Scientists have determined the optimal operating modes of biodiesel

Scientists from Vyatka State University together with colleagues from the Republic of Belarus determined the optimal load and speed ranges for the operation of a diesel engine running on biofuel

According to the authors of the work, the data obtained are of practical interest for the operation of a diesel engine as part of a machine-tractor unit. The results were published in the journal Tractors and Agricultural Machines.

As the authors of the study said, among the many known alternative energy sources, biofuels play a special role. As a rule, biofuels are produced from renewable resources of plant and animal origin. Due to the fact that biofuels differ significantly in their physical and chemical properties from conventional diesel fuel, their use usually requires adaptation of the engine design.

According to the authors, the most acceptable way may be to expand the applicability of alternative fuels by bringing their physicochemical properties closer to those of diesel fuel.

The aim of the research was to determine the optimal performance characteristics of a diesel engine running on a multicomponent biofuel composition, including rapeseed oil, ethanol and diesel fuel.

According to the authors of the article, such a composition makes it possible to maintain the viscosity-temperature properties of the biofuel composition when the ambient temperature changes, as well as its self-ignition indicators within the framework of current standards.

    "The use of modern methods of experiment planning makes it possible to visually determine the permissible operating intervals of a diesel engine with a significant reduction in the number of physical experiments, and the use of biofuel compositions increases the multi-fuel capacity of a diesel engine and significantly expands the fuel base of an internal combustion engine" - said the head of the scientific team, professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology of the Vyatka State University (VyatGU) Sergey Plotnikov.

Laboratory experiments to evaluate the motor properties of the biofuel composition were carried out in the chemical laboratory of the Vyatka State University, and bench tests of the diesel engine were carried out in the modern research laboratory of the Belarusian State Agricultural Academy.

The results obtained have a real physical meaning. The presence of ethyl alcohol and rapeseed oil in biofuels causes a certain decrease in its total cetane number and, as a result, deterioration in the combustion characteristics of the fuel mixture.

The operation of an autotractor diesel engine is most economical in full load mode in the range of crankshaft frequency change from the nominal value n = 1800 min-1 to the speed value at maximum torque n = 1400 min-1.

Given the distinctive nature of the load and speed modes of a diesel engine in real operation, data on the operation of a diesel engine as part of a machine-tractor unit are of practical interest.

According to Professor Plotnikov, the developments of the authors attract the attention of Russian automotive enterprises and organizations with which the research team is establishing long-term relationships and plans to conduct further research.



Source: RIA Novosti

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