Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag X680, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
Mbarawa, M., Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag X680, Pretoria 0001, South Africa; Haji, A.I., Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag X680, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
Oil extracted from clove stems was tested for several important fuel properties and compared with standard diesel fuel. The viscosity of this oil lies between the minimum and maximum required values of the standard diesel fuel. It has very low cetane number (CN) and high density. The CN of this oil prohibits its direct use as an alternative fuel in diesel engines, but it could be used in blends with standard diesel fuel, because most of the determined properties of clove stem oil (CSO)-diesel blended fuels were very close to the South African requirements (SABS 324) for automotive standard diesel fuel. Engine tests show that performance parameters of the CSO-diesel blended fuels do not differ greatly from those of the standard diesel fuel. Slight power losses, combined with an increase in fuel consumption, were experienced with CSO-diesel blended fuels. This may be due to the lower heating value of the CSO-diesel blended fuels. Emissions of CO and HC are low for CSO-diesel blended fuels. NOx emissions were increased remarkably when the engine was fuelled with 50% CSO-diesel blended fuel. © 2006 Energy Institute.