The emission characteristics of a small DI 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, NOx 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, NOx and SO2, the results favored biodiesel blends.