Combustion Characteristics Analysis of the Alcohol and Diesel Blends

The combustion characteristics of the alcohol (acetone-butanol-ethanol, ABE) and diesel fuel mixture was studied in the constant volume chamber with a window on the top. A premixed gas mixture containing C₂H₂, N₂, and air was burned in the constant volume chamber to generate a high temperature and high pressure environment that simulated the typical diesel engine in-cylinder top dead centre (TDC) condition. The combustion process was recorded through the top window using a high speed camera (Phantom V7.1) located above the chamber. The results and discussions were based on the data above. It is found that at low ambient temperature and low ambient oxygen, the mixture presented extremely low soot luminosity with better combustion efficiency comparing to pure diesel. The high latent heat of vaporization of the alcohol blends contributes to the reduction of the adiabatic flame temperature and the amount of nitrogen oxides suggesting that ABE solution, an intermediate product during ABE fermentation, is a very promising alternative fuel to be directly used in diesel engines especially under low temperature combustion (LTC) conditions.