Combustion and Emissions Characteristics of Valeric Biofuels in a Compression Ignition Engine
Publication: Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 3
Abstract
New-generation biofuels are mainly produced from nonfood crops or waste. Although second-generation ethanol is one of the main options, valeric esters can also be produced from lignocellulose through levulinic acid. However, only few experimental results are available to characterize their combustion behavior. Using a traditional compression ignition (CI) engine converted to monocylinder operation, the engine performances and emissions of butyl and pentyl valerate (BV and PenV, respectively) were investigated. This paper analyses the experimental results for blends of of esters in diesel fuel, taking diesel fuel as the reference fuel. The BV and PenV have a smaller cetane number and consequently the ignition delay of the blends is slightly longer. However, engine performances and emissions are not significantly modified by adding of esters to diesel fuel. The BV and PenV then represent very good alternative biofuels for CI engines.
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Acknowledgments
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant agreement number 291049-2G-CSafe. F.C. thanks the Conseil Général du Loiret (CG45) for a postdoctoral grant, Bruno Moreau for assembling and maintaining the engine, and Julien Lemaire for help with the exhaust-gas analyzer and injection system.
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Published In
Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 3 • September 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 3, 2013
Accepted: Aug 19, 2013
Published online: Aug 21, 2013
Discussion open until: Jul 25, 2014
Published in print: Sep 1, 2014
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