Diesel engines are one of the most popular reciprocating engines on the market today owing to their great thermal efficiency and dependability in energy conversion. Growing concerns about the depletion of fossil resources, fluctuating prices in the market, and environmental issues have prompted the search for renewable fuels with higher efficiencies compared with conventional fuels. Fuel derived from vegetable oils and animal fats has comparable characteristics to diesel fuel, but is renewable, despite being manufactured from various feedstocks. Nevertheless, the direct use of these fuels is strictly prohibited because it will result in many issues in the engine, affecting engine performance and durability, as well as emissions. To make biofuels as efficient as fossil fuels, it is essential to alter their characteristics. The use of emulsification techniques to obtain emulsified biofuels is one of the many ways to modify the fuel characteristics. Emulsification techniques allow for a decrease in viscosity and an increase in atomisation during injection. To date, emulsification techniques have been studied less thoroughly for use with vegetable oils and animal fats. This article will discuss the preparation and characterisation of emulsified biofuels made from vegetable oils and animal fats. This current paper reviewed research studies carried out on different emulsification techniques for biofuels used in diesel engines.

To reduce the economic impact caused by the fossil fuel crisis and avoid relying on existing biofuels, it is important to seek locally available and renewable biofuel throughout the year. In the present work, a new light biofuel—Melaleuca Cajuputi oil (MCO)—was introduced to blend with refined palm oil (RPO). The physicochemical properties, combustion characteristics, engine performance, and exhaust emissions were comprehensively examined. It was found that the higher the percentage of MCO, the lower the viscosity and density of the blends obtained. Calorific value (CV) was increased with the increase of MCO fraction in the blend. Regression analysis has suggested that the blend of 32% (v/v) of RPO and 68% (v/v) of MCO (RPO32MCO68) is optimal to obtain viscosity and density in accordance with ASTM 6751/EN 14214 standards. The experimental results show that the in-cylinder pressure, brake torque, and brake power of the optimal blend were slightly lower than those of baseline diesel fuel. Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), carbon monoxide (CO), and unburnt hydrocarbon (HC) were found to be slightly higher compared to diesel fuel. Notably, nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and smoke opacity were found to be decreased over the entire range of the test. Overall, the optimal blend of RPO32MCO68 has shown a decent result which marks it as a potential viable source of biofuel.

Generally, the compression ignition (CI) engine that runs with emulsified biofuel (EB) or higher viscosity fuel experiences inferior performance and a higher emission compared to petro diesel engines. The modification is necessary to standard engine level in order to realize its application. This paper proposes a guide vane design (GVD), which needs to be installed in the intake manifold, is incorporated with shallow depth re-entrance combustion chamber (SCC) pistons. This will organize and develop proper in-cylinder airflow to promote better diffusion, evaporation and combustion processes. The model of GVD and SCC piston was designed using SolidWorks 2017; while ANSYS Fluent version 15 was utilized to run a 3D analysis of the cold flow IC engine. In this research, seven designs of GVD with the number of vanes varied from two to eight vanes (V2–V8) are used. The four-vane model (V4) has shown an excellent turbulent flow as well as swirl, tumble and cross tumble ratios in the fuel-injected region compared to other designs. This is indispensable to break up heavier fuel molecules of EB to mix with the air that will eventually improve engine performance.

This paper presents a numerical analysis of the application of emulsified biofuel (EB) to diesel engines. The study performs a numerical study of three different guide vane designs (GVD) that are incorporated with a shallow depth re-entrance combustion chamber (SCC) piston. The GVD variables were used in three GVD models with different vane heights, that is, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 times the radius of the intake runner (R) and these were named 0.20R, 0.40R and 0.60R. The SCC piston and GVD model were designed using SolidWorks 2017, while ANSYS Fluent version 15 was used to perform cold flow engine 3D analysis. The results of the numerical study showed that 0.60R is the optimum guide vane height, as the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE), swirl ratio (Rs), tumble ratio (R_T) and cross tumble ratio (R_CT) in the fuel injection region improved from the crank angle before the start of injection (SOI) and start of combustion (SOC). This is essential to break up the heavier-fuel molecules of EB so that they mix with the surrounding air, which eventually improves the engine performance.