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ON-FARM EVALUATION OF DIESEL FUEL OXYGENATED WITH ETHANOL

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Paper number  016173,  2001 ASAE Annual Meeting. (doi: 10.13031/2013.4226) @2001
Authors:   Alan C. Hansen, Robert H. Hornbaker, Qin Zhang, Peter W. L. Lyne
Keywords:   Ethanol, diesel, blends, biomass, farm, energy resource, performance, durability

The benefits of burning an ethanol-diesel blend in a diesel engine primarily include lower emissions and the use of a renewable bio-based product. Specially formulated additives can effectively overcome problems of fuel separation, reduced cetane number and reduced fuel lubricity. Laboratory-based tests have shown that these blends can fuel diesel engines without damaging the engine. The objective of this work is to evaluate the effects of E diesel (a blend containing 10% ethanol, an additive and diesel) on selected tractors and combines working under normal field conditions. Two tractors and two combines were instrumented with data loggers that collected data through the CAN bus. One of each vehicle type was fueled with E diesel and the other with no.2 diesel. Comparisons showed that increases in fuel consumption of approximately 4 to 5% occurred on average with both the tractor and the combine, which was equivalent to the reduced energy content of the blend. Timeliness penalties increased as the engine loading increased, but were mostly negligible. The operators reported no differences between the vehicles running on the respective fuels while performing the daily tasks.

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