Exergy Conceptual-Based Study for Comparative Thermodynamic Performance of CI Engine Fueled with Petroleum Diesel and Biodiesel Blends

Abstract

The exergy analysis of a compression ignition (CI) engine for quantification of fuel to available energy could be the most effective tool to determine the fuel efficiency and effectiveness. During this investigation a few diesel-biodiesel blends were investigated for performance analysis in diesel engines under different load conditions using an exergy-based study. From this focused investigation, it was ascertained that biodiesel blends of B10 and B20 for apricot, argemone, karanja, nahar, and neem showed relatively better performance than petrodiesel at 80% load. As much as 30% of available input energy was estimated for shaft operation. Also diesel showed higher destroyed availability, whereas all other blends showed 1–3% less than diesel, which is a significant finding of this work. Among all the diesel-biodiesel blends, Argemone mexicana (ARB20) was found to be the best both in terms of biodiesel production and performance parameters. Thus, biodiesel blend B20 was found equally efficient in terms of virtual available energy and could be effectively used as a substitute for petrodiesel without compromising the shaft efficiency.