Title: Selection of best biodiesel blend for IC engines: an integrated approach with FAHP-TOPSIS and FAHP-VIKOR

Authors: G. Sakthivel; M. Ilangkumaran; G. Nagarajan; P. Shanmugam

Addresses: Department of Mechatronics Engineering, K.S. Rangasamy College of Technology, Tiruchengode, 637 215, Tamilnadu, India ' Department of Mechatronics Engineering, K.S. Rangasamy College of Technology, Tiruchengode, 637 215, Tamilnadu, India ' I.C. Engineering Division, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Anna University, Chennai, 600 025, India ' Department of Mechatronics Engineering, K.S. Rangasamy College of Technology, Tiruchengode, 637 215, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract: The aim of this study is to select the best blend using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique. The six alternative fuel blends diesel, B20, B40, B60, B80 and B100 are prepared by varying the amount of diesel in biodiesel. Brake thermal efficiency (BTE), exhaust gas temperature (EGT), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), smoke, hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are considered as evaluation criteria. A single cylinder, constant speed, direct injection diesel engine (4.4 kW) was used for exploratory analysis of evaluation criteria at different load conditions. Two models fuzzy analytical hierarchy process-technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (FAHP-TOPSIS) and VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (FAHP-VIKOR, in Serbian) are proposed to evaluate the best blend. Here, the FAHP is used to analyse the structure of best blend selection and to determine the weights of the criteria. The TOPSIS and VIKOR are used to obtain the final ranking of the blend. [Received: July 10, 2012; Accepted: October 16, 2012].

Keywords: fish oil; biodiesel blends; diesel engines; IC engines; multicriteria decision making; MCDM; fuzzy AHP; analytical hierarchy process; FAHP; TOPSIS; VIKOR; fuzzy set theory; fuzzy logic; biofuels; blend selection.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2013.056153

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2013 Vol.6 No.5, pp.581 - 612

Received: 21 Jul 2012
Accepted: 16 Oct 2012

Published online: 29 Jan 2014 *

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