Mitigation of Carbon Dioxide Gas from a DI Diesel Engine Fuelled with Honge Biodiesel for Agriculture

This paper investigates the mitigation level of carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas released from a direct injection (DI) diesel engine fuelled with honge biodiesel fuel suitable for agriculture. This study involves the use of thermal barrier coating on diesel engine combustion chamber components so that heat loss through the coolant can be kept minimum thereby improving engine combustion and emission characteristics when honge biodiesel blends are used as an alternate fuel. Experimental results depicted lesser BSFC with a significant reduction of emissions CO, HC, smoke, and slight increase of NO_x and CO₂ gas for fuels tested in the coated engine. Of various biofuel blends tested, blend B15 showed a significant reduction in CO of about 50%, HC of 26.5%, smoke of 20% with slightly higher values of 2.37% NO_x, and 5.17% of CO₂ at 230 bar in the coated engine at full load condition compared with an uncoated engine. The presence of oxygen and high in-cylinder temperature condition prevailed in coated engine enhances the combustion process in biodiesel blend B15 resulting in improved combustion at this operating condition. A retrofit kit was developed to separate CO₂ gas from engine exhaust through chemical absorption technique. The separated CO₂ in gaseous form was stored in cylinders.