Fuel mixtures of diesel-maize oil Charalampos Arapatsakos, Dimitrios Christoforidis, Georgios Sarantitis, Dimitrios Giannopoulos Abstract: - Petroleum – based fuels is a finite resource that is rapidly depleting. Consequently, petroleum reserves are not sufficient enough to last many years. Considering also the fact that petroleum – based fuels, can cause many environmental problems, imbalance of trade, high oil process etc, it becomes necessary the development of alternative fuel sources. At this paper will be examined the use of diesel-maize oil mixtures in diesel four-stroke engine. The mixtures used are the following: diesel-5% maize oil, diesel-10% maize oil, diesel-20% maize oil oil, diesel-30% maize oil, diesel-40% maize oil, diesel-50% maize oil. For those mixtures the gas emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), nitrogen monoxide (NO) are being measured and the fuel consumption is also examined. Key-Words: - Gas emissions, maize oil fuel, Biofuels I. INTRODUCTION In our days most of the transportation vehicles run on gasoline or diesel fuel. Some of the consequences of this use are the environment pollution and the need of imported oil as well. There is growing perceived economic and political need for the development of alternative fuel sources.[1,2,3,4,5,6] This is due to general environmental, economic, and geopolitical concerns of sustainability. An alternative fuel refers to a vehicle that runs on a fuel other than traditional gasoline or diesel, any method of powering an engine that does not involve solely petroleum. Ethanol is a liquid alcohol fuel produced from biomass (which consists of trees, grasses and wastes) grain or agricultural waste. It produces less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels[7,8,9,10]. However, mileage is reduced because this fuel has a lower extremely cold temperature. Also there is a need of special engine oil and frequent oil changes, in order for ethanol to be used as a fuel. Methanol is also known as a wood alcohol or methyl alcohol and is made from natural gas, wood, coal or biomass. Natural gas or methane, originates in the ground, but also is made from biomass. It generates less air pollutants and greenhouse gasses. A car that runs on natural gas needs more fuel space and a limited driving range, as the equivalent amount of natural gas takes up about four times more space than a gallon of gasoline[11,12,13,14,15]. Propane also called liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), is a domestically abundant fossil fuel that generates less harmful air pollutants and greenhouse gasses. However, vehicles that use propane as a fuel, require special equipment for refueling, a short driving range and all repairs need to be done by a technician, who is qualified to work on a propane system[16,17,18]. Biofuels are the fuels that are being produced from biomass. Furthermore, biofuel is defined as solid liquid or gas fuel derived from relatively recently dead biological material. It can be used to power vehicles, heating home and cooking stoves. Biofuels can replace conventional fuels, completely or partially, in the internal combustion engines.[19]. There are a number of parameters that effect the vehicle exhaust emissions, such as the fuel and air mixing, the temperature of combustion and the time available for combustion in the engine. Also the fuel that is used to power the engine influences emissions[20,21,22]. When alternative fuels are used instead of the usual petroleum-based fuels, the vehicular emissions are reduced. Using renewable fuels, such as biofuels, there is also a reduction of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is non-toxic but contributes to the greenhouse effect[7,8]. One of the advantages of biofuel is that decreases emissions when it is used as it is renewable. As a result biofuel is friendly to the environment when it is used as a fuel instead of petroleum[23,24]. The major issue is how a four-stroke diesel engine behaves on the side of pollutants and operation, when it uses mixed fuel of diesel –maize oil. II. INSTRUMENTATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS In the experiment stage has been used directly maize oil in the mixture of diesel in to a four – stroke diesel engine. Specifically it has been used diesel, mixture diesel-5% maize oil (k5), diesel-10% maize oil (k10), diesel-20% maize oil (k20), diesel-30% maize oil (k30), diesel-40% maize oil (k40), Diesel-50% maize oil (k50) in a four-stroke diesel engine named Ruggerini type RD-80, volume 377cc, and power 8.2hp/3000rpm, who was connected with a pump of water centrifugal. Measurements were made when the engine was function on 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500rpm. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY, Issue 3, Vol. 2, 2008 43