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Effect of Injection Pressure on Performance of

Dual Fuel Diesel Engine

2013-01-2887
Published
11/27/2013

Hariprasad T
Sree Vidyanikethan Engineering College
Copyright 2013 SAE International
doi:10.4271/2013-01-2887

Abstract
Biodiesel is a non-toxic, biodegradable and renewable
alternative fuel that can be used as a replacement for diesel in
diesel engine. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is considered
to be one of the most promising alternative fuels. LPG can
replace petrol and also it reduces NOx, soot and particulate
matter. Therefore, it is more inexpensive and of ecological
advantage to use gaseous fuel in diesel engines approved for
the dual fuel concept. The fuel injection pressure is one of the
important operating parameters which affect atomization of
fuel and mixture formation and hence it determines the
performance and emissions of a diesel engine. There will be a
decrease in the particle diameter due to increase in the fuel
injection pressure and it leads the diesel fuel spray to
vaporize quickly. However, with decreasing fuel particles
their inertia will also decrease and for this reason fuel can not
penetrate deeply into the combustion chamber. The objective
of this study was to use palm oil methyl ester (POME) as
pilot fuel in dual fuel engine so as to find out the effects of
injection pressure on emissions and engine performance in a
diesel engine. Injection pressure was changed from 190 bar to
230 bar in experiment. A single cylinder diesel engine was
tailored to operate in dual fuel mode. In dual fuel mode, LPG
was used as primary fuel and (POME) was used as pilot fuel.
Experiments are conducted by fuelling the diesel engine with
POME and its LPG blends for an injection pressure of
190bar, 210bar and 230bar. The performance of the diesel is
studied on the dual fuel engine using LPG fuel along with
POME. The highest brake thermal efficiency of diesel with
2LPM LPG blend is obtained for an injection pressure of
210bar and that for Palm oil Methyl ester blend with LPG at
2LPM, highest brake thermal efficiency is obtained for
230bar. Low emissions and high brake thermal efficiency of
diesel engine with LPG blend for pure diesel are obtained at

an injection pressure of 210bar and that for bio-diesel with

LPG blends at an injection pressure of 230bar.

Introduction
Internal combustion engines operating on gaseous fuels are in
practice since long time. Many large stationary engines have
used two types of fuels, one is gaseous and other one is a
liquid fuel. The two fuels could be taken in a widely varying
proportion to run an engine; such an engine is called a Dual
fuel engine. A Dual fuel engine can be considered as a
conventional diesel engine. Some supplemental devices are
arranged for this engine so that it can also use natural gas as
another fuel. This engine is a true diesel engine and requires
some amount of diesel for operation, for ignition of gaseous
fuel. Dual fuel engine has been available to the industry since
1930s. The dual fuel engine has various quality
characteristics. A primary advantage is the fuel flexibility,
operating with natural gas which is cheaper, when available
and on diesel alone when required.
The first dual fuel engine was patented by Dr. Diesel. The
engine runs on gaseous fuel ignited by oil injection in the
combustion chamber. The shortage of liquid fuels and
availability of the gaseous fuels have led to increased
attention on dual fuel engine. Gaseous fuels require high
compression ratio to burn efficiently because they have high
self ignition temperature. For this reason, mainly diesel
engines have been used as dual fuel engines. Moreover, a
diesel engine has ability to run over a wide range of fuels
ranging from light weight fuels like JP-4 and kerosene to
heavier fuels and crude oils. The conversion of diesel engine
to duel fuel functioning is somewhat easy. The engine can be
switched from dual fuel operation to diesel operation almost
instantaneously in case of emergency. When higher speeds
are essential, a few dual fuel engines are controlled by

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utilizing a fumigation system that supplements natural gas to

the engine. Based on the load and performance necessities, to
make certain regarding the supply of optimal ratio of natural
gas and diesel fuel to the engine, computer controlled duel
fuel systems are utilized. The performance of the system and
also the emissions contrast based on the operating conditions
and the complexity of the control system even though they
can attain very lower emissions, especially of NOx and
particulate matter.
The dual fuel engine working principle is similar to the
principle of diesel cycle. The gaseous fuel is supplied to the
air inducted by the engine or supplied by the supercharger at
a pressure to some extent above the atmospheric pressure. As
air is compressed in the standard diesel engine operation, the
mixture of air and gaseous fuel is compressed in the cylinder.
In the compression stroke, near the top dead centre, a small
charge of liquid fuel is induced through a conventional diesel
fuel system. This injection is considered as a source for
ignition. In the vicinity of the injected spray, the mixture of
air and gaseous fuel ignites at a number of places establishing
a number of flame fronts and thereby combustion starts
smoothly and quickly. It can be noted that event though the
combustion in a dual fuel engine is similar to a diesel engine,
the propagation is through the flame fronts, i.e., in a similar
manner to the S.I engine. The power output of the engine is
controlled by varying the gaseous fuel added to the inlet
manifold. The fuel quantity is eventually kept constant for a
specified engine. The ability of the dual fuel engine is to run
either on gas or diesel oil or a combination of these two over
wide range of mixtures.

LITERATURE
For development of both present and future high performance
engines with a reasonable fuel economy and with low
emission levels, engine design need to consider various
factors. A few of them may be the shape of the combustion
chamber, inlet port, injection rate, nozzle geometry, spray
pattern, injection timing and pressure. The quality of
atomization in diesel engines is majorly affected by the
characteristics of emission and combustion. The considerable
operating parameter is the fuel injection pressure which may
impinge on atomization of fuel and mixture formation; and
hence it may determine the performance and emissions of a
diesel engine. There will be a decrease in the particle
diameter due to increase in the fuel injection pressure and it
leads the diesel fuel spray to vaporize quickly. Nevertheless,
with decreasing fuel particles their inertia will also decrease
and for this reason fuel can not penetrate deeply into the
combustion chamber. Primarily, the higher injection
pressures produce more rapid combustion rates, resulting in
higher cylinder gas temperatures. Though the combustion at
the start with the spray was confined to a small region near
the injector, the flame spreads around the chamber by slow
propagation. Since the air near the cylinder surfaces are not
utilized effectively, the combustion may deteriorate leading
to inefficient process of converting heat to work. Hence, there
will be more reduction in torque and power. Due to the

decrease in fuel injection pressure, the particle diameter

increases and needs more time for the diesel fuel spray to
vaporize. Due to the longer delay in ignition, the process of
converting heat to work will become unproductive, thereby
increasing the smoke formation as there is no time to
complete combustion of carbon particles [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
In the recent years, a lot number of developments are noticed
in the field of Alternative fuels as the supply of petroleum
fuels is strongly dependent on a small number of oil
exporting countries. The demand for diesel and gasoline is
increased drastically. It has been estimated that the demand
for diesel will be 66.90 Mt for the year 2011-2012. In the
year 2004 - 2005, India imported 75 % of crude oil from
other countries to overcome the energy necessities. The
government of India has taken essential measures to meet
future diesel and gasoline demand and also in confining to the
emission norms. India is considering alcohol and biodiesel as
the additional fuels to the petroleum products. The biofuels
being considered will provide a lot of employment
opportunities to the people of rural areas through plantation
of vegetable oils and can be beneficial to sugarcane farmers
through the ethanol program (Subramanian et al., 2005).
When liquefied petroleum gas was used as fuel in diesel
engine, it results in poor performance and higher CO and
UBHC emissions in comparison with those measured in
diesel engines at part loads. But the efficiency improved and
surpassed that of diesel fuel at full load (Karim, 1980). From
the experimental results it was observed that the palm oil
could be easily substituted up to 20% in diesel engine,
without any significant difference in power output, brake
specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency (Bhatt
et al., 2004). When methyl ester of palm oil was used as fuel
in diesel engine, it results in performance comparable to
diesel operation but increases fuel consumption due to its
lower calorific value. Methyl ester of palm oil results in
lower UBHC, CO emissions and smoke at optimum operating
conditions (Sankaranarayanan et al. 2006). The performance
and emission of LPG - Diesel dual fuel engine is comparable
with diesel operation at higher load (Sethi et al. 2004). From
the experimental investigations, it was observed that the low
efficiency and poor emissions at light loads of dual fuel
engine can be improved significantly by advancing the
injection timing of the pilot fuel (Abd Alla, 2002). Gaseous
fuels play a vital role among the low emission fuels. Biogas,
producer gas, hydrogen, LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) and
CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) are some of the gaseous
fuels that are suitable for Internal Combustion Engines. LPG
and CNG are the better alternatives because of their simpler
structure with low carbon content, resulting in reduction of
exhaust emissions significantly. In India, LPG is easily
available compared to CNG. Hence, for the present work
LPG was taken as gaseous fuel. Palm name for a medium to
larger tree, Madhuca longifolia of family Sapotaceae with
wider and round canopy. The drying and decortification yield
70% kernel on the weight of the palm seed. The kernel of
seed contains about 50 % oil. The oil yield in an expeller is
nearly 34 % - 37%. The fresh oil from properly stored seed is

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yellow in color (Bringi, 1987). For the present work, POME

was used as pilot fuel in dual fuel engine.

The properties of POME are expressed in Table 1.

Table 1. Properties of Diesel and POME

Present Work
The aim of the present work is to use POME as a substitute
for diesel in dual fuel engine. A single cylinder diesel engine
test rig was tailored to operate in dual fuel mode. In dual fuel
mode, LPG was used as primary fuel and POME was used as
pilot fuel. To improve the performance of the dual fuel
engine, the injector opening pressure were increased. The
injector opening pressure is 190 bar. The viscosity of the
POME is higher than diesel and hence to improve the
performance of the dual fuel engine, the injector opening
pressure was increased to 210 bar and 230 bar.

Palm oil
Palm oil is produced from fleshy endosperm of the oil palm.
Oil palm grows in the tropical region of Asia, Africa and
America. A total of seven lakh hectares of land was
recognized for oil Palm in Southern India. 10,000 hectares
currently under oil palm, 80,000 hectares by 1997 and
200,000 hectares by 2000 AD Technology for palm oil
extraction vital to match with the oil palm plantation
development. Therefore, palm oil with highest production
and productivity is a promising feedstock for bio-diesel
production especially in South East Asia regions.

Palm Oil Methyl Ester

Palm oil is used for Palm oil methyl ester (POME) processing
in this study. POME is prepared by transesterification
reaction. In transesterification reaction, the molar ratio of
methanol to Palm oil is 6:1 and 1% mass of KOH to Palm oil
is used. At a reaction temperature 65C, the reactions had
taken place for two hours. At the end of the reaction, the
mixtures are kept at the ambient temperature 25-30C for
eight hours and then drained the settled glycerin layer.
Finally, the residual methanol in methyl ester mixtures is
evaporated. Then the finished product is Palm oil bio-diesel
or POME. The ester Conversion rate of POME is over 95%.

Figure 1. Methyl Esters of Palm oil used

LPG
Literature indicates that LPG is considered to be one of the
most hopeful alternative fuels which can be used as a
replacement for petroleum. LPG can also be used as a means
for reducing NOx, soot and particulate matter. Therefore, it is
more inexpensive and of ecological advantage to use gaseous
fuel in diesel engines approved for the dual fuel concept.
Propane and butane are the main components of LPG and
lighter methane and ethane are the components of natural gas.
LPG at atmospheric pressure has a higher calorific value (94
MJ/m3 equivalent to 26.1kWh/m3) than natural gas
(methane) (38 MJ/m3 equivalent to 10.6 kWh/m3), which
implies that CNG is to be supplied in more quantity to get the
same effect as LPG there by the volumetric efficiency will be
effected. CNG is stored at a pressure equal 20 to 25 times
more than that of LPG. Moreover the CNG distribution
networks are not yet in place in many parts of India. So,
investigations are carried out on LPG and diesel/bio-diesel
blends. Moreover, the present experimental set up is designed
for this purpose and is not suitable for CNG testing. The
properties of LPG fuel are as shown in Table 2
Table 2. Properties of LPG fuel (Sethi et al (2004))

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Experimental Setup and Procedure

A single cylinder, four stroke, water cooled, direct injection,
computerized diesel engine test rig was tailored to operate in
dual fuel mode. The particulars of the engine used for present
work is depicted in Table 3.

The dual fuel engine was started by hand cranking with

POME oil as fuel and slowly LPG was introduced into the
cylinder through the air intake manifold. At steady state
condition, significant observations such as gas flow rate, air
flow rate, exhaust gas temperature, cylinder pressure and
exhaust emissions were recorded. Then the load was
gradually increased up to full load.

Table 3. Test Engine specifications

Result and Discussion

Brake Thermal Efficiency (BTE)
The variation of brake thermal efficiency with load at
different injector opening pressures, when bio-diesel is used
as injected fuel, is shown in Figure 3. At full load, for the
injector opening pressure of 190bar, 210 bar and 230 bar, the
LPG flow rate of 2.0 LPM, resulting in higher brake thermal
efficiency. Since the viscosity of the bio-diesel is high, it
requires large heat source for the combustion of fuel at lower
injector opening pressure. But at higher injector opening
pressure, atomization and penetration of injected fuel is good
and hence the injector opening pressure of 230 bar results in
higher brake thermal efficiency at the LPG flow rate of 2.0
LPM. The lower temperatures will cause an increase in
density of air. With more oxygen present, blend POME and
LPG can undergo a better combustion and produce higher
engine efficiency. This phenomenon is attributed to the
chemical properties of LPG where the higher octane value of
LPG compared to POME decreases the amount of fuel
required for combustion to drive and support the same
amount of loading. The improvement in engine thermal
efficiency is explained by the higher heating value of LPG
which produces more heat for combustion for an equivalent
mass flow rate compared to POME alone. Neglecting the
small amount of fuel used in operation, the use of LPG as a
substitute for fuel offers a huge savings coupled with
beneficial performance characteristics such as increased
overall torque and brake power output as well as providing an
increase in BTE

Figure 2. Test engine and measurement devices set-up.

The schematic of the experimental setup is shown in Fig.1.
The dynamometer used for loading the engine is of eddy
current type. The engine speed was sensed and is specified by
an inductive pick up sensor in combination with a digital rpm
indicator, which is a part of eddy current dynamometer. The
liquid fuel flow rate was measured on the volumetric basis
using a burette and a stopwatch. The gas flow rate was
measured using a rotameter with duralumin float. An AVL
437C smoke meter was used to measure the smoke emission
and QRO tech co ltd make exhaust gas analyzer was used for
the measurement of emissions in exhaust gases.

Figure 3. Brake thermal efficiency of POME with LPG

blends

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HC Emissions
The variation of unburnt HC emission with load at different
injector opening pressures, when POME is used as injected
fuel, is shown in Figure 4. The HC emissions at 230 bar
injection pressure are lower than 210bar and 190bar injection
pressure, because of improved atomization and better mixing
process at higher injection pressures. Due to high viscosity of
POME compared to diesel, high injection pressure is required
for improved atomization and better mixing process.

For dual fuel the recorded CO emission is lower if compared

to diesel fuel operation. LPG produces a greater combustion
efficiency leading to lower amounts of CO since LPG in its
gaseous state usually contain less contaminants than diesel
fuel. Apart from that, turbulent mixing between LPG and air
in the engine produces a higher quality mixture since both are
in gaseous phase, thus producing a lower carbon monoxide.
CO emission for dual-fuel operation increases slightly with
increasing engine load since the residence time of fuel in the
combustion chamber is decreased at high engine loads,
causing higher CO formation. This result shows that dual-fuel
operation is able to achieve a better combustion compared to
diesel fuel under maximum load conditions.

NOx Emissions
The variation of NOx emission with load at different injector
opening pressure, when POME is used as injected fuel, is
shown in Figure 7. At full load, for the injector opening
pressure of 190bar, 210 bar and 230 bar, the LPG flow rate of
2 LPM, results in slightly low NOx emission. At full load, the
lowest NOx emission of POME is obtained for the blend of
LPM of LPG at an injection pressure of 230bar.

Figure 4. HC Emissions of POME with LPG blends

With increasing load, the amount of HC produced in the
emission will decrease due to greater combustion efficiency
is achieved with increased temperature

CO Emissions
The variation of carbon monoxide emission with load at
different injector opening pressure, when POME is used as
injected fuel, is shown in Figure 5. At full load, for the
injector opening pressure of palm oil methyl ester, due to
higher injection pressure, atomization and mixing process are
improved. Due to high viscosity of POME compared to
diesel, high injection pressures are required for improved
atomization and better mixing process resulting in low CO
emissions. At full load, the lowest CO emission of POME is
obtained for the blend of 2LPM of LPG at an injection
pressure of 230bar

Figure 7. NOx Emissions of POME with LPG blends

Engines running with dual-fuel produce less NOx than diesel
since diesel fuel contains high volatile nitrogen compounds in
their composition which contributes to a higher level of
nitrogen concentration in the combustion chamber. Since
diesel engines operate primarily in the lean region when
diesel fuel is consumed, there is excess air and oxygen for the
nitrogen compounds to form NOx when the combustion
temperature is high. The low emission of NOx for dual-fuel
engines is attributed to several factors. Firstly, the premixed
combustion is less intense and produces less activation
energy for nitrogen and oxygen compounds to disintegrate
and form NO. The reduced mixing of air and fuel also lowers
the oxidation rate of NO to NO2 in the chamber. Apart from
that, the lower exhaust temperatures present in the dual-fuel
system. Finally, the concentration of O2 is reduced in the
chamber due to the presence of gaseous LPG fuel, which will
displace an equal amount of air.

Smoke opacity
Figure 5. CO Emissions of POME with LPG blends

The variation of smoke opacity with load at different injector

opening pressure, when POME is used as injected fuel, is

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shown in Figure 8. At full load, for the injector opening

pressure of 190 bar, 210 bar and 230 bar, the LPG flow rate
of 2.0 LPM, resulted in lower smoke opacity.

1. At full load, the highest brake thermal efficiency of diesel

engine is obtained for the blend of 2LPM of LPG at an
injection pressure of 230bar.
2. At full load, the lowest HC emission of diesel engine is
obtained for the blend of 2LPM of LPG at an injection
pressure of 230bar.
3. At full load, the lowest CO emission of diesel engine is
obtained for the blend of 2LPM of LPG at an injection
pressure of 230bar.
4. At full load, the lowest NOx emissions of diesel engine
are obtained for the blend of 2LPM of LPG at an injection
pressure of 230bar.

Figure 8. Smoke opacity of POME with LPG blends

It is obvious that the smoke is decreased with increase of
LPG mass fraction, especially at high engine load. The reason
is that the boiling temperature of LPG is lower and easier to
evaporate. Once injected as a free jet, LPG will vaporize
rapidly because of the pressure reduction. This flash boiling
injection can enhance gas perturbation with fluctuation
pressure in the spray field and the gas perturbation will
definitely promote the spray process. Spray can, thus,
improve, and the droplets of blended fuel become smaller
than those of Diesel. The longer hold-up time of the droplets
lowers the particle pollution due to splitting fuel. The
possibility of producing smoke is reduced due to reduction in
the possibility of oxygen absent at high temperature for
diesel. The combustion velocity increases and the burning is
shortened, which helps to restrain smoke production.
Therefore, the LPG-bio-diesel dual fuel engine's emission is
reduced.

Conclusions
From the experimental results, the following conclusions are
drawn. The dual fuel engine runs smoothly with POME with
the higher injector opening pressure and advanced injection
timing. The efficiency of the dual fuel engine is slightly less
as compared to neat diesel operation at part loads. The dual
fuel engine results in lower smoke and NOx emissions as
compared to neat diesel operation. But it emits slightly higher
CO and UBHC emission. It is derived based on the results of
the experiments that the POME can be used as an alternative
for diesel in dual fuel engine with comparable performance
and lower smoke and NOx emissions. The effect of injection
pressure on performance and emissions of engine using LPG
as fuel and POME as ignition source in a CI Diesel Engine
are studied
Experiments using POME with LPG blends as Fuel

5. At full load, the lowest smoke opacity of diesel engine is

obtained for the blend of 2LPM of LPG at an injection
pressure of 230bar.
Finally it is concluded that for minimization of emissions and
maximization of brake thermal efficiency of diesel engine, it
is advisable to run the diesel engine at an injection pressure
of 210bar and that for bio-diesel with LPG blends at an
injection pressure of 230bar.

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International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 3(4),

374-384.

Abbreviations
POME - Palm oil methyl ester
BTE - Brake thermal efficiency
LPG - Liquid petroleum gas
LPM - Liter per minute
UBHC - Unburnt Hydrocarbons

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