Particulate Emissions From Karanja Biodiesel Fueled Turbocharged CRDI Sports Utility Vehicle Engine

Biodiesel has emerged as one of the most promising alternative fuel to mineral diesel in last two decades globally. Lower blends of biodiesel emit fewer pollutants, while easing pressure on scarce petroleum resources, without sacrificing engine power output and fuel economy. However, diesel engines emit significant amount of particulate matter (PM), most of which are nanoparticles. Due to the adverse health impact of PM emitted by compression ignition (CI) engines; most recent emission legislations restrict the total number of particles emitted, in addition to PM mass emissions. Use of biodiesel leads to reduction in PM mass emissions; however, the particle size-numbers distribution has not been investigated thoroughly. In this paper, PM emission characteristics from Karanja biodiesel blends (KB20 and KB40) in a modern common rail direct injection (CRDI) engine used in a sports utility vehicle (SUV) with a maximum fuel injection pressure of 1600 bar have been reported. This study also explored comparative effect of varying engine speeds and loads on particulate size-number distribution, particle size-surface area distribution, and total particulate number concentration from biodiesel blends vis-a-vis baseline mineral diesel. This study showed that particulate number emissions from Karanja biodiesel blends were relatively higher than baseline mineral diesel.