Experimental investigation of trimethyl borate as a fuel additive for a SI engine
Erol Gültekin, Alper Calam, Mükerrem Şahin
Abstract
Boron derivatives are one of the promising additives as a lubrication oil and fuel additive for manufacturing, aviation, aerospace, and defense technologic products. In this study, trimethyl borate was analyzed for combustion characteristics of a single-cylinder, four-stroke spark-ignition engine as a fuel additive. The engine operated at 2500 rpm, and the experiments were conducted at 25%, 50% 75%, and full load conditions. Trimethyl borate was added with 1%, 1.5%, 2%, and 2.5% by wt into gasoline, and combustion characteristics, engine performance, and exhaust emissions were compared with the reference fuel. In-cylinder pressure, heat release rate, the start of combustion and duration, brake-specific fuel consumption, thermal efficiency, and exhaust emissions were examined. Trimethyl borate accelerates the combustion with closing to full throttling load. At full throttling, maximum in-cylinder pressure was observed for gasoline as 30.51 bar and for the TriM2.5 as 26.88 bar. Minimum brake-specific fuel consumption was observed at 75% loading with 495.31 g/kWh, and the maximum thermal efficiency seemed like 16.5% for the Trim2.5 rate. CO and HC emissions were improved with all the addition rates and the upmost value was obtained at Trim2.5 with 12.1% and 14.4% respectively.