An insight into the combustion analysis of low carbon alcohol infused ternary fuel blends operated by varying the compression ratios

To address the growing scarcity and rising costs of fossil fuels, researchers are exploring alternative energy sources that can mimic the conventional fuels. This study focused on ternary fuel blends made from waste fried oil (WFO) biodiesel, methanol, and diesel. To enhance their stability, 10, 20, and 30 ml of n-butanol per litre of ternary blends are added. The blends were tested in a variable compression ratio (VCR) engine under peak load conditions. The experiments are carried out by varying the compression ratio (CR) of the engine from 16:1 to 18:1. The results showed that increasing the CR improved combustion for all fuel blends. Among the ternary blends, B30M20D50 outperformed pure diesel in terms of combustion characteristics. When compared to diesel, B30M20D50 yielded 5.08 %, 5.31 %, and 4.59 % higher P_max at CR 16:1, 17:1, and 18:1, respectively. Under the same conditions, NHRR outperformed diesel by 1.46 %, 3.12 %, and 2.44 %, respectively. While ternary blends with up to 20 % methanol exhibited stable combustion, higher methanol concentrations led to erratic rise in the coefficient of variation. The interdependency analysis revealed a strong correlation between the combustion parameters for the B20M30D50 blend across different compression ratios.