Comprehensive assessment of energy, exergy, and environmental impacts of lemongrass oil-diesel blend with dimethyl and diethyl ethers in agricultural diesel engines

Abstract

The current study investigated the emission and performance characteristics along with fuel availability (exergy) and Energy of diesel, Lemongrass oil with dimethyl ether (DME) and diethyl ether (DEE) additives at volumetric ratios of 2.5 % and 5 % at different loads. The analysis is focused on shaft, cooling water, and exhaust availability. It was found that peak loads increase input availability. Peak load conditions maximized the gross work production because of fuel exergy in the combustion chamber. DEE 5 % with LGO25 had exergy efficiencies that were 69.54 % higher than diesel at 80 % load and entropy of 70.32 % lower entropy than diesel fuel 80 % load. The DEE and DME blend showed poor engine performance compared to diesel fuel as they produced higher cylinder pressure and temperature. It depicts that the LGO25 + DME 5 % fuel blend produced 33.3 % less Carbon monoxide, 6.1 % less Hydrocarbon and 28.01 % less smoke emission with respect to LGO25. The LGO25+DEE5 blends produced 11.25 % less Carbon monoxide emission, 21.05 % less Hydrocarbon emission along with 31.4 % less smoke emission against the LGO25 fueling operation. Moreover, Nitrogen Oxides (NO_x) emissions were increased by 7.82 % and 26.89 % at LGO25 with DME5 % and LGO25+DEE5 % blends respectively when compared with LGO25 fueling mode.