IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v60y2016icp84-115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Use of higher alcohol biofuels in diesel engines: A review

Author

Listed:
  • Rajesh Kumar, B.
  • Saravanan, S.

Abstract

Biofuels have grabbed the attention of engine researchers ever since the oil-crisis and escalating costs of petro-chemicals cropped up in the ׳70s. Ethanol and methanol were the most widely researched alcohols in IC engines. However, the last decade has witnessed significant amount of research in higher alcohols due to the development of modern fermentation processes using engineered micro-organisms that improved yield. Higher alcohols are attractive second/third generation biofuels that can be produced from sugary, starchy and ligno-cellulosic biomass feedstocks using sustainable pathways. The present work reviews the current literature concerning the effects of using higher alcohols ranging from 3-carbon propanol to 20-carbon phytol on combustion, performance and emission characteristics of a wide range of diesel engines under various test conditions. The literature is abound with evidence that higher alcohols reduce carcinogenic particulate emissions that are prevalent in diesel engines. NOx emissions either increased or decreased based on the domination of either cetane number or heat of evaporation. Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) of the engine usually suffered due to low energy content of alcohols. A notable feature is that the combination of higher alcohols (like butanol or pentanol), high exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rates and late injection timing enabled low temperature combustion (LTC) in diesel engines that can simultaneously reduce smoke and NOx emissions with improved engine efficiency. It can be concluded that higher alcohols reduce smoke emissions with their fuel-borne oxygen; enhance air/fuel mixing by offering long ignition delay and eventually replace fossil diesel (partially or wholly) to enable a clean and efficient combustion in compression-ignition engines. The chief thrust areas include developing mutant strains with higher yield, higher tolerance to toxic inhibition and low-cost substrates for fermentation. Further work is required in stipulating optimum blend-fuel characteristics and ensuring the long-term durability of the engines using these fuels.

Suggested Citation

  • Rajesh Kumar, B. & Saravanan, S., 2016. "Use of higher alcohol biofuels in diesel engines: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 84-115.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:60:y:2016:i:c:p:84-115
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2016.01.085
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032116001155
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2016.01.085?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Choi, Byungchul & Jiang, Xiaolong & Kim, Young Kwon & Jung, Gilsung & Lee, Chunhwan & Choi, Inchul & Song, Chi Sung, 2015. "Effect of diesel fuel blend with n-butanol on the emission of a turbocharged common rail direct injection diesel engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 20-28.
    2. Wei, Liangjie & Cheung, C.S. & Huang, Zuohua, 2014. "Effect of n-pentanol addition on the combustion, performance and emission characteristics of a direct-injection diesel engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 172-180.
    3. Giakoumis, Evangelos G. & Dimaratos, Athanasios M. & Rakopoulos, Constantine D., 2011. "Experimental study of combustion noise radiation during transient turbocharged diesel engine operation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 4983-4995.
    4. Soloiu, Valentin & Duggan, Marvin & Harp, Spencer & Vlcek, Brian & Williams, David, 2013. "PFI (port fuel injection) of n-butanol and direct injection of biodiesel to attain LTC (low-temperature combustion) for low-emissions idling in a compression engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 143-154.
    5. Imran, A. & Varman, M. & Masjuki, H.H. & Kalam, M.A., 2013. "Review on alcohol fumigation on diesel engine: A viable alternative dual fuel technology for satisfactory engine performance and reduction of environment concerning emission," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 739-751.
    6. Rakopoulos, C.D. & Dimaratos, A.M. & Giakoumis, E.G. & Rakopoulos, D.C., 2011. "Study of turbocharged diesel engine operation, pollutant emissions and combustion noise radiation during starting with bio-diesel or n-butanol diesel fuel blends," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(11), pages 3905-3916.
    7. Jin, Chao & Yao, Mingfa & Liu, Haifeng & Lee, Chia-fon F. & Ji, Jing, 2011. "Progress in the production and application of n-butanol as a biofuel," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 4080-4106.
    8. Merola, S.S. & Tornatore, C. & Iannuzzi, S.E. & Marchitto, L. & Valentino, G., 2014. "Combustion process investigation in a high speed diesel engine fuelled with n-butanol diesel blend by conventional methods and optical diagnostics," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 225-237.
    9. Liu, Haifeng & Li, Shanju & Zheng, Zunqing & Xu, Jia & Yao, Mingfa, 2013. "Effects of n-butanol, 2-butanol, and methyl octynoate addition to diesel fuel on combustion and emissions over a wide range of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rates," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 246-256.
    10. Chen, Zheng & Liu, Jingping & Han, Zhiyu & Du, Biao & Liu, Yun & Lee, Chiafon, 2013. "Study on performance and emissions of a passenger-car diesel engine fueled with butanol–diesel blends," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 638-646.
    11. Chen, Guisheng & Shen, Yinggang & Zhang, Quanchang & Yao, Mingfa & Zheng, Zunqing & Liu, Haifeng, 2013. "Experimental study on combustion and emission characteristics of a diesel engine fueled with 2,5-dimethylfuran–diesel, n-butanol–diesel and gasoline–diesel blends," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 333-342.
    12. Balamurugan, T. & Nalini, R., 2014. "Experimental investigation on performance, combustion and emission characteristics of four stroke diesel engine using diesel blended with alcohol as fuel," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 356-363.
    13. Jiao, Weizhou & Wang, Yonghong & Li, Xiaoxia & Xu, Chengcheng & Liu, Youzhi & Zhang, Qiaoling, 2016. "Stabilization performance of methanol-diesel emulsified fuel prepared using an impinging stream-rotating packed bed," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 573-579.
    14. Şahin, Zehra & Aksu, Orhan N., 2015. "Experimental investigation of the effects of using low ratio n-butanol/diesel fuel blends on engine performance and exhaust emissions in a turbocharged DI diesel engine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 279-290.
    15. Zhang, Quanchang & Yao, Mingfa & Zheng, Zunqing & Liu, Haifeng & Xu, Jia, 2012. "Experimental study of n-butanol addition on performance and emissions with diesel low temperature combustion," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 515-521.
    16. Li, Li & Wang, Jianxin & Wang, Zhi & Liu, Haoye, 2015. "Combustion and emissions of compression ignition in a direct injection diesel engine fueled with pentanol," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 575-581.
    17. Iannuzzi, Stefano E. & Valentino, Gerardo, 2014. "Comparative behavior of gasoline–diesel/butanol–diesel blends and injection strategy management on performance and emissions of a light duty diesel engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 321-331.
    18. Liu, Haifeng & Wang, Xin & Zheng, Zunqing & Gu, Jingbo & Wang, Hu & Yao, Mingfa, 2014. "Experimental and simulation investigation of the combustion characteristics and emissions using n-butanol/biodiesel dual-fuel injection on a diesel engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 741-752.
    19. Campos-Fernández, Javier & Arnal, Juan M. & Gómez, Jose & Dorado, M. Pilar, 2012. "A comparison of performance of higher alcohols/diesel fuel blends in a diesel engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 267-275.
    20. Ishida, Masahiro & Yamamoto, Shohei & Ueki, Hironobu & Sakaguchi, Daisaku, 2010. "Remarkable improvement of NOx–PM trade-off in a diesel engine by means of bioethanol and EGR," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 4572-4581.
    21. Karabektas, Murat & Hosoz, Murat, 2009. "Performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine using isobutanol–diesel fuel blends," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1554-1559.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. M, Vinod Babu & K, Madhu Murthy & G, Amba Prasad Rao, 2017. "Butanol and pentanol: The promising biofuels for CI engines – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1068-1088.
    2. Algayyim, Sattar Jabbar Murad & Wandel, Andrew P. & Yusaf, Talal & Hamawand, Ihsan, 2017. "The impact of n-butanol and iso-butanol as components of butanol-acetone (BA) mixture-diesel blend on spray, combustion characteristics, engine performance and emission in direct injection diesel engi," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(P1), pages 1074-1086.
    3. Wei, Liangjie & Cheung, C.S. & Huang, Zuohua, 2014. "Effect of n-pentanol addition on the combustion, performance and emission characteristics of a direct-injection diesel engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 172-180.
    4. Yusri, I.M. & Mamat, R. & Najafi, G. & Razman, A. & Awad, Omar I. & Azmi, W.H. & Ishak, W.F.W. & Shaiful, A.I.M., 2017. "Alcohol based automotive fuels from first four alcohol family in compression and spark ignition engine: A review on engine performance and exhaust emissions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 169-181.
    5. Liu, Xinlei & Wang, Hu & Zheng, Zunqing & Liu, Jialin & Reitz, Rolf D. & Yao, Mingfa, 2016. "Development of a combined reduced primary reference fuel-alcohols (methanol/ethanol/propanols/butanols/n-pentanol) mechanism for engine applications," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 542-558.
    6. David Fernández-Rodríguez & Magín Lapuerta & Lizzie German, 2021. "Progress in the Use of Biobutanol Blends in Diesel Engines," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-22, May.
    7. Pachiannan, Tamilselvan & Zhong, Wenjun & Rajkumar, Sundararajan & He, Zhixia & Leng, Xianying & Wang, Qian, 2019. "A literature review of fuel effects on performance and emission characteristics of low-temperature combustion strategies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Liu, Haifeng & Li, Shanju & Zheng, Zunqing & Xu, Jia & Yao, Mingfa, 2013. "Effects of n-butanol, 2-butanol, and methyl octynoate addition to diesel fuel on combustion and emissions over a wide range of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rates," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 246-256.
    9. Liu, Kaimin & Fu, Jianqin & Deng, Banglin & Yang, Jing & Tang, Qijun & Liu, Jingping, 2014. "The influences of pressure and temperature on laminar flame propagations of n-butanol, iso-octane and their blends," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 703-715.
    10. Chen, Guisheng & Di, Lei & Zhang, Quanchang & Zheng, Zunqing & Zhang, Wei, 2015. "Effects of 2,5-dimethylfuran fuel properties coupling with EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) on combustion and emission characteristics in common-rail diesel engines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(P1), pages 284-293.
    11. Huang, Haozhong & Wang, Qingxin & Shi, Cheng & Liu, Qingsheng & Zhou, Chengzhong, 2016. "Comparative study of effects of pilot injection and fuel properties on low temperature combustion in diesel engine under a medium EGR rate," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1194-1208.
    12. Atmanli, Alpaslan & Ileri, Erol & Yilmaz, Nadir, 2016. "Optimization of diesel–butanol–vegetable oil blend ratios based on engine operating parameters," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 569-580.
    13. Rajesh Kumar, B. & Saravanan, S. & Rana, D. & Nagendran, A., 2016. "Use of some advanced biofuels for overcoming smoke/NOx trade-off in a light-duty DI diesel engine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA), pages 687-699.
    14. Ghadikolaei, Meisam Ahmadi & Wong, Pak Kin & Cheung, Chun Shun & Ning, Zhi & Yung, Ka-Fu & Zhao, Jing & Gali, Nirmal Kumar & Berenjestanaki, Alireza Valipour, 2021. "Impact of lower and higher alcohols on the physicochemical properties of particulate matter from diesel engines: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    15. Fayyazbakhsh, Ahmad & Pirouzfar, Vahid, 2017. "Comprehensive overview on diesel additives to reduce emissions, enhance fuel properties and improve engine performance," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 891-901.
    16. Geng, Peng & Cao, Erming & Tan, Qinming & Wei, Lijiang, 2017. "Effects of alternative fuels on the combustion characteristics and emission products from diesel engines: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 523-534.
    17. Atmanli, Alpaslan & Ileri, Erol & Yuksel, Bedri & Yilmaz, Nadir, 2015. "Extensive analyses of diesel–vegetable oil–n-butanol ternary blends in a diesel engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 155-162.
    18. Chang, Yu-Cheng & Lee, Wen-Jhy & Wu, Tser Son & Wu, Chang-Yu & Chen, Shui-Jen, 2014. "Use of water containing acetone–butanol–ethanol for NOx-PM (nitrogen oxide-particulate matter) trade-off in the diesel engine fueled with biodiesel," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 678-687.
    19. Zhang, Zhi-Hui & Balasubramanian, Rajasekhar, 2016. "Investigation of particulate emission characteristics of a diesel engine fueled with higher alcohols/biodiesel blends," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 71-80.
    20. Li, Yuqiang & Chen, Yong & Wu, Gang & Liu, Jiangwei, 2018. "Experimental evaluation of water-containing isopropanol-n-butanol-ethanol and gasoline blend as a fuel candidate in spark-ignition engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 42-52.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:60:y:2016:i:c:p:84-115. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.