International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

Study of Performance and Emission

Characteristics of a Diesel Engine using Mango
Seed Methyl Ester with Nanoparticles
A. P. Sathiyagnanam

M. Muthukumar
PG Student,
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
AnnamalaiUniversity, Annamalainagar-608002.

Assistant Professor,
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
AnnamalaiUniversity, Annamalainagar-608002,

Email:apsgnanam@yahoo.co.in
Abstract An experimental study is done to prove the
performance and emission characteristics of a compression
ignition engine while using nanoparticles as additives in neat
diesel and mango seed methyl ester (MSME). In this study, two
different nanoparticle additives namely zinc oxide(ZnO) and
cerium oxide(CeO2) were added to neat diesel and methyl ester at
the addition dosage of 25 and 50 ppm. The properties of fuel,
performance of engine and emission characteristics of the
exhaust gas are obtained from the modified fuel are examined.
The ZnO and Ce02 act as a catalyst which supplies oxygen and it
supplies oxygen for oxidation of CO, thereby reducing NOX. The
start of energy of ZnO and Ce02 burn the carbon deposits,
deposited inside the cylinder at the wall temperature and thereby
avoiding the coating of non-polar substances on the cylinder wall.
This results in reduction of HC emissions. The experiment proves
that the optimum additive and dosage was determined as 25ppm
of ZnO and 25 ppm of CeO2 engine emission values namely NOx
and CO were marginally decreased and engine performance
values slightly increased with the addition of nanoparticle
additives.

MgO. The test fuel is produced by doping the additives into diesel
fuel at the rate of 8moll and 16 moll. The doping of the additives
increases the fuel properties such as viscosity, flash point, cloud
point and pour point. In direct injection diesel engine, the fuel with
and without additives were tested at full load condition. The
reduction of specific fuel consumption was recorded maximum at
4.16%, emission of CO and smoke were decreased by 16.35% and
29.82% respectively. Conversely while adding additives to the fuel
the NOX emission is high and there is no considerable change in CO2
emission. The recent trend to alter the physiochemical and
combustion properties of a hydrocarbon fuel is done by adding
additives to the fuel. This is found to be very effective in nanoparticle
form, due to the enrichment of the surface area to volume ratio
The main objective of the experiment is to study the effects of
nanoparticle additives namely ZnO and CeO2 at different dosing
levels (25ppm to 50ppm) to the mango seed methyl ester for
improvement of engine performance and reduced exhaust emissions
in a C.I engine

Cerium
Oxide(CeO2),
Carbon
Monoxide,
Keywords
Nanoparticles, Oxides of Nitrogen and Zinc Oxide (ZnO).

The fuel additives used in this investigation is oxygen containing

nanoparticles given in the table 1, according to the commercially
available size 20 to 35 nanometers. The level of dosing of the
nanoparticle sample (by weight) in the base fuel was 25ppm and
50ppm. Precision electronic balance is used for measuring the
required quantity of nanoparticle sample for each dosing level, and
the fuel is mixed well using a ultrasonic processor. A constant
agitation is applied for a time period of one hour to produce a
uniform suspension. In order to avoid precipitation or sedimentation
the modified fuel is utilized immediately after preparation. Sonic
Vibrant-Cell ultrasonic processor was used to stir nanoparticles with
MSME fuel homogeneously in order to obtain modified fuels.
Nanoparticles were mixed with MSME with pulsing time 10 seconds
on 10 seconds off and 40% amplitude by means of ultrasonic
processor. Fuel properties as density, viscosity, flash point and cetane
number of the test fuels were determined according to standard test
methods Table 2.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Vehicular emission is responsible for higher level of air pollutants

and their adverse effects on human and environmental health [1]. The
emissions from diesel engine are great concern due to its adverse
health effects. Many developed countries have made stringent laws
over the pollutants. The major advantages of diesel engine are being,
better fuel economy, and lesser HC and CO emission. But the major
concern is about the emission of PM and NOX which is very high in
diesel engine. And these emissions are very hard to sustain. To avoid
these emissions, the reformulated diesel fuels can be used. This type
reformulated diesel fuel will emit lesser sulphur and lesser aromatic
content. And also it reduces the addition of oxygen within the fuel
Experimental investigations prove that many oxygenates are very
substantial in decreasing the emissions of diesel engine. Many
experiments have been done on fuel additives to decrease the
emissions. This can be done by developing the fuel properties by
adding the additives, this increases the combustion efficiency and
reduce the harmful pollutants. Metallic based compounds can be used
as additives, which can also be used as combustion catalyst for
hydrocarbon fuels. The investigation was done on the fuel
consumption and exhaust emission of diesel engine after introducing
the metallic based additives on fuel. The production of metallic based
additives is done by blending resin acid (abietic acid) with Mno2 or

II.

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231

PREPARATION OF FUEL

TABLE I
PROPERTIES OF NANOPARTICLES
Nanoparticle

Symbol

Particle Size (nm)

Purity (%)

Zinc Oxide

ZnO

30

99.9

Cerium Oxide

CeO2

30

99.9

International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

TABLE II
PROPERTIES OF MSME WITH DIESEL AND NANOPARTICLES
Properties
Density @ 15C in
gm/cc
Specific gravity @
15 /15C
Kinematic viscosity @
40C (mm2/s)
Flash point (C)

Diesel

25 ppm ZnO

25 ppm CeO2

0.844

0.864

0.865

0.850

0.882

0.891

3.26

5.62

5.78

60

166

171

Fire Point (C)

Cloud Point (C)
Calorific value (MJ/kg)
Cetane Number

63
15
44.12
45-50

179
28
49.78
52

181
31
49.89
54

(Source: Laboratory evaluation at Etalab Chennai)

III.

EXPERIMENTAL

A. Equipment and Method

The engine used is Kirloskar TV1; their specifications are
explained in Table 3. The engine layout is shown in Figure 1. The
engine is connected to an Eddy current dynamometer to measure the
engine power. The emissions of NOX, HC, CO, O2 and CO2 are
measured using exhaust gas analyser (AVL Di-gas analyser). The
analyser is calibrated using reference gases to compare the accuracy
of the measured value. The smoke density is measured using smoke
meter. Before each measurement the smoke meter is ensured to zero
position. The combustion characters of the engine are measured
using AVL combustion analyser.
TABLE III

Fig. 1 The layout of the engine test bench

IV.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. Performance and Emission

The blend of MSME with ZnO and Ce02 is fuel enriched with
oxygen, mostly suited for combustion at higher engine loads. The
amount of fuel supplied to the engine is decreased at lesser engine
load; thereby the overall mixture was further leaned out. This proves
that addition of ZnO and Ce02 with MSME affects the performance
and the emissions at various engine loads.

SPECIFICATION OF THE TEST ENGINE

Type

Number of cylinder

Vertical, Water cooled,

Four stroke
One

Bore

87.5 mm

Stroke

110 mm

Compression ratio

17.5:1

Maximum power

5.2 kW

Speed

1500 rev/min

Dynamometer

Eddy current

Injection timing
Injection pressure

:
:

23 before TDC
220 kgf/cm2

B. Engine Test Procedure

The experiments were carried out using neat diesel as the base line
fuel for various engine loads from 0% to 100% in steps of 20%.The
engine was allowed to run for sufficient time before running the fuel
with new fuel. This is done to drain the remaining fuel from previous
experiments. The important parameters such as engine speed, power
output, fuel consumption, exhaust emissions and cylinder pressure
were noted to evaluate the performance parameters. The important
parameters such as specific fuel consumption and brake thermal
efficiency foe biodiesel and its blends were calculated.

Fig. 2 Comparison of SFC with brake power for different dosing levels
of nanoparticles in MSME

SFC is the ratio between mass flow of the tested fuel and effective
power. Fig. 2 shows the SFC variation of the MSME with ZnO and
CeO2 and its blends with respect to brake power of the engine. In
general, the SFC values of the MSME with nanoparticles and its
blends are slightly higher than those of diesel fuel under engine loads
of all ranges. The lowest SFCs are 0.3129, 0.3321, 0.3609, 0.3449,
0.3602, and 0.3605 kg/KWhr for Diesel, MSME, MSME + ZnO
25ppm, MSME + ZnO 50ppm, MSME + CeO2 25ppm and

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International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

MSME + CeO2 50ppm respectively. The specific fuel consumption

of CI engine mainly depends on the relation between volumetric fuel
injection, density of fuel, viscosity and lower heating. More MSME
with ZnO and Ce02 is necessary to produce the same amount of
energy because of its lower heating value while comparing with
diesel. According to Ekrem buyakkaya the specific fuel consumption
increases when there is increase in composition of biodiesel
mixtures.

monoxide against brake power when there is variation in the dosage

of ZnO and Ce02 nanoparticles with addition dosage of 25 and 50
ppm decreased the CO emissions of the MSME fuel. The maximum
CO emission reduction according to MSME fuel result is 40% and
36% for the MSME at the nanoparticles addition dosage of 25 and 50
ppm ZnO, 26% and 31% for the 25 and 50 ppm CeO2 respectively.
The maximum CO reduction is 40% according to base fuel at the
addition dosage of 25 ppm ZnO.

Fig. 5 Comparison of Hydrocarbon with brake power for various dosing

levels of nanoparticles in MSME

Fig.3 Comparison of Brake thermal efficiency versus brake power for

various dosing levels of nanoparticles in MSME

Brake thermal efficiency (BTE) is the ratio of heat equivalent of

the brake output to the heat supplied to the engine (or) energy
introduced through fuel injection. The heat supplied to the engine is
the product of injected fuel mass flow rate and the lower heating
value. The BTE for different dosing levels of nanoparticles in MSME
are explained in Fig 3. The brake thermal efficiency values for
mixture of MSME with ZnO and Ce02 is increased considerably than
diesel fuel. For diesel the maximum BTE is 26.092% and for mixture
of MSME and Zn0 225ppm is 28.894%

The variation of HC emission at different loads for various

dosing levels of nanoparticles in MSME is shown in Fig 5. The
considerable reduction in HC emission takes place due to the
enriched oxygen blends. HC is abundantly produced in diffusive
phase; the enriched oxygen blends leads to an improvement in
diffusive combustion for MSME with ZnO and Ce02 mixture. The
reduction in HC emission is 39% was obtained at full load for
MSME + ZnO 25ppm mixture. Another cause for HC reduction in
MSME is lesser C/H ratio and lack of aromatic substances as similar
to diesel. The content of carbon in MSME is lesser than that of
diesel. More carbon in the fuel is likely to generate more HC. In
contradiction oxygen in the fuel reduces the nature of the fuel to
generate smoke [12].

Fig. 4 Variation of carbon monoxide against brake power for different

dosing levels of nanoparticles in MSME

Carbon monoxide (CO) is one of the by product of diesel, which is

colourless lethal gas formed due to incomplete oxidation of fuel. The
mixture of air in the combustion chamber decreases with the addition
of nanoparticles. Fig 4 demonstrates the variation of carbon

Fig. 6 Comparison of NOx with brake power for various dosing levels
of nanoparticles in MSME

The variations of measured nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions

values of MSME with different dosing levels of the nanoparticles
with brake power are demonstrated in the Fig. 6. ZnO and CeO2

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International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

nanoparticles addition dosage of 25 and 50 ppm decreased the NOx

emissions of MSME. The maximum nitrogen oxides emission
reduction according to MSME result is 3.52% and 5.23% for the
modified fuels at the nanoparticle addition dosage of 25 and 50 ppm
ZnO, 7.61% and 4.38% for the 25 and 50 ppm CeO2 respectively.
The average NOx emission reduction is 6% and 4% for the MSME at
the nanoparticle addition dosage of 25 and 50 ppm ZnO, 8% and 5%
for the 25 and 50 ppm CeO2 respectively. The maximum average
NOx emission decrease is 8.83% according to base fuel (MSME fuel)
at the addition dosage of 25 ppm CeO2.

The comparison of heat release rate with crank angle is shown

in Fig 8. There is substantial increase in heat release rate when there
is addition of ZnO and CeO2 nanoparticles. The addition of ZnO and
CeO2 nanoparticles increases combustion and thereby causing higher
heat release rate than that of diesel. The heat release rate for diesel is
recorded high at 139.972 kJ/m3deg and for diesel+ CeO2 25ppm is
147.796 kJ/m3deg.

V.

B. Combustion Characteristics

Fig 7 shows the act of cylinder pressure for different crank angle at
various dosing levels of nanoparticles in MSME

Fig;7 shows the act of cylinder pressure for various crank angle
for diesel, MSME with ZnO and Ce02 mixture at 1500rpm at
maximum load conditions. From Fig 7 it is clearly understood that
the peak pressure increases when there is addition of ZnO and Ce02
nanoparticles. The addition of Zn0 and Ce02 nanoparticles with
MSME stimulates the initiation of combustion and thereby
decreasing the ignition delay. The addition of nanoparticles increases
the ignition delay, therefore more fuel gets accumulated in premixed
combustion phase. This causes rapid combustion and results in high
peak pressure[13]. The observed peak pressure is 66.5070bar for
MSME+Zn0 25ppm mixture, whereas for diesel is 66.1810bar

CONCLUSION

The density of MSME does not exhibit larger deviation due to

inclusion of nanoparticles. The viscosity of MSME was found to
decrease with the addition of ZnO and CeO2 nanoparticles. Flash
point of the MSME was slightly increased with the addition of CeO2
and ZnO nanoparticles. Engine performance tests with diesel and
MSME at different dosing levels (25ppm and 50ppm) of
nanoparticles showed a slight increase in the consumption of fuel and
brake thermal efficiency of test engine. The brake thermal efficiency
values for MSME with ZnO and CeO2 and its mixture are lightly
increased while comparing to diesel. The B.T.E of diesel is high at
26.092% where as for MSME + ZnO 225 ppm is 28.894%.
Carbon monoxide (CO) emission of the MSME was found to
decrease with the addition of ZnO and CeO2 nanoparticles. The
maximum reduction was obtained with ZnO nanoparticle at the
addition dosage of 25 ppm as 20%. Combustion remains incomplete
due to two reasons, insufficient quantity of air supplied and lesser
time allowed for completion of combustion process. Oxygen
containing nanoparticles decrease the CO emissions of the MSME by
supplying extra oxygen to the fuel-air mixture in the combustion
chamber.
Hydro Carbon (HC) emission of the MSME was found to decrease
with the addition of ZnO, and CeO2 nanoparticles. The maximum
reduction was obtained with ZnO nanoparticle at the addition dosage
of 25 ppm as 54%.
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions of MSME were found to
decrease with the addition of ZnO and CeO2 nanoparticles. The
maximum average reduction was obtained with CeO2 nanoparticle at
the addition dosage of 25 ppm as 20%. The reductions in NOx
emission is due to complete combustion of MSME with the help of
catalyst effect of nanoparticle additions which promotes heat transfer
in the combustion chamber.
When there is addition of ZnO and Ce02 nanoparticles there is
increase in cylinder pressure. The ignition delay increases with
inclusion of nanoparticles, therefore more fuel gets accumulated in
premixed combustion stage, this is the main reason for increased
combustion and resulting in high peak pressure [14]. When there is
addition of Zn0 and Ce02 nanoparticles there is increase in heat
release rate.
The study suggests that excess oxygen contents of MSME with
addition of ZnO and CeO2 nanoparticles with additional dosage of 25
and 50 ppm, acts a vital role in the performance of the engine. so
MSME with ZnO and CeO2 is suggested to be an important alternate
for diesel fuel either completely or partially.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are grateful to Staffs of engine research lab, for their
help during experiment.
Fig. 8 Comparison of Heat release versus crank angle for different
dosing levels of nanoparticles in MSME

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International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

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