INTRODUCTION

Due to the depletion of fossil fuels, there is a tremendous increase in

population growth and it is leads to there must be in need of alternate fuels. In the
year of 2013, the most consumed energy is come from fossil fuels which indicated
that 82.67% of various energy sources, in which crude oil consisted of 30.92%, coal
28.95 % and natural gas 22.81% respectively. []Among the alternate fuels, biodiesel
plays a vital role in the energy sectors due to its notable characteristics such as bio
degradable, non-toxic and significantly reduced the emissions. In biodiesel, oxygen
content plays a major role in the formation of nitrogen oxides. The increment in
oxygen content increases the maximum temperature during combustion and NOx
formation. Biofuels such as alcohols have been proposed for alternate fuels for
internal combustion engines. Usage of additives improves the efficiency and also to
reduce the emissions. The additive used in this experiment is Diethyl Ether (DEE),
which has low auto ignition temperature and also having high cetane number [].

D.H. Qi et al [1] observed that the drastic reduction in smoke is observed with
BE-1 and BE-2 at higher engine loads. Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions are found
slightly higher for BE-2. Hydrocarbon (HC) emissions are slightly higher for BE-1 and
BE-2, but carbon monoxide (CO) are slightly lower. S.Imtenan et al [2]
Experimentally investigated and evaluated the comparative improvement of palm
biodiesel-diesel blend (20% palm biodiesel-80% diesel) with the help of ethanol, n-
butanol and diethyl ether as additives regarding emission and performance
characteristics. Diethyl ether showed highest 6.25% increment of brake power,
3.28% decrement of BSFC and about 4% increment of BTE than 20% palm
biodiesel-diesel blend when used as additive. Bhupendra Singh Chauhan et al [3]
Experimentally studied the fumigation of ethanol in a small capacity diesel engine
and concluded that fumigated diesel engine exhibit better engine performance with
lower NOx, CO, CO2 and exhaust temperature. Ethanol fumigation has resulted in
increase of unburned hydrocarbon (HC) emission in the entire load range.
Considering the parameters, the optimum percentage was found as 15% for ethanol
fumigation. Viswanath K. Kaimal et al [7] investigated experimentally the effects of
using DEE additive in a DI diesel engine fuelled with waste plastic oil and concluded
that the brake thermal efficiency increases with increasing percentage of DEE in the
blends and also BSFC reduced considerably while using blended fuels and A drastic
reduction in the levels of smoke and NOX was noted for blends at maximum brake
power. S. Sivalakshmi et al [9] Experimentally investigated the effect of using
diethyl ether as additive to biodiesel and the results indicate that peak cylinder
pressure and heat release rate is higher for BD5 (5% (by vol.) diethyl ether blended
biodiesel than those of neat biodiesel. The carbon monoxide emissions especially at
full load and smoke emissions at almost all engine loads decrease while oxides of
nitrogen and hydrocarbon emissions increase for BD5 than those of neat biodiesel at
almost all engine loads. The brake thermal efficiency of BD5 is higher as compared
to biodiesel. Bang-Quan He et al [4] Studied the effect of ethanol blended diesel
fuels on emissions from a diesel engine and concluded that the at high loads, the
blends reduce smoke significantly with a small penalty on CO, acetaldehyde and
unburned ethanol emissions compared to diesel fuel. NO x and CO2 emissions of the
blends are decreased somewhat. At low loads, the blends have slight effects on
smoke reduction due to overall leaner mixture. Murari Mohon Roy et al [8]
Investigated the emissions of a modern (Tier 4) 4-cylinder direct injection (DI) diesel
engine at idling with no load conditions and showed that CO and NOx emissions
decrease, but HC emissions increase after warm-up than cold start. Diesel-biodiesel
blends with additives produce lower CO emissions then neat diesel; ethanol and
DEE additives can reduce NOx emissions in diesel-biodiesel blends, and increasing
biodiesel content reduced HC emissions. Umer Rashid et al [] investigated and
optimized the production of moringa oleifera oil by using central composite design of
response surface methodology.I.M. yusri et al [] investigated and optimized the
engine parameters and estimate the performance and exhaust emissions of SI
engine which operates with 2- butanol gasoline blends with different mixtures and
the RSM model shows that 2- butanol exhibits a decreasing trends of NOx ,CO and
HC emissions. Seyfi polat [6] Studied experimentally on combustion, engine
performance and exhaust emissions in a HCCI engine fuelled with diethyl ether –
ethanol fuel blends and concluded that the test engine could not be operated at
leaner mixtures with the increase of the amount of ethanol in the test fuels because
of the higher octane number and higher auto-ignition temperature of ethanol, the
duration of combustion increased with increase in inlet temperature and combustion
of HCCI was advanced with the increase of the inlet air temperature.
Response surface methodology is widely used technique in solving many industrial
problems. It is one of the most efficacious and economical solutions for evaluating
single and many factors of design of experiments that leads to output responses.[]

A considerable amount of literature has been published on optimising parameters

using RSM in the field of internal combustion engine.