a fuel.

Abstract: The paper presents an experimental investigation, to evaluate the performance and emission characteristics of a direct injection diesel engine using diesel-ethanol blends with aqueous cerium oxide nano fluid (ACN) as additive at different load conditions. The test fuel (D85E15ACN) prepared using ultrasonic sonicator, contains diesel 85%, ethanol 15% (D85+E15) by volume, with 1ml of aqueous cerium oxide nanofluid (ACN) added with the blend. The results show that, when the engine is run with D85E15ACN, there is an increase in brake thermal efficiency and reduction in hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and smoke emissions, compared to that of neat diesel.However, nitric oxide (NO) emission are more for D85E15ACN.

Abstract: Ever increasing cost of petroleum products demands more research in the area of new and alternate energy including solar, wind, biofuel and hybrid energy systems. Vegetable oil methyl ester is one of the promising alternate fuels that can be used as a substitute for diesel in the countries that are cultivating more agricultural products. In the present work, the analysis of physical properties such as calorific value, viscosity, flash and fire point temperatures of Sunflower oil methyl Ester have been made. The sunflower methyl ester has been prepared by transesterification process from pure sunflower oil in the presence of methanol and NaOH. Further, property enhancement of sunflower oil methyl ester has also been made by adding different additives such as ethanol and Di-Ethyl Ether in various proportions. Sunflower oil Methyl Ester (SME) with 1%, 3%, 5% ethanol or Di-Ethyl Ether and mixture of (Ethanol and DI-Ethyl Ether) has been analysed for the fuel properties. The investigation shows that the flash and fire point temperatures and viscosity of sunflower methyl ester decrease with increasing the additives. The calorific value of 20 percent biodiesel blend (B20) of SME with 5% Ethanol additive is very close to that of diesel.

Abstract: In this study, the effects of different solvents such as ethanol, ethylene glycol, glycerol on the preparation of BiVO₄ via solvothermal process, and the influent of calcination heat treatment were studied. The crystal structure, surface area, morphology and optical properties of the obtained BiVO₄ particles were investigated by means of X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Brunauer Emmett Teller method (BET), Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and UV-Vis reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS), respectively. XRD patterns reveal that all of the obtained BiVO₄ samples prepared by solvothermal at 130°C for 4 h have monoclinic structure. The UV-Vis DRS demonstrates that the band gaps of prepared BiVO₄ are about 2.38-2.40 eV. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by photo-degradation of rhodamine B (Rh B) solution under visible light irradiation (λ>420 nm). As the results, the BiVO₄ prepared by using ethanol having high crystallinity and surface area showed the highest visible light photocatalytic activity compared to using glycerol and ethylene glycerol, respectively. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activity of BiVO₄ prepared by using ethylene glycerol and glycerol could be enhanced by calcination heat treatment at 500°C for 2 h.