The emission characteristics of a small D.I. diesel engine using biodiesel blended fuels

Biodiesel and biodiesel blends provide low emissions without modification on the fuel system of conventional diesel engines. This study aims to develop a new domestic biodiesel production procedure which makes use of waste fryer vegetable oil by transesterification method, and further investigates the emission characteristics of a small D.I. diesel engine using biodiesel blends and diesel fuels, respectively. The 20/80 and 30/70 blends of biodiesel to diesel fuel are used in this study. The emission characteristics include smoke emissions, gaseous emissions (CO, HC, NO_x and SO₂), particle size distributions and number concentrations at a variety of steady state engine speed points. We have found that diesel engine fueled with biodiesel blends emits more PM₂ particle number concentrations than those with diesel fuel, and PM₂ number concentration increases as biodiesel concentration increases. As for the smoke and gaseous emissions, such as CO, HC, NO_x and SO₂, the results favored biodiesel blends.