Effect of nanoparticles as additives to the biofuels and their feasibility assessment on the engine performance and emission analysis—A review

Nanofluids are mostly dispersed in a base fuel to advance thermo-physical properties, creating them a noticeable prime for implementation in a variety of viable exertion such as medical engineering, transportation, biotechnology, and so on. The scientific community has been focusing on improving combustion behavior, constancy features, several engine functioning metrics, and emission features of traditional diesel engines employing nanoparticle-based fuel blends due to advances in nanotechnology. There have recently been a few research endeavors in the literature by nano-sized organic, non-metallic, metallic, and assorted particles in the conventional fuel for diesel engines. Due to the extreme multi-fold improvement in physical and chemical characteristics of customized energy, like great aspect ratio, an elevated reactive platform for combustion, improved heat and mass transport characteristics due to increased mechanical properties like enhancements in fire point, flash point, pour point, and other properties based on the type of nanoparticles, the obtained results are inspiring. Despite having all its advantages, the literature has some ambiguous and inconsistent data, and the experimental results of diverse investigators have not been comprehensive to the point where a shared agreement on this novel methodology to fuel reform can be reached. An effort was made to summarize a critical scientific paper on the combustion and consistency aspects of nanoparticle-filled fuels and their blends, and also their impacts on fuel and engine overall attributes, to pave the way for more research in this domain to maximize the prospective of nanoparticle-based fuels.