Extensive analyses of diesel–vegetable oil–n-butanol ternary blends in a diesel engine

• Diesel–vegetable oil–n-butanol ternary blends were tested in a diesel engine.
• Canola, soybean, sunflower, corn, olive and hazelnut oils were the vegetable oils.
• Ternary blends increased BSFC as compared to diesel fuel between 21.45% and 24.67%.
• The ternary blends increased NO emissions as compared to diesel fuel.

In this study, n-butanol (nB) was used as the common solvent and crude canola (Cn), soybean (Sb), sunflower (Sf), corn (Cr), olive (Ol), and hazelnut oil (Hn) as the vegetable oil components were used for making microemulsification of diesel fuel (D)-vegetable oil blends. The blend ratios of 70% vol. D, 20% vol. vegetable oil and 10% vol. nB were determined to increase concentration of biofuels in ternary blends. Six different ternary blends were prepared via the splash blending method. Engine performance tests of the ternary blends were carried out on a four-cylinder, four-cycle turbocharged direct-injection diesel engine at full load with various engine speeds. Test fuels were kept stationary at ambient temperature and the long-term stabilities were observed at 60 days. There were not any phase separations in the ternary blends. Fuel properties of the test fuels were examined and determined to be in agreement with the fuel standards. According to engine performance test results of the ternary blends, brake torque, brake power, brake thermal efficiency (BTE), brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) and exhaust gas temperatures decreased while brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) increased as compared to those of diesel fuel. In terms of basic exhaust gas emissions, ternary blends increased nitric oxide (NO) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions while reducing hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as compared to diesel.