Experimental and numerical investigation of novel pine oil biofuel in a diesel engine

Abstract

In this research work, a new type of biofuel, pine oil, has been introduced for the purpose of fueling diesel engine. Notably, pine oil is produced from the resins of pine tree through steam distillation process and was identified to contain terpineol and pinene. Significantly, pine oil is endowed with lower viscosity, boiling point and flash point than diesel, while the calorific value of it is comparable to diesel. Further, their evaporation and spray characteristics are noted to be superior over diesel, emerging as the pertinent source of alternate fuel. With this token, the operational feasibility of pine oil in a diesel engine was examined in blend, dual and sole fuel modes and eventually, improved engine performance, reduced emissions and better combustion for pine oil over diesel was realized. Finally, numerical investigation of combustion and emission for this newly conceived pine oil biofuel was performed using CFD code, KIVA4.