Investigations on emission characteristics of the pongamia biodiesel–diesel blend fuelled twin cylinder compression ignition direct injection engine using exhaust gas recirculation methodology and dimethyl carbonate as additive

Abstract

Experiments were carried out on a twin cylinder direct injection compression ignition engine using pongamia biodiesel–diesel blend as fuel with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) as additive. The experimental results showed that pongamia biodiesel–diesel blend fuelled engine with EGR and DMC can simultaneously reduce smoke and nitric oxide (NOx) emission. The NOx emission was reduced by about 17.68% for 10% of EGR introduction and about 13.55% increase in smoke emission. When dimethyl carbonate was added with EGR, the engine emits lower smoke with lesser NOx emission, and it showed that the smoke reduction rate had a linear relationship with DMC percentage. The carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions also decreased when DMC was added. However, the addition of DMC with EGR caused an increase in both BSEC and BTE.