• Energy Research

Recently, most of the researchers focused on provide lower greenhouse gas emissions that emitted from diesel engines by using renewable fuels to be good alternative to the conventional diesel fuel. Ethanol can be derived from renewable sources such as sugar cane, corn, timber and dates. In the current study, the ethanol fuel used in the tests was derived from the dates. The effects of using exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) diesel-ethanol blend (E10) with on engine performance and emissions characteristics have been studied in diesel engine under various engine loads. This study focused the use of oxygen in the bio-ethanol composition to compensate for the decrease occurred by the addition of EGR, which improves the engine performance and reduces its emissions. In this experiment, the ratios of EGR were 10%, 20% and 30% as well as 10% ratio of ethanol was blended into the diesel fuel blend under fixed engine speed. A traditional (without additional systems to reduce emissions) four cylinders direct injection (DI) diesel engine was used for all tests. The brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) increased with increasing the EGR ratio by 10%, 20% and 30% by 18.7%, 22.4% and 37.4%, respectively. The thermal efficiency decreased under variable conditions of engine load for different ethanol blends. Furthermore, the emissions of NOX decreased when fuelled B10 into the engine in comparison with diesel under low engine load. Significant reduction in the NOx emissions were found when applied EGR in the tests than to the absence EGR for E10 blend and diesel. The NOx reduction rate was 12.3%, 30.6% and 43.4% when EGR rate was 10%, 20% and 30%, respectively. In addition, the concentrations of HC and CO emissions decreased more by 8.23% and 6.4%, respectively, when using E10 in comparison with the diesel for various engine loads. It is indicated that the oxygen reduction by EGR effect was compensated from ethanol blend combustion. The results showed that the combination use of E10 and EGR leads to significant reduction in engine emissions accompanied with partial reduction in the engine performance. 

Airborne dust and dust storms are natural disasters that transport dust over long distances from the source basin, sometimes reaching hundreds of kilometers. Today, Iraq is a basin that produces dust storms that strike all neighboring countries such as Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. These storms affect the productivity and capacity of the photovoltaic modules and reduce the amount of electricity that is generated clearly. Airborne dust reduces the intensity of solar radiation by scattering and absorbing it. In addition, the dust accumulated on the photovoltaic modules causes a deterioration in their productivity. In this study, an extensive review of wind movement and its sources, especially those that hit the city of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, was conducted. Practical experiments were also carried out during a storm to measure important variables that had not been measured practically before at this site. The experimental tests were carried out starting from 1 April 2022 and continued until 12 April. Within this period, a dust storm occurred that lasted for three consecutive days that was considered one of the most severe storms that the city of Baghdad had experienced in the last few years. Practical measurements showed a deterioration in the solar radiation intensity by up to 54.5% compared to previous days. The air temperature during the storm decreased by 21.09% compared to the days before the storm. From the measurements of ultrafine aerosol particles PM1 and PM2.5, there was a significant increase of 569.9% and 441% compared to the days before the storm, respectively. Additionally, the measurements showed an increase of 217.22% and 319.21% in PM10 and total suspended particles, respectively. Indoor performance experiments showed a deterioration of current, voltage, power and electrical efficiency by 32.28%, 14.45%, 38.52% and 65.58%, respectively, due to dust accumulated during the storm days compared to the previous days. In the outdoor experiments, the rates of deterioration of current, voltage, power and electrical efficiency were greater, reaching 60.24%, 30.7%, 62.3% and 82.93%, respectively, during the storm days compared to the days before it. During a storm, cleaning the panels is futile due to the high concentration of dust in the air, especially by water. However, the photovoltaic modules can be dry cleaned with bristle brushes after the storm has subsided.

The operation of engines using rapeseed methyl ester (RME) and ultralow sulfur diesel (ULSD) was tested for the combustion properties, emitted regulated, unregulated exhaust pollutants, and the size of nanoparticles. The combustion analysis showed higher apparent heat release rate and shorter ignition delay period during RME combustion than during ULSD combustion. The ULSD engine has a combustion chamber maximum pressure relatively higher than that of RME. This study showed that the heat release rate of ULSD is always higher than that of RME while more fuel consumption occurred from the combustion of biodiesel in comparison with diesel. When the engine is running on RME, HC and NOx formation increased at high loads up to 15% and 13%, respectively; meanwhile, CO concentrations reduced by 30.9% for the same conditions. Most of the particulate matter (PM) emitted from a diesel engine has a particle size from 5 to 100 nm, while the particle size from ULSD ranged from 5 to 40 nm. Overloading the engine caused a decrease in the sizes of emitted PM for both fuels. The smoke number for RME was less than that for ULSD by 33.9% at high loads. For high engine load, the cumulative concentration number for the nucleation mode decreased, while it increased for the accumulation mode. Furthermore, measurements of formaldehyde, ethane, methane, acetylene, ethylene, propylene, and isocyanic acid emissions showed the presence of these harmful substances at very low concentrations (8 ppm) for both fuels.

Both electrical and thermal efficiencies combine in determining and evaluating the performance of a PV/T collector. In this study, two PV/T systems consisting of poly and monocrystalline PV panels were used, which are connected from the bottom by a heat exchanger consisting of a spiral tube through which a nanofluid circulates. In this study, a base fluid, water, and ethylene glycol were used, and iron oxide nanoparticles (nano-Fe2O3) were used as an additive. The mixing was carried out according to the highest specifications adopted by the researchers, and the thermophysical properties of the fluid were carefully examined. The prepared nanofluid properties showed a limited effect of the nanoparticles on the density and viscosity of the resulting fluid. As for the thermal conductivity, it increased by increasing the mass fraction added to reach 140% for the case of adding 2% of nano-Fe2O3. The results of the zeta voltage test showed that the supplied suspensions had high stability. When a mass fraction of 0.5% nano-Fe2O3 was added the zeta potential was 68 mV, while for the case of 2%, it reached 49 mV. Performance tests showed a significant increase in the efficiencies with increased mass flow rate. It was found when analyzing the performance of the two systems for nanofluid flow rates from 0.08 to 0.17 kg/s that there are slight differences between the monocrystalline, and polycrystalline systems operating in the spiral type of exchanger. As for the case of using monocrystalline PV the electrical, thermal, and total PV/T efficiencies with 2% added Fe2O3 ranged between 10% to 13.3%, 43–59%, and 59 to 72%, respectively, compared to a standalone PV system. In the case of using polycrystalline PV, the electrical, thermal, and total PV/T efficiencies ranged from 11% to 13.75%, 40.3% to 63%, and 55.5% to 77.65%, respectively, compared to the standalone PV system. It was found that the PV/T electrical exergy was between 45, and 64 W with thermal exergy ranged from 40 to 166 W, and total exergy from 85 to 280 W, in the case of using a monocrystalline panel. In the case of using polycrystalline, the PV/T electrical, thermal, and total exergy were between 45 and 66 W, 42–172 W, and 85–238 W, respectively. The results showed that both types of PV panels can be used in the harsh weather conditions of the city of Baghdad with acceptable, and efficient productivity.

Abstract The improvement of combustion and harmful emissions reduction has been driven by multiple factors; alternative fuels can be one of the important factors. In this study, Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) and Ethanol-RME-Diesel blend are used as an alternative fuels in a single cylinder diesel engine. The impact of alternative fuel on particulate matter (PM) characteristics and gaseous emissions were studied. These results reveal that ethanol blend increases the in-cylinder pressure and rate of heat release (ROHR) compared to the GTL and diesel fuel by 4% and 13% respectively. The particulate size distribution (PSD) was smaller from the combustion of ethanol blend compared to diesel and GTL fuel. The experimental results indicated that the ethanol blend produces smaller size of soot agglomerate and lower number of soot primary particles (npo) than to the rest of fuel. Furthermore, it can be observed that the soot particles emitted from ethanol blend has less spherical shape due to smaller fractal dimension (Df) than to the diesel and GTL fuel. It is found that the NOX emissions were lower from the combustion of GTL fuel than ethanol blend and diesel fuel.

‏ The search of next prospective source of fuel is highlighted by the research community to compensate the aspects of shortcomings of diesel fuel and to treat the harmful emissions in the transportation sector. Among numerous economic sectors, the use of petro-diesel still the main fuel using for driving heavy machinery despite the high advance in electric motors for transportation systems. The characteristics of engine performance, nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions, size distribution of particulate matter (PM), number and oxidation reactivity of soot particles from the effects of low and high fuel injection pressures (FIPs) and adding two types of nanoparticles (Al2O3 and TiO2) to the M20B10 blend (20 % of microalgae biodiesel, 10 % n-butanol and 70 % of diesel) were studied in common-rail diesel engine at different loads. The results revealed that the adding Al2O3 and TiO2 to the M20B10 blend decreased the BSFC by 21.28 % and 22.84 %, respectively, and also improved BTE by 4.46 % and 2.35 %, respectively, for different engine loads. It is observed that the applied HFIP and M20B10+Al2O3 blend also enhance the fuel consumption by 21.28 % and increase BTE by 9.63 % in comparison with M20B10+ TiO2 blend. In contrast, the presence HFIP with nano blends increased the NOX emissions by 24.73 % with respect to the LFIP, meanwhile the NOX emissions decreased from nano blends combustion more than to the neat M20B10 blend. The combustion of M20B10+Al2O3 blend decreased the PM concentration (by 52.82 %) and number (by 33.62 %) and when compared with blend of M20B10+ TiO2 and neat M20B10 blend combustion at HFIP. Furthermore, the reactivity of soot oxidation significantly increased when adding Al2O3 into the M20B10 blend and applying HFIP compared to the M20B10+ TiO2 blend.

The developments in the field of nano-additives have increased in the recent years due to the desire to reduce the level of exhaust emissions in diesel engines. The soot characteristics of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) were experimentally investigated using two concentrations of titanium dioxide (TiO2) as nano-additives (25 ppm and 40 ppm) blended with C20D (composed of 20% castor oil methyl ester and 80% diesel fuel) and 30% exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). The combustion of C20D + TiO2 increases brake thermal efficiency (BTE) by 2.8% in comparison with neat C20D, while a significant reduction was obtained in BSFC 6.5% and NOX emissions were maintained at a level parallel with diesel. The results indicated that the technique involving a high EGR rate and the addition of 25 ppm and 40 ppm of TiO2 nanoparticles to the C20D exhibits better reductions in NOX emissions by 17.34% and 21.83%, respectively, compared to the technique comprising the use of C20D + TiO2 and C20D. The reduction in the total concentration of PM via the addition of TiO2 nanoparticles to the C20D was 26.74% greater than neat C20D and diesel. In contrast, the incorporation of a high rate of EGR with C20D +TiO2 increased the PM concentrations by 16.85% compared to the technique without EGR. Furthermore, the high concentrations of TiO2 nanoparticles (40 ppm) in the C20D produced 19 nm smaller soot nanoparticles compared to the 23 nm larger soot nanoparticles produced from the low concentrations of TiO2 nanoparticles (25 ppm) added into the C20D. The current investigation reveals that the reduction in NOX emissions and the production of soot nanoparticles notably improved due to the synergic effect of EGR, the TiO2 nanoparticles, and biodiesel.

Increasing the demand of using fossil fuel is started appear in the recent decades, especially in the transport sector such as diesel engines. Normally, air conditioning (a/c) increases the fuel consumption about 20% in engines due to extra load needs for a/c operation. Therefore, the manufactures search more towards control strategies to reduce the fuel consumption by developing more efficient a/c system. In this study, a new design of a/c system working by solar energy was used to reach the requirement of energy and improve the fuel economy of vehicles. The a/c system was linked with flexible photovoltaic cell (PV) to compensate the electricity that generated from vehicle engine. Furthermore, the fuel consumption from a/c system (operated with and without solar energy) was measured for two vehicles. In addition, the temperature of cooling and heating was measured inside and outside room of the car. The a/c system was tested in the saloon car for both conditions of cooling and heating and. It was found that the a/c system working with solar energy reduced the engine fuel consumption by 25% in comparison with conventional a/c system. The results from a/c system showed that the cooling temperature inside cabin of car through hot day is 20 °C within half a minute, while the temperature outside is 40 °C. In contrast, the heating temperature was reach to 49.2 °C for long period of time compared to the cooling temperature. The harmful engine emissions carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (NOX) and total hydrocarbons (THCs) were reduced when a solar a/c system presented in comparison with conventional design of a/c.