Performance characteristics and exhaust gas analysis of a diesel engine using biodiesel fuel blends

ABSTRACT

This study details an investigation of the performance and emission characteristics of a Ford XLD 418 compression ignition engine fuelled by various biodiesel/standard agricultural diesel blends. Blend ratios of 10, 50 and 75% were tested and compared with baseline tests performed using pure diesel fuel in the same engine and under the same nominal test conditions. All experiments were carried out in a controlled laboratory environment in accordance with the British Standard, International Organization for Standardization (BS ISO) 15550 standard for compression ignition engines. Numerous full engine performance tests and emission analyses were carried out for each blend, and it is concluded that the engine mechanical performance became marginally worse with increased fuel blend ratio levels. In terms of exhaust gas analysis, emission gas levels for NO_x showed a definitive increase, whereas others such as CO and HC generally decreased. CO₂ did not show a conclusive trend when regarded in the context of the variation associated with the baseline pure diesel tests, although the literature supports that it increases marginally.

KEYWORDS:

• Biofuel
• biodiesel
• compression ignition engines
• diesel engines
• fuel blends

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.