Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal xxx (2018) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Engineering Science and Technology,

an International Journal
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jestch

Full Length Article

An experimental study on using diethyl ether in a diesel engine operated

with diesel-biodiesel fuel blend
Amr Ibrahim
Mechanical Engineering Department, Beirut Arab University, 11 5020 Beirut, Lebanon

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Although biodiesel has a promising potential to be used as an alternative fuel for compression-ignition
Received 20 December 2017 engines, its use may deteriorate engine performance. The objective of the current study was to enhance
Revised 25 June 2018 the performance of a compression-ignition engine operated with a diesel-biodiesel blend using diethyl
Accepted 8 July 2018
ether (DEE). Four fuels were examined in a diesel engine to assess its performance and analyze the com-
Available online xxxx
bustion process. These fuels were diesel, biodiesel-diesel mixture, and two mixtures of biodiesel-diesel-
DEE with DEE proportions of 5% and 10% by volume. It was found that using diesel-biodiesel blend
Keywords:
increased the minimum brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc) and reduced the maximum thermal effi-
Diesel
Biodiesel
ciency by 8.1% and 6.8%, respectively, compared to diesel fuel. However, employing 5% DEE in the diesel-
Diethyl ether biodiesel mixture improved engine performance considerably for most engine loads in comparison with
Engine all fuels. Altering the fuel type had no significant impact on combustion start instant. However, the heat
Combustion release rate was lower and combustion duration was longer for diesel compared to other fuels at higher
engine loads. Using DEE did not significantly affect engine stability.
Ó 2018 Karabuk University. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
The use of alternative renewable fuels for diesel engines has
been recommended worldwide due to fossil fuel depletion and
the harmful impact of petroleum fuel combustion on the environ-
ment [1–8]. Also, using renewable fuels can give the chance for
many countries to reduce their dependence on imported oil [9].
Biodiesel is one of the most promising renewable fuels which
can be used for diesel engines without engine modification
[10,11]. Biodiesel has the potential to improve the combustion effi-
ciency and decrease engine emissions because it is an oxygenated
fuel. However, most studies [12] showed that using biodiesel as an
alternative to diesel fuel in diesel engines without engine modifi-
cation can result in some deterioration in engine performance such
as a reduction in power and thermal efficiency because biodiesel
properties such as viscosity, density, calorific value, etc differ from
the corresponding diesel properties. Therefore, biodiesel is usually
mixed with diesel in different ratios so that the fuel blend proper-
ties are more comparable to diesel fuel properties. Also, fuel addi-
tives can be added to biodiesel to make its properties more
comparable to diesel properties. For example, biodiesel viscosity
is slightly higher compared to the viscosity of diesel. Increasing
E-mail address: amralihi@yahoo.com.
Peer review under responsibility of Karabuk University.
the fuel viscosity can increase the atomized fuel droplet diameter
during fuel injection leading to a decrease in combustion effi-
ciency. On the other hand, alcohols have low viscosity. Therefore,
alcohols are added to diesel-biodiesel blends to reduce the fuel
blend viscosity to become more comparable to diesel viscosity.
Alcohols are oxygenated renewable fuels, which can be produced
from biomass. Alcohol based fuels include methanol, ethanol, buta-
nol, diethyl ether (DEE), etc. Table 1 compares the properties of dif-
ferent alcohol based fuels with the relevant properties of diesel and
biodiesel fuels. Although most of the previous investigations found
in the literature studied using either butanol or ethanol as alcohol
additives for diesel engines, Table 1 indicates that the DEE has the
potential to be the most suitable fuel supplement for compression
ignition engines because its cetane number and heating value are
higher compared to ethanol and butanol. Also, DEE is miscible with
diesel and biodiesel fuels [13]. The composition of DEE is C4H10O,
making its oxygen content 21.6% by mass. Using DEE as a fuel addi-
tive was investigated in only limited number of studies. Kaimal
and Vijayabalan [14] found that blending the DEE with waste plas-
tic oil with different proportions up to 15% increased the thermal
efficiency. Also, soot and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions were
significantly reduced. Venu and Madhavan [15] studied adding
DEE (up to 10%) to diesel-biodiesel-ethanol and diesel-biodiesel-
methanol blends. The results showed that the addition of DEE to
diesel-biodiesel-ethanol blend increased the combustion duration,
cylinder pressure, and brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc) and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jestch.2018.07.004
2215-0986/Ó 2018 Karabuk University. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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2 A. Ibrahim / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal xxx (2018) xxx–xxx

Table 1
Fuel properties [16,17].

Fuel Lower heating value (MJ/kg) Density @20 °C (kg/m3) Viscosity @40 °C (mPa s) Flash point (oC) Cetane number
Diesel 44.8 815 2.95 70 52
Vegetable oil 40.4 916 34.2 274 37
Biodiesel 40.5 855 4.57 126 52
DEE 33.9 714 0.22 -45 125
Butanol 33.1 808 2.63 35 25
Ethanol 28.6 790 1.1 13 6
Methanol 19.8 792 0.59 11 <5

decreased NOx and smoke emissions. On the other hand, adding
the DEE to diesel-biodiesel-methanol blend decreased the bsfc,
cylinder pressure, and combustion duration. However, smoke
emissions increased. Lee and Kim [16] demonstrated that adding
the DEE to diesel in different ratios (up to 50% by mass) did not sig-
nificantly change the engine thermal efficiency. It was also shown
that both hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions
decreased while NOx emissions increased. Patil and Thipse [13]
investigated the addition of DEE to diesel in different ratios ranging
from 2% to 25% by volume. It was found that the optimum propor-
tion was 15% as it resulted in optimum engine performance. It was
also shown that using the DEE reduced the trade-off between par-
ticulate matter (PM) and NOx emissions. The DEE was also used as
a supplement (up to 4%) to a mixture of tire derived fuel (40%) and
diesel (60%) by Tudu and coworkers [17]. It was shown that the
bsfc decreased by 6% and NO emission decreased by 25% compared
to diesel operation at engine full load condition. Barik and Muru-
gan [18] investigated improving the performance of a diesel engine
fuelled by biodiesel-biogas by utilizing the DEE as a supplement
(up to 6%). The authors showed that using the DEE increased the
thermal efficiency by 2.3% and reduced bsfc by 5.8% in comparison
with dual fuel operation at full load condition. It was also shown
that CO, HC, and smoke emissions decreased by 12.2%, 10.6%, and
5.7%, respectively, while NO emission increased by 12.7%. Devaraj
and coworkers [19] showed that utilizing the DEE (up to 10%) as
a supplement for a diesel engine fuelled by waste plastic oil
increased the thermal efficiency from 28% to 29% at engine high
load condition and decreased NOx emissions.
Although most of previous studies showed that using DEE as a
supplement for diesel engines had a great potential to enhance
engine performance and decrease emissions, there is only limited
number of studies that investigated using DEE in diesel engines
fuelled with diesel-biodiesel blends. These studies are not suffi-
cient to build a solid conclusion regarding the effect of using DEE
on diesel engine performance, emissions, and combustion charac-
teristics. Further studies need to be conducted to investigate wide
range of engine design parameters and operating conditions.
This research paper aimed to compare engine performance and
combustion parameters for four different fuels as summarized in
Table 2. Engine speed was fixed to 1500 rpm while engine load
changed from small to full-load operating mode.
The engine cylinder head was fitted by a pressure sensor. The inlet
air was supplied to engine cylinder at ambient conditions. Engine
specifications are indicated in Table 3. The test bed contained a
hydraulic dynamometer as shown in Fig. 1. The DVF1 volumetric
fuel sensor was employed to detect the fuel flow rate and an orifice
plate was used to measure the inlet air flow rate. Temperature and
pressure of air flowing through the orifice were measured using a
thermocouple and a pressure sensor, respectively. A load cell was
used to detect the engine torque. An optical rpm transducer was
supplied to detect the crankshaft revolutions. Instrument modules
were provided to digitally display measured parameters such as
flow rates, speed, torque, etc. Also, all the measured data were
accurately monitored and recorded on a computer by the TecQuip-
ment Versatile Data Acquisition System (VDAS). Both the engine
load and speed were controlled via mechanical governors.
The cylinder pressure and engine crankangle were measured
simultaneously using a piezoelectric pressure sensor (ECA 101)
and a shaft encoder (ECA 102), respectively as indicated in Fig. 1.
The cycle analyzer (ECA 100) was supplied by TecQuipment in
order to display and record the cylinder pressure data. The ECA
100 was a two-part product, which were interface and software.
The ECA 100 interface was connected to pressure sensor, TDC posi-
tion sensor and shaft encoder. The TDC position sensor produced a
signal each time the piston reached the TDC; the crankangle was
assigned with zero value at this instant. The interface, which con-
tained charge amplifier and signal conditioning circuits, converted
the sensor signals to a format that suited the ECA 100 software.
This software did several jobs which included displaying pressure
crankangle and pressure volume diagrams, and calculating the
indicated power and indicated mean effective pressure. The ECA
100 software was also capable of using the test results and a user
controlled animation to visually simulate the engine thermody-
namic cycle and the relative position of engine crank, piston, and
valves. The software calculated the cylinder volume as a function
of measured crankangle using the following equation:
p
V ¼ Vc þ B2 y ð1Þ
4
where B is cylinder bore, Vc is clearance volume, and y was
calculated as follows:
 qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2
y ¼ a þ l  a cos h þ l  a2 sin2 h ð2Þ

2. Test bed

A single-cylinder, direct- injection, four-stroke, TecQuipment Table 3

Engine specifications.
TD212 compression-ignition engine was used to conduct all tests.
Item Value
Table 2 No. of cylinders 1
Examined fuel types. Maximum power, kW 3.5 at 3600 rpm
Compression ratio 22
Fuel Acronym
Bore, mm 69
Diesel D100 Stroke, mm 62
70% diesel + 30% biodiesel (% by volume) D70B30 Connecting rod length, mm 104
70% diesel + 25% biodiesel + 5% DEE (% by volume) D70B25DEE5 Engine capacity, cm3 232
70% diesel + 20% biodiesel + 10% DEE (% by volume) D70B20DEE10 Injection timing, degrees bTDC 10

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Fig. 1. Experimental setup.

where a is crank radius, l is connecting rod length, and h is crank Table 5

angle. Examined fuel properties.

The pressure in the engine intake manifold was measured using Fuel type Gross calorific value, MJ/kg Density @ 15 °C, kg/m3
a regular pressure sensor, which was then used as a reference pres- Diesel (D100) 45.5 849
sure for the piezoelectric pressure sensor to modify the pressure D70B30 45.2 861
data. Table 4 summarizes the uncertainty in the measured D70B25DEE5 44.9 852
variables. D70B20DEE10 44.6 843

The combustion characteristics described in this study were

estimated based on calculating the average cylinder pressure data
measured for five consecutive thermodynamic cycles.
The waste cooking oil biodiesel and DEE, which were utilized in where imep is the mean indicated mean effective pressure esti-
the experiments as blended fuels, were supplied from commercial mated for a certain number of thermodynamic cycles, n, while
suppliers. Four different fuels were used in the tests as indicated in rimep is the standard deviation in indicated mean effective pressure.
Table 2. The density and gross calorific value of these fuels were
measured by the chemical lab of an oil company using the ASTM
3. Discussion of results
standard procedure. Such properties are indicated in Table 5.
The rate of heat release, dQ
dh
, varies with in-cylinder pressure p, This section compares the efficiency, fuel consumption, cylinder
volume V, crank angle h, and specific heat ratio c, via this equation specific heat ratio, heat release rates, and stability of a
[20]: compression-ignition engine operated with four fuels at 1500
dQ r dV 1 dp rpm and different engine loads.
¼ p þ V ð3Þ
dh r  1 dh r  1 dh
3.1. bsfc and efficiency
The coefficient of variation (COV), which was estimated from
the cylinder pressure data to assess cyclic variability, was calcu-
Figs. 2 and 3 show the change of bsfc and brake thermal effi-
lated as follows [20]:
ciency with engine brake power, respectively, for four examined
rimep fuels. Figs. 2 and 3 indicate that the bsfc increased while the ther-
COV ¼ ð4Þ
imep mal efficiency decreased when the diesel-biodiesel fuel blend
(D70B30) was used as an alternative to diesel for most of engine
loads. The minimum fuel consumption increased from 0.246 kg/
Table 4 kWh for diesel to 0.266 kg/kWh for diesel-biodiesel blend with a
Uncertainty in measurements. percentage increase of 8.1%. Also, the maximum brake thermal effi-
Item Uncertainty Maximum uncertainty, %
ciency decreased from 32.2% for diesel to 30% for diesel-biodiesel
fuel blend with a percentage decrease of 6.8%. This was because
Speed ±40 rpm ±2.7
Torque ±0.02 Nm ±2
the diesel-biodiesel blend had a lower calorific value compared
Fuel volume flow rate ±0.04 ml/min (max) ±1.6 to diesel. Therefore, more fuel needed to burn to produce the same
Air flow rate ±0.05  103 kg/s (max) ±1.8 power. In addition, biodiesel had higher viscosity and density
Cylinder pressure ±0.01 bar ±1 compared to diesel fuel. The higher viscosity and density of
Crank angle ±0.01 degree ±1
diesel-biodiesel blend could affect the fuel atomization quality by

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Fig. 2. bsfc variation with engine brake power.

Fig. 3. Brake thermal efficiency variation with engine brake power.

producing larger fuel droplets causing a poorer fuel-air mixing and
a reduction in combustion efficiency [12].
Figs. 2 and 3 indicate that there was a significant enhancement
in engine bsfc and efficiency for most of engine loads when DEE
with a percentage of 5% was added to the diesel-biodiesel mixture
(D70B25DEE5). Adding 5% DEE to diesel-biodiesel mixture
decreased the bsfc and increased the thermal efficiency in comparison
with diesel for most of engine loads. Although the DEE had lower
calorific value in comparison with diesel and biodiesel, its lower
viscosity and density improved the fuel atomization quality
leading to higher combustion efficiency. Lee and kim [16] found
that the higher volatility of DEE facilitated air-fuel mixing and
helped form leaner and more homogeneous fuel-air mixtures,
which consequently increased the fuel conversion efficiency. The

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improvement in combustion efficiency required less fuel to be
burned to produce the same power as indicated in Fig. 4, which
shows the variation of engine operating air to fuel ratio against
brake power for all tested fuels. Fig. 4 indicates that the highest
air to fuel ratio was obtained for most of engine loads when
D70B25DEE5 was used as an alternative to all tested fuels.
However, the bsfc increased and thermal efficiency decreased
for most of engine loads when the DEE proportion in the diesel-
biodiesel mixture increased to 10% (D70B20DEE10). Although
DEE is an oxygenated fuel which can result to more complete com-
bustion with a consequent increase in engine thermal efficiency
and a decrease in fuel consumption, DEE has a lower calorific value
and higher latent heat of vaporization compared to diesel fuel,
which can lead to a decrease in engine efficiency and an increase
in fuel consumption [9,16]. Therefore, the proportion of DEE in
the fuel blend needs to be optimized for best engine performance
because increasing the proportion of DEE in fuel blend up to a cer-
tain limit can decrease fuel blend calorific value more significantly
leading to deterioration in engine performance. Barik and Murugan
[18] investigated improving a diesel engine performance operated
with biodiesel-biogas dual fuel mode using DEE as an additive fuel
with three proportions of 2%, 4%, and 6%. The authors concluded
that the optimum DEE proportion was 4% as it led to higher effi-
ciency and lower bsfc. Furthermore, previous studies [9] showed
that increasing the proportion of DEE to a certain limit resulted
in engine instability due to the high volatility of DEE which caused
vapor lock in the fuel lines connected to fuel pump.
When the DEE percentage was raised to 10%, the blend calorific
value decreased more significantly; this caused a reduction in ther-
mal efficiency and a rise in fuel consumption. It can be concluded
that the optimum fuel among examined fuels was D70B25DEE5
because this blend caused the engine to produce the lowest bsfc
and highest thermal efficiency for most of engine loads in compar-
ison with all tested fuels including the diesel fuel. On the other
hand, using the diesel-biodiesel blend (D70B30) resulted in higher
bsfc and lower thermal efficiency for most of engine loads in com-
parison with all tested fuels.
Fig. 4. Change of engine air to fuel ratio with brake power.
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5
3.2. Specific heat ratio
It is important to estimate an accurate value for the specific
heat ratio (c) of cylinder combustion content because this specific
heat ratio is used to estimate the heat release rate according to Eq.
(3). A fixed value of c ranging from 1.3 to 1.35 [20,21] was usually
assumed by most of previous studies in order to estimate the heat
release rate. However, c is a function of in-cylinder composition
and temperature [20]. Significant errors could be induced in the
estimation of rate of heat release if inaccurate values of c were
assumed [21]. Also, inaccurate combustion characteristics results
could be produced if c was assigned with a fixed value for all
engine operating modes and examined fuels [21]. Although c var-
ies instantaneously with the change of engine crankangle during
combustion, it was shown that satisfactory heat release rate results
can be obtained by assigning c with an acceptable average value
[21]. However, this value of c should be a function of engine oper-
ating characteristics.
A methodology described by Abbaszadehmosayebi and cowork-
ers [21] proposed to use the measured cylinder pressure data to
estimate the average specific heat ratio during combustion. The
isentropic relationships of pV cu = constant & pV cb = constant are
employed during engine compression and expansion processes,
respectively [20]. cu and cb represent the specific heat ratio of
cylinder gas through compression and expansion processes,
respectively. Hence, cu and cb can be estimated by calculating
the slopes of the two approximate straight lines that are created
by plotting the log p-log V relationships during compression and
expansion processes, respectively [20]. Abbaszadehmosayebi [21]
demonstrated that an appropriate value of c can be estimated as
the average of both cu and cb. This described strategy was utilized
in the current study to estimate c as a function of engine indicated
power and type of tested fuel using the measured cylinder pressure
as shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5 demonstrates that the specific heat ratio, c, decreased as
indicated power increased for all examined fuels. The increase of
mass of burned fuel with increasing engine power, as indicated
6 A. Ibrahim / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal xxx (2018) xxx–xxx

Fig. 5. Variation of c against power.

Fig. 6. Increase of maximum cylinder pressure for different fuels.

in Fig. 4, resulted in an increase in in-cylinder pressure, as indi-
cated in Fig. 6, and temperature, which led to a reduction in c.
3.3. Heat release rate
Figures from 7 to 9 show the rate of heat release variations with
engine crank-angle for all tested fuels at small, medium, and full
load, respectively. The small, medium, and full loads corresponded
to indicated powers of 0.8, 1.4, and 2.1 kW, respectively. The corre-
sponding brake powers were 0.3, 0.8, and 1.6 kW, respectively.
Although all fuels were injected about 10 degrees before the
piston reached the top dead center (350 degrees), the heat release
rate started to increase rapidly a few degrees later due to the fuel
ignition delay period. This rapid increase in heat release rate

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Fig. 7. Rate of heat release change with crank angle at small load.

Fig. 8. Rate of heat release change with crank angle at medium load.

indicated the instant of combustion beginning. The rate of heat
release was rapidly increased after combustion started due to the
burning of fuel that accumulated within the combustion chamber
during the delay period.
At low load condition, the instant of combustion start remained
unaffected when fuel type was varied as the combustion started
almost at 355 degrees for all examined fuels. Although the cetane
number (CN) of DEE was much higher compared to diesel and bio-
diesel fuels, the cetane number of diesel-biodiesel-DEE blends
might remain close to diesel CN. A previous study [22] showed that
mixing the DEE with diesel reduced the mixture cetane number
and became less than the diesel CN because the DEE interacted
with diesel aromatics, which delayed the start of ignition. How-
ever, the maximum heat release rate obtained during the rapid

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8 A. Ibrahim / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal xxx (2018) xxx–xxx
20
15
10
HRR,J/deg
−5
340 350 360 370
Crank angle,deg
Fig. 9. Rate of heat release change with crank angle at full load.
combustion phase was significantly higher for diesel in comparison
with other tested fuels, as shown in Fig. 7. Although the delay peri-
ods were comparable for all fuels, the engine operated at signifi-
cantly higher air to fuel ratio during the small load engine
operation as demonstrated in Fig. 4. The existence of oxygenated
fuels in the very lean fuel-air mixture could have the potential to
reduce the maximum heat release rate [20]. The rapid combustion
stage ended almost 1.5 degrees after the piston reached the TDC
(361.5 degrees) for all fuels at low load condition. However, the
combustion continued with lower heat release rates as the fuel
issuing from the injector was mixed and burned with in-cylinder
air in the mixing controlled combustion phase.
When engine load increased, the combustion beginning instant
was more advanced for all examined fuels. The combustion started
almost one degree earlier for all fuels when the load was changed
from small to full load. The increase of burned fuel mass with
increasing engine load increased cylinder pressure and tempera-
ture, which caused a reduction in the ignition delay duration. Sim-
ilar trend was also indicated by Rakopoulos and coworkers [23]
who investigated the variations of ignition delay with diesel engine
load for different fuels of neat cotton seed vegetable oil, neat cot-
ton seed biodiesel, and their blends with either 20% DEE or 20%
n-butanol. The authors showed that the ignition delay period
decreased from a range of almost 4.5–6 degrees at engine brake
mean effective pressure (bmep) of 1 bar to a range of 4–5 degrees
at bmep of about 5.5 bar.
The crankangle at which the rapid combustion phase ended was
more advanced when load increased due to the earlier start of
combustion. However, the heat release rate was significantly lower
for diesel compared to other tested fuels at higher engine load
operation as shown in Fig. 9. That led to a slight delay in the end
of combustion timing for diesel in comparison with other exam-
ined fuels. The engine operated at richer air-fuel mixture when
the load increased. Therefore, the presence of oxygenated fuels,
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D100
D70B30
D70B25DEE5
D70B20DEE10
380 390 400 410 420
and higher volatility of DEE that enhanced the air-fuel mixing led
to a slight increase in the combustion rate.
Raising up the mass of burned fuel with increasing the load led
to a significant increase in the rate of heat release during the mix-
ing controlled combustion phase at higher engine load operation as
can be noticed by comparing Fig. 7 with Fig. 9. In addition, the
increase of injected fuel mass at higher engine loads extended
the duration of combustion process. The combustion duration
increased by an average value of 11 crank angle degrees as the load
changed from small to full-load for all examined fuels.
3.4. Engine stability
Cycle to cycle fluctuation in indicated mean effective pressure
(IMEP) was estimated via the calculation of the coefficient of vari-
ation (COV) in order to assess the engine stability for all tested
fuels. Cylinder pressure-crank angle data differs from one thermo-
dynamic cycle to another mainly due to the associated variations
in combustion process [20].
Heywood [20] illustrated that engine stability deteriorated
when the COV increased above 10%. However, different studies
demonstrated that increasing the COV above 5% could badly affect
engine stability [12].
The change of COV with load for all examined fuels is indicated
in Fig. 10. This figure demonstrates that the COV was lower than 5%
for most of engine operating conditions. Therefore, it can be con-
cluded that mixing the DEE (up to 10%) with diesel-biodiesel mix-
ture did not negatively affect engine stability. Fig. 10 shows also
that the COV generally reduced with the increase of load indicating
better engine stability. That can be explained as the engine con-
sumed a richer air-fuel mixture at higher load conditions. Decreas-
ing the operating air to fuel ratio can decrease engine cyclic
variations [20]. Similar results were also obtained by Rakopoulos
and coworkers [23] who compared the COV of a diesel engine
 A. Ibrahim / Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal xxx (2018) xxx–xxx
Fig. 10. Change of engine COV with indicated power.
fuelled by different fuels of neat cotton seed vegetable oil, neat
cotton seed biodiesel, and their blends with either 20% DEE or
20% n-butanol. The authors found that the COV ranged from 8%
to 9% for all fuels at low load condition while it significantly
reduced to a range of 1.5%–2% at engine high load condition.
Fig. 10 shows that adding DEE to diesel-biodiesel blend with a
proportion up to 10% generally decreased the COV compared to
diesel at higher engine load conditions. Similar results were also
obtained by Lee and Kim [16] who found that adding DEE to diesel
with a proportion of 25% decreased the COV at higher engine load
conditions. Also, Uyumaz [24] demonstrated that adding mustard
oil biodiesel to diesel with proportions of 10%, 20%, and 30%
resulted in a significant decrease in COV at all engine load condi-
tions. The author explained that as the addition of oxygenated fuel
to diesel resulted in more complete combustion throughout engine
cycles which decreased the cycle to cycle variation.
The D100 COV calculated for this study was around 3% for most
of engine loads as shown in Fig. 10. That could be considered
slightly higher compared to other diesel engines because the air
flow rate was measured using an orifice meter which is a flow
restriction device which can induce relatively higher fluctuations
in inlet pressure and air flow rate. However, the COV can vary sig-
nificantly from engine to engine according to engine specifications,
operating conditions, and fuel properties [25]. Uyumaz [24] found
that the COV in imep for D100 ranged from 11.62% at light load
(brake torque of 3.75 Nm) to about 6.5% at high load (brake torque
of 18.75 Nm).
4. Conclusions
Four fuels were examined in a diesel engine to assess its perfor-
mance and stability and analyze the combustion process at various
loads and a constant speed of 1500 rpm. These fuels were diesel,
biodiesel-diesel mixture, and two mixtures of biodiesel-diesel-
DEE with DEE proportions of 5% and 10% by volume. The following
results were found:
Please cite this article in press as: A. Ibrahim, An experimental study on using diethyl ether in a diesel engine operated with diesel-biodiesel fuel blend,
Eng. Sci. Tech., Int. J. (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jestch.2018.07.004
9
 The higher viscosity and lower calorific value of biodiesel com-
pared to diesel resulted in some engine performance deteriora-
tion when diesel-biodiesel blend was used as an alternative to
diesel as the minimum bsfc increased by 8.1% and the maxi-
mum thermal efficiency decreased by 6.8%.
 Although the high volatility and low viscosity of DEE in addition
to its oxygen content can enhance the combustion process, its
lower calorific value and higher latent heat of vaporization
can deteriorate engine performance. It was found that the opti-
mum blending proportion was 5% because blending the diesel-
biodiesel mixture with 5% DEE led to a significant improvement
in engine performance as the bsfc decreased and thermal effi-
ciency increased at most engine loads compared to diesel. How-
ever, increasing the proportion of DEE to 10% decreased thermal
efficiency.
 The oxygen content of oxygenated fuels reduced the maximum
heat release rate of blended fuels compared to diesel at light
load condition where the air to fuel ratio was the highest. How-
ever, the heat release rate was lower and combustion duration
was longer for diesel compared to other tested fuels at higher
engine load conditions. The high cetane number of DEE did
not significantly affect the start of combustion timing for the
blended fuels.
 The COV decreased with increasing engine load for all fuels due
to the richer fuel-air mixture operation at higher engine load
conditions. The use of oxygenated fuels generally decreased
the COV compared to diesel at higher engine load conditions.
The COV was lower than 5% for all examined fuels at most loads
indicating a stable engine operation.
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