• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 1982

The objective of this study was to find out the technical feasibility of ethanol-diesel fuel blends as a diesel engine fuel. Fuel properties essential to the proper operation of a diesel engine were determined for blends containing several concentrations of ethanol in No. 2 diesel fuel. A single-cylinder diesel engine for a power tiller was used for the engine tests, in which load, speed and fuel consumption rate were measured. The fuels used in tests were No. 2 diesel fuel and a blend containing 10-percent ethanol and 90-percent No. 2 diesel fuel. The results of the study are summarized as follows. 1. It was not possible to blend ethanol and No. 2 diesel fuel as a homogeneous solution even though anhydrous ethanol was used. The problem of blending ethanol in No. 2 diesel fuel could be solved by adding butanol about 5% of the amount of ethanol in the blends. 2. Because ethanol had a much lower boiling point ($78.3^{\circ}C$ under atmospheric pressure) than a diesel fuel, it was necessary to store ethanol-diesel fuel blends airtight in order to prevent them from evaporation losses of ethanol. 3. The addition of ethanol to No. 2 diesel fuel lowered the fuel viscosity and the cetane rating, but a blend of 10% ethanol and 90% diesel fuel had a viscosity and a cetane rating well above the KS minimum values for No. 2 diesel fuel. 4. At the rated speed, the specific fuel consumption of No.2 diesel fuel was lower than that of the 10% ethanol blend for the almost entire range of load. However, under the overload condition the specific fuel consumption was lower for the 10% ethanol blend. 5. Under the variable-speed full-load tests, both fuels produced approximately the same torque and power. At the speeds of 1600rpm or below, the specific fuel consumption of No. 2 diesel fuel was lower than that of the 10% ethanol blend. At the speeds of 1600rpm or above, however, the specific fuel consumption was lower for the 10% ethanol blend. 6. At the ambient temperature above $15^{\circ}C$, the use of the 10% ethanol blend in the engine created a vapor lock in the fuel injection pump and stalled the engine. The vapor locking problem was overcome by chilling the surroundings of the fuel injection pump and the cylinder head with water.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 2007

Phase separation and low cetane number are the main barriers to the large-scale use of ethanol-diesel blend fuel on small diesel engines. In this paper, an additive package is designed on the basis of the blended fuel properties to overcome these limitations. The experiments show that the solubility of ethanol in diesel is evidently increased by adding $1{\sim}2%$ (in volume) of the additive package and the flammability of ethanol-diesel blend fuel with the additive has reached the neat diesel level under the cold start conditions. Effects of the ethanol content in diesel on fuel economy, combustion characteristics, and emission characteristics are also investigated with the ethanol blend ratios of 10%, 20% and 30%. The increase in ethanol content shows that the specific fuel consumption and the brake thermal efficiency are both gradually increased compared to neat diesel. The soot concentrations of the three blended fuels are all greatly lower than that of neat diesel. $NO_x$ emission is increased with an increase in the engine load and is reduced with the increase in the ethanol blend ratio under a high load.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.155-166
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• 2014

This review will be concentrated on the spray characteristics of bioethanol and its derived fuels such as ethanol-diesel, ethanol-biodiesel in compression ignition (CI) engines. The difficulty in meeting the severe limitations on NOx and PM emissions in CI engines has brought about many methods for the application of ethanol because ethanol diffusion flames in engine produce virtually no soot. The most popular method for the application of ethanol as a fuel in CI engines is the blending of ethanol with diesel. The physical properties of ethanol and its derivatives related to spray characteristics such as viscosity, density and surface tension are discussed. Viscosity and density of e-diesel and e-biodiesel generally are decreased with increase in ethanol content and temperature. More than 22% and 30% of ethanol addition would not satisfied the requirement of viscosity and density in EN 590, respectively. Investigation of neat ethanol sprays in CI engines was conducted by very few researchers. The effect of ambient temperature on liquid phase penetration is a controversial topic due to the opposite result between two studies. More researches are required for the spray characteristics of neat ethanol in CI engines. The ethanol blended fuels in CI engines can be classified into ethanol-diesel blend (e-diesel) and ethanol-biodiesel (e-biodiesel) blend. Even though dodecanol and n-butanol are rarely used, the addition of biodiesel as blend stabilizer is the prevailing method because it has the advantage of increasing the biofuel concentration in diesel fuel. Spray penetration and SMD of e-diesel and e-biodiesel decrease with increase in ethanol concentration, and in ambient pressure. However, spray angle is increased with increase in the ethanol percentage in e-diesel. As the ambient pressure increases, liquid phase penetration was decreased, but spray angle was increased in e-diesel. The increase in ambient temperature showed the slight effect on liquid phase penetration, but spray angle was decreased. A numerical study of micro-explosion concluded that the optimum composition of e-diesel binary mixture for micro-explosion was approximately E50D50, while that of e-biodiesel binary mixture was E30B70 due to the lower volatility of biodiesel. Adding less volatile biodiesel into the ternary mixture of ethanol-biodiesel-diesel can remarkably enhance micro-explosion. Addition of ethanol up to 20% in e-biodiesel showed no effect on spray penetration. However, increase of nozzle orifice diameter results in increase of spray penetration. The more study on liquid phase penetration and SMD in e-diesel and e-biodiesel is required.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.76-84
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• 2010

The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of the ethanol blending in diesel-ethanol blended fuels on the spray and combustion characteristics in a common-rail four-cylinder diesel engine. For the analysis of the spray characteristics, the spray images were obtained using a high speed camera with metal-halide lamps. From these spray images, the macroscopic spray characteristics such as the spray tip penetration and spray cone angle were investigated. Also, the combustion characteristics including the combustion pressure and the rate of heat release were studied with the analysis of the exhaust emissions in diesel-ethanol blended fuel driven diesel engine. It can be confirmed from the experiment on spray characteristics of diesel-ethanol blended fuels that the increased ethanol blending ratio induced the decrease of the spray tip penetration after the end of the injection. The spray cone angle slightly increased by the blending of ethanol fuel. In the experiment on atomization characteristics, the ethanol blending caused the improvement of the diesel atomization performance. On the other hand, at the same engine load condition, the increase of the ethanol blending ratio lead to lengthen the ignition delays, and to decrease the peak combustion pressure and the rate of heat release. Totally, the combustion and emission characteristics of ULSD and DE10 showed similar characteristics. However, in the case of DE20, CO and HC rapidly increased, and $NO_x$ decreased. It can be believed that 20% ethanol disturbed the combustion of diesel-ethanol blended fuel due to the low cetane number and evaporation.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2012

This study described the effect of the multiple injections and diesel-ethanol on the NVH, combustion and emission characteristics of 4 cylinder common rail diesel engine. In order to investigate the influence of diesel-ethanol blended fuel in a light-duty common rail diesel engine, the injection strategy was varied with pilot injection, double pilot injections, and one main injection at various operating conditions. The results showed that diesel-ethanol blended fuel had longer ignition delay than that of the ultra low diesel fuel(ULSD). Also, in the case of multiple injections, the combustion pressure is increased smoothly near the TDC and the NVH are decreased. In the emission characteristics, diesel-ethanol blended fuel produced lower indicated specific nitrogen oxides(IS-NOX) and indicated specific Soot(IS-soot) emissions, however, indicated specific unburned hydrocarbon(IS-HC) and indicated specific carbon monoxide(IS-CO) emissions are slightly increased.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.80-87
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of ethanol blending ratio and fuel temperature in diesel-ethanol blended fuel on the spray-atomization characteristics in a high pressure common-rail injection system. In this work, a diesel fuel and three blended fuels were used as test fuels. Blended fuels were made by blending ethanol with a purity 99.9% to diesel fuel, from 0% to 30%. In order to keep diesel-ethanol blending stability, 5% of biodiesel fuel as volumetric ratio was added into test fuels. The fuel temperature was controled in steps with 40K, from 290K to 370K. Macroscopic spray characteristics were investigated by analyzing the spray tip penetration and spray cone angle through spray images obtained from visualization system. In addition, in order to study microscopic spray characteristics of ethanol blended fuels, the droplet diameter, was analyzed using the droplet measuring system. It is revealed that the spray tip penetration is similar regardless of ethanol blending ratio. As ethanol blending ratio is increased, the spray cone angle becomes wider. It is shown that the spray cone angle is affected by low viscosity and density of ethanol. As the fuel temperature increases, the spray tip penetration and spray cone angle become shorter and narrower respectively. The SMD of ethanol blending fuels is smaller than that of diesel fuel because of low viscosity and surface tension of ethanol.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.721-726
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• 2016

Alcohols are particularly attractive as alternative fuels because they are a renewable resource. This paper describes the performance and emission characteristics of ethanol and diesel blended fuels in a compression ignition engine. This experimental results showed that ethanol diesel blended fuels decreased the torque and brake mean effective pressure. And experimental results indicated that using ethanol-diesel blended fuel, smoke, CO and HC emissions decreased as a result of the ethanol addition.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.114-121
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• 2009

There are increased in using the bio-ethanol, as the carbon neutral attracts many researchers due to a reduction in carbon dioxide spotted as the global warming gas. A gasoline engine with 100% of the bioethanol was developed and used in Brazil already, but researches of using the bio-ethanol in diesel engines are lack. In this study, combustion tests with blend fuel of the gas oil and bio ethanol by 50% maximally due to a low cetane number of bio-ethanol were accomplished as a basic study of introduction of using the bioethanol in diesel engines. The result was that smoke emission was decreased with increase in proportion of the bio-ethanol, due to the increase of a amount of pre-mixed combustion with ignition delay. Although the amount of $CO_2$ is reduced according as the bio-ethanol is used(carbon neutral), the emission of $CO_2$ with increase in the proportion of the bio-ethanol was more increased due to lower a heat value of bio-ethanol than gas oil.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.5-12
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• 2008

We measured emission characteristics of CRDI diesel engine equipped with a commercial CPF. Experimental parameters adopted a neat diesel fuel, a blend of diesel fuel with 20% biodiesel, a blend of diesel fuel with 15% biodiesel and 5% ethanol. The experiments were carried out to measure the emission and engine performance according to ESC 13-mode cycles. The maximum torque with biodiesel blend fuel is slightly lower than that of neat diesel fuel in the entire the 13-mode cycles, and 5% ethanol and 15% biodiesel blend fuel is slightly higher than that of neat diesel fuel. THC and CO emissions of the biofuel blended diesel fuel were slightly increased and decreased, and mean conversion efficiencies of THC and CO on the commercial CPF were achieved about 70$\sim$87% in the ESC 13-mode. From the measurement by the Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer(SMPS), the total number and mass of nano-sized particles by a commercial CPF were decreased about 97.8% and 96.8 % in the range of the nano-size from 10.6 to 385nm, respectively.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.242-249
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• 2018

The use of palm oil and diesel blended with ethanol, known as a microemulsion biofuel, is gaining attention as an attractive renewable fuel for engines that may serve as a replacement for fossil-based fuels. The microemulsion biofuels can be formulated from the mixture of palm oil and diesel as the oil phase; ethanol as the polar phase; methyl oleate as the surfactant; alkanols as the cosurfactants. This study investigates the influence of the three cosurfactants on fuel consumption and exhaust gas emissions in a direct-injection (DI) diesel engine. The microemulsion biofuels along with neat diesel fuel, palm oil-diesel blends, and biodiesel-diesel blends were tested in a DI diesel engine at two engine loads without engine modification. The formulated microemulsion biofuels increased fuel consumption and gradually reduced the nitrogen oxides ($NO_x$) emissions and exhaust gas temperature; however, there was no significant difference in their carbon monoxide (CO) emissions when compared to those of diesel. Varying the carbon chain length of the cosurfactant demonstrated that the octanol-microemulsion fuel emitted lower CO and $NO_x$ emissions than the butanol- and decanol-microemulsion fuels. Thus, the microemulsion biofuels demonstrated competitive advantages as potential fuels for diesel engines because they reduced exhaust emissions.