COMPARISON OF VEHICLE PERFORMANCE USING FOSSIL DIESEL FUEL BLENDS WITH BIODIESEL AND HVO FUEL

Biodiesel is increasingly used as an additive to fossil diesel fuel. For summer periods it is compulsorily in Latvia to use diesel fuel with 4.5-7 % biodiesel fuel mix. Some technical disadvantages of biodiesel/fossil diesel blends are mentioned by many researchers, for example, reduced energy density, and degradation of fuel under storage for prolonged periods. Therefore, one of the solutions might be blending of different biofuels instead of biodiesel. Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) is one of the most promising next generation biofuels in the near future. An unmodified passenger car Opel Insignia 2.0 CDTi (manufactured in 2011) with a four-cylinder diesel engine (power 96 kW) has been investigated. Chassis dynamometer Mustang MD-1750, AVL KMA MOBILE fuel consumption meter, and AVL SESAM FTIR multi-component exhaust gas measurement system were used during the experiments. Running the car with diesel fuel mixed with 7 % of biodiesel, it developed 2.1 % less maximum power and 1.3 % less maximum torque compared with fossil diesel, and about 2.3 % less power and 1.5 % less torque compared to diesel fuel blended with 7 % HVO fuel. Diesel fuel 1 / 7 % biodiesel blend fuel consumption is in average 3.1 % higher compared to pure fossil diesel, and in average 3.0 % higher in comparison with diesel fuel mixed with 7 % HVO fuel. Blend of 7 % HVO with fossil diesel fuel compared to diesel fuel mix with 7 % of biodiesel approximately by 4 % decreases the amount of NOx, by 3 % CO2, and about 3.5 times unburnt hydrocarbon content in exhaust gases, but CO increases by approximately 90 %.