The Effect of Methanol-Diesel Blended Ratio on CI Engine Performance

Abstract

In the current work, a comprehensive study on the possibility of using methanol as an alternative fuel for diesel engines was carried out. Methanol was mixed at different ratios with diesel fuel. The mixing ratios of methanol to diesel were 0:100, 10:90, 20:80 and 30:70. The effects of methanol fraction on engine power, torque, brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), brake thermal efficiency and exhaust temperature were experimentally investigated at variant engine speeds. The engine used to carry out these experiments is a four-stroke four-cylinder diesel engine. The results showed that mixing methanol at different fractions with diesel fuel has a significant effect on the engine performance. The methanol to diesel ratio of 10:90 exhibited the lowest exhaust temperature and achieved an improvement in the output power of approximately 70% compared to the other ratios. Also, the brake thermal efficiency improved at all the mixing ratios used. Furthermore, the BSFC of pure diesel fuel registered a lower value than any other mixing ratio. It has been shown in this research that the addition of 10% methanol to the diesel fuel may have a great impact on the engine performance and the environment.