The Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Methanol and Dodecanol Additives to Diesel Fuel on Engine Performance and Smoke Emissions in a CI Engine

In the experimental study, the effects of diesel-methanol-dodecanol blends on engine performance and smoke emission in a single-cylinder, four-stroke, water-cooled, normally aspirated compression ignition engine were investigated. Fuel blend ratios in the study; Diesel (D100), diesel-methanol (D90M10) and diesel-methanol-dodecanol (D89M10D1) were used. In order to solve the phase separation problem in the diesel-methanol blend, 1% by volume of dodecanol was added. The test engine was operated at four different loads (6,12,18 and 24 Nm) and constant engine speed (1800 rpm). The performance parameters such as brake specific fuel consumption, brake specific energy consumption and brake effective efficiency for each blend at various engine loads are calculated based on the experimental data. The results indicated that in low load conditions, the specific fuel consumption increased by maximum 8.4% with the addition of methanol to the diesel fuel, while this rate decreased to 3.7% with the addition of dodecanol. By adding dodecanol to the methanol-diesel mixture, minimum smoke opacity was obtained at low and high loads, respectively, at 32.72% and 53.75%.