Performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine operating on different water in diesel emulsion fuels: optimization using response surface methodology (RSM)

The nitrogen oxide (NO_x) release of diesel engines can be reduced using water in diesel emulsion fuel without any engine modification. In the present paper, different formulations of water in diesel emulsion fuels were prepared by ultrasonic irradiation. The water droplet size in the emulsion, polydisperisty index, and the stability of prepared fuel was examined, experimentally. Afterwards, the performance characteristics and exhaust emission of a single cylinder air-cooled diesel engine were investigated using different water in diesel emulsion fuels. The effect of water content (in the range of 5%–10% by volume), surfactant content (in the range of 0.5%–2% by volume), and hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) (in the range of 5–8) was examined using Box-Behnken design (BBD) as a subset of response surface methodology (RSM). Considering multi-objective optimization, the best formulation for the emulsion fuel was found to be 5% water, 2% surfactant, and HLB of 6.8. A comparison was made between the best emulsion fuel and the neat diesel fuel for engine performance and emission characteristics. A considerable decrease in the nitrogen oxide emission (–18.24%) was observed for the best emulsion fuel compared to neat diesel fuel.