Optimization Specific Fuel Consumption of Diesel, Biodiesel and Bioethanol Fuel Blends by Response Surface Methodology

Recently much attention has been paid to the development of alternative fuels in order to meet the emission standards and to reduce the dependency on fossil fuel. Especially biodiesel and ethanol have been considered as major alternative fuels as they are derived from renewable sources. These fuels are well oxygenated and therefore have a great potential to reduce emissions. This study is aimed at investigating the effect of operating factors of engine load and speed as well as blended levels of biodiesel and ethanol in diesel fuel on the specific fuel consumption of a DI diesel engine OM 314. The experiments were designed using a statistical tool known as response surface methodology (RSM).
Findings: The results depicted that specific fuel consumption increased with increasing percentage of bioethanol and biodiesel and the minimum of the specific fuel consumption (156 g/kWh) was accured at full load and engine rotational speed of 2453 rpm for pure diesel (B0E0D100)
Discussion and the maximum of specific fuel consumption was obtained with amount of 413 g/kWh at 20% engine load and rotational speed of 2800 rpm and for a fuel blend containing 0.4 l biodiesel, 0.4 l ethanol and 1l diesel (B22E22D56)