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Recent legislation entitled “The Single Fuel Forward Policy” mandates that all vehicles deployed by the US military be operable with aviation fuel (JP-8). Therefore, the authors are conducting an investigation into the influence of JP-8 on a diesel engine's performance. The injection, combustion, and performance of JP-8, 20-50% by weight in ULSD (diesel no.2) mixtures (J20-J50) produced at room temperature, were investigated in a small indirect injection, high compression ratio (24.5), 77mm separate combustion chamber diesel engine. The effectiveness of JP8 for application in an auxiliary power unit (APU) at continuous operation (100% load) of 4.78bar bmep/2400rpm was investigated. The blends had an ignition delay of approximately 1.02ms that increased slightly in relation to the amount of JP-8 introduced. J50 and diesel no.2 exhibited similar characteristics of heat release, the premixed phase being combined with the diffusion combustion.

The authors investigated the injection and combustion characteristics of a methyl oleate (Methyl 9(Z)-octadecenoate C19H36O2; Mw 296.495), in blends with diesel No. 2 of 20-50% (wt./wt.) in order to evaluate the possibility of using it as an additive to full-bodied biodiesel for performance improvement. The FAME test fuel has been injected in an experimental single-cylinder separate combustion chamber engine with 77 mm bore, with a compression ratio of 23.5:1 at a pressure of 147 bars that proved capable of atomizing the higher viscosity fuel. The diesel fuel was blended with Methyl Oleate up to 50%, (O50) and the mixtures have shown favorable ignition characteristics, with the ignition delay of about 1.03 ms for petroleum diesel (D100) and slightly decreased for O50 at 2000 rpm with about 1% or 0.01 ms.

With the growing prices of fossil fuels and the concerns of global warming, the need to seek alternative fuels in the transportation sector is rapidly gaining momentum. This need of change has lead researchers to look beyond the typical alternative fuels for diesel engines and focus on Fatty Acids Methyl Esters (FAME), due to their high calorific value, widespread availability, and relative low cost. The authors investigated the injection and combustion of poultry fat FAME 20-50% by weight in diesel no. 2 mixtures. The dynamic viscosity of the FAME-diesel mixture has been investigated between 25-45°C and ranged from 3-5cSt increasing in correlation with the amount of FAME and lowered by the temperature increase. The new fuel containing up to 50% poultry fat FAME by weight in diesel fuel (B-50) has been injected by a piston-plunger type pump injection system. The injector had a 1x0.200 mm nozzle with a pintle tip needle and the injection pressure was 147 bar.