Effect of biodiesel addition to diesel fuel on engine performance and emissions

In this paper, exhaust emission measurements are presented, using three conventional diesel-engine vehicles and one stationary Fetter diesel engine, The engines were operated with typical automotive diesel fuel, containing 0.2 or 0.05 wt% sulphur, and blends of the fuels and 10 vol% biodiesel. The starting material for biodiesel preparation was sunflower oil, which is an abundant plant oil in many Mediterranean areas. The addition of biodiesel in the traditional diesel fuel resulted in significant reduction of black smoke emissions, and the combination of low-sulphur diesel fuel and biodiesel comprises the best fuel blend tested. The combination of low-sulphur diesel fuel and biodiesel resulted in reducing the particulate matter emissions at higher loads, With regard to fuel consumption, the fuels that contained biodiesel resulted in slightly increased fuel consumption. Wear metal measurements indicated that while the detected metals Ag, Cu, Fb, and Cr were not significantly affected by biodiesel addition, the fuel blend that contained biodiesel led to a slight increase of Fe into the used lubricant.