Performance and Emission Features of a Light Duty Diesel Engine Generator Powered with Water-Diesel Emulsions

Today’s world is being confronted with a couple of issues, namely environmental degradation and oil crisis. The technical community has dedicated many methods to eradicate the harmful pollutants generated from diesel engine sectors to protect the ecological environment without ensuing any inferior effect with regards to brake thermal efficiency. In this research work, normal water is incorporated with diesel fuel in the presence of surfactants (such as Span80 and Tween80) in specific proportions. The purpose of adding water with diesel fuel is to diminish the harmful pollutants and to enhance the performance features of the diesel engine. In this research investigation, totally four phases of investigation have been carried out. In the first phase, the diesel engine generator was fueled with pure diesel fuel to obtain the baseline readings (from zero load to full load). In the second phase, two fuels of water-diesel emulsions (2% and 4% by volume) were prepared in the presence of surfactants with the aid of a digital overhead stirrer systematically. In the third phase, stability and thermal properties of water-diesel emulsion fuels were determined. In the fourth phase, the stable water-diesel emulsion fuels were tested in a diesel engine generator and compared to those readings (performance and emission features) of pure diesel fuel. It was observed that on adding water to the diesel fuel, the performance features (such as brake thermal efficiency and brake specific fuel consumption) were improved, and harmful pollutants (such as NOx, CO, HC, Smoke) were diminished for the water-diesel emulsion fuels while compared to that of pure diesel fuel.