Hydrogen addition to tea seed oil biodiesel: Performance and emission characteristics

Compression ignition engines are the dominant tools of the modern human life especially in the field of transportation. But, the increasing problematic issues such as decreasing reserves and environmental effects of diesel fuels which is the energy source of compression ignition engines forcing researchers to investigate alternative fuels for substitution or decreasing the dependency on fossil fuels. The mostly known alternative fuel is biodiesel fuel and many researchers are investigating the possible raw materials for biodiesel production. Also, hydrogen fuel is an alternative fuel which can be used in compression ignition engines for decreasing fuel consumption and hazardous exhaust emissions by enriching the fuel. In this study, influences of hydrogen enrichment to diesel and diesel tea seed oil biodiesel blends (B10 and B20) were investigated on an unmodified compression ignition engine experimentally. In consequence of the experiments, lower torque and higher brake specific fuel consumption data were measured when the engine was fuelled diesel biodiesel blends (B10 and B20) instead of diesel fuel. Also, diesel biodiesel blends increased CO₂ and NO_x emissions while decreasing the CO emissions. Hydrogen enrichment (5 l/m and 10 l/m) was improved the both torque and brake specific fuel consumption for all test fuels. Furthermore, hydrogen enrichment reduced CO and CO₂ emissions due to absence of carbon atoms in the chemical structure for all test fuels. Increasing flow rate of hydrogen fuel from 5 l/m to 10 l/m further improved performance measures and emitted harmful gases except NO_x. The most significant drawback of the hydrogen enrichment was the increased NO_x emissions.