▎ 摘 要
Increasing emission norms, deteriorating fossil fuel reserves and development in alternative fuel technologies have made a tremendous impact in the field of renewable energy. Nano-additives (or) nano-metal oxides were found to improve the engine performance simultaneously without a drop in emission spectra as a result of catalytic activity and oxygen assisted combustion phenomenon. Then, there were no reported studies on utilizing reduced graphene oxide platelet as a novel fuel additive which is focussed on this present research. Then, it was synthesized using the sol-gel method, characterized and blended with (20% Indian Geranium Biodiesel + 80% mineral diesel) and was tested in a single-cylinder diesel engine for performance, combustion and emission characteristics. Results revealed that 25 parts per million reduced graphene oxide platelet biodiesel blend resulted in 5.92% higher brake thermal efficiency and 15.5% lowered brake-specific energy consumption due to catalytic combustion activity of nanoparticles. Emission-wise, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emission was reduced significantly with a marginal increase in oxides of nitrogen emissions. Combustion-wise, 14.7% improvement in-cylinder pressure is observed for 25 parts per million reduced graphene oxide platelet biodiesel blend along with improvements in heat release rate curve indicating a reduction in ignition delay and improvement in premixed combustion phase with higher surface area-to-volume ratio of nano-additives.