Experimental and theoretical investigation of the effect of ammonia additive on engine emission and performance parameters

In the scope of this study, the effects of the NH3 (Ammonia) as a fuel additive on the engine emission, performance, and vibration parameters were experimentally investigated. The sunflower, peanut, hazelnut, and waste oil biodiesel were produced as primary fuel. All produced biodiesel varieties were blended with NH3 additive at volumetric ratios of 5%, 10%, and 15%. In the first part of the study, Diesel-RK was used as a combustion simulation programme to observe numerically the effects of NH3 additive on the engine emission and performance parameters. The combustion simulations were generated according to the thermal properties and characteristic of all fuel mixtures. The engine emission (Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), Particulate Matter (PM) and Smoke Opacity) and performance (Power, Torque, and Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP)) parameters were evaluated. In the second part of the study, the engine vibration was experimentally investigated to observe the effects of the NH3 additive for all fuel mixtures. All mixtures were combusted under no-load conditions in varying engine speed (1200-2400 rpm) by using the Mitsubishi Canter 4D31 diesel engine. Experimental vibration data were recorded with the accelerometer sensor placed on the engine block for all fuel mixtures. The ANNs model was generated to predict the experimental vibration data. In this sense, the predicted vibration data were compared with the experimental vibration data. In the generation part of the ANNs model, the x-axis vibration (m/s2), y-axis vibration (m/s2), RMS (m/s2), time (second), and engine speed (rpm) were selected as input parameters to predict the vibration in the z-axis. In this case, the z-axis vibration (m/s2) was considered as the target parameter. As a result of the combustion simulations of the Diesel-RK programme, when the NH3 additive was gradually increased in the fuel mixture, NOx emission dramatically decreased for all fuel mixtures. On the contrary to this decrement, a particular increment was observed in PM and smoke opacity. Moreover, the NH3 additive negatively affected the engine power, torque and IMEP parameters. In the experimental studies, a slight z-axis vibration increment was observed for the sunflower and waste oil biodiesel blended with 5%, 10%, and 15% NH3 additive. On the other hand, 5% NH3 additive positively affected and caused to decrease the z-axis vibration data for the hazelnut and peanut biodiesel-NH3 additive mixtures.