Energies 2011, 4, 1937-1949; doi:10.3390/en4111937
energies
ISSN 1996-1073
www.mdpi.com/journal/energies
Article
Performance Improvement of a Portable Electric Generator
Using an Optimized Bio-Fuel Ratio in a Single Cylinder
Two-Stroke Engine
Norhisam Misron 1,*, Suhairi Rizuan 1, Aravind Vaithilingam 1,*, Nashiren Farzilah Mailah 1,
Hanamoto Tsuyoshi 2, Yamada Hiroaki 2 and Shirai Yoshihito 2
1 Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra
Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor 43400, Malaysia; E-Mails: r.suhairi@gmail.com (S.R.);
nashiren@eng.upm.edu.my (N.F.M.)
2 Department of Biological Functions and Engineering, Graduate School of Life Science and Systems
Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kyushu 804-8550, Japan;
E-Mails: hanamoto@life.kyutech.ac.jp (H.T.); hiroaki-ymd@life.kyutech.ac.jp (Y.H.);
shirai@life.kyutech.ac.jp (S.Y.)
* Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mails: norhisam@eng.upm.edu.my (N.M.);
aravindcv@ieee.org (A.V.); Tel.: +60-3-89466299; Fax: +60-3-89466323.
Received: 8 September 2011; in revised form: 27 October 2011 / Accepted: 31 October 2011 /
Published: 10 November 2011
Abstract: The performance of an electrical generator using bio-fuel and gasoline blends of
different composition as fuel in a single cylinder engine is presented. The effect of an
optimized blend ratio of bio-fuel with gasoline on engine performance improvement and
thereby on the electrical generator output is studied. Bio-fuels such as ethanol, butanol and
methanol are blended with gasoline in different proportions and evaluated for performance.
The effects of different bio-fuel/gasoline blending ratios are compared experimentally with
that of the gasoline alone using the output power developed by the electric generator as the
evaluation parameter. With a composition of 10% ethanol–gasoline, the engine performance
is increased up to 6% and with a blending ratio of 20% butanol–gasoline the performance
is increased up to 8% compared to the use of 100% gasoline. The investigations are
performed on a portable generator used in palm tree harvesting applications.
Keywords: generator output power; optimized blending ratio; bio-fuel
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