The impact of biodiesel blend ratio on vehicle performance and emissions

Abstract

Biodiesel is synthesized via the transesterification of triglycerides contained within vegetable, animal, or waste oils. First-generation biofuels are not the solution to global transport energy needs; however, biodiesel does have a role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector, so long as necessary production can be achieved in a sustainable manner without negative impact on plant and animal biodiversity. The biodiesel content within diesel sold to consumers is set to increase in the future, with implications on vehicle fuel consumption, emissions, and base engine durability. This study examines the effects of increasing the biodiesel blend ratio on the performance and emissions of a production vehicle equipped with a common-rail direct-injection diesel engine, evaluated on a chassis rolls dynamometer, at various ambient temperatures. Results obtained show that reductions in engine-out carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions do not always translate to lower tailpipe emissions as reduced exhaust gas temperatures at higher blend ratios lead to reduced catalyst conversion efficiencies and higher total cycle emissions. Catalyst conversion efficiencies for carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons over the New European Drive Cycle (NEDC) are reduced by 9–19 per cent (depending on the ambient temperature) for a 50:50 blend (B50) compared with the petroleum diesel (B0) baseline. Increasing the blend ratio caused a linear decrease in the vehicle's maximum tractive force. This reduction was of the order of 5 per cent for a B50 blend at low vehicle speeds and 6–10 per cent at higher speeds, which is greater than would be expected on the basis of the differences in calorific values. Over the NEDC, the fuel consumption was found to increase with increasing blend ratio.

Keywords

biodiesel emissions New European Drive Cycle catalyst performance

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Schuchardt

Sercheli

R. R.

Vargas

‘Transesterification of vegetable oils: A review.’

J. Braz. Chem. Soc. 9 (1998): 199–210

Freedman

Butterfield

R. O.

Pryde

E. H.

‘Transesterification kinetics of soybean oil.’

J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 63 (1986): 1375–1380

Turmes

‘Energy and climate change: Promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources RES-E.’ Fact sheet COD/2008/0016, European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, European Parliament, Legislative Observatory, Brussels, Belgium, 2008.

Renewable Fuels Agency Quarterly Report: 15 April—14 July 2008, Version 1.1, Renewable Fuels Agency, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, July 2008.

Knothe

Van Gerpen

Krahl

The biodiesel handbook, (AOCS Press, Urbana, Illinois 2005)

Schonborn

Ladommatos

‘Effect of the molecular structure of individual fatty acid alcohol esters (biodiesel) on the formation of NO_x and particulate matter in the diesel combustion process.’ SAE paper 2008–01-1578, 2008.

Lapuerta

Armas

Rodriguez-Fernandez

‘Effect of the degree of unsaturation of biodiesel fuels on NO_x and particulate emissions.’ SAE paper 2008–01-1676, 2008.

Wang

Neely

G. D.

Ryan

T. W.

‘On-board fuel property classifier for fuel property adaptive engine control system.’ SAE paper 2006–01-0054, 2006.

‘A comprehensive analysis of biodiesel impacts on exhaust emissions.’ Draft Technical Report EPA420-P-02–001, Assessment and Standards Division, Office of Transportation and Air Quality, United States Environmental Protection Agency, October 2002.

10.

Strong

Erickson

Shukla

‘Evaluation of biodiesel fuel: Literature review.’ Report prepared for the Montana Department of Transportation, Western Transportation Institute, College of Engineering, Montana State University, January 2004.

11.

Allen

C. A. W.

Watts

K. C.

Ackman

R. G.

Pegg

M. J.

‘Predicting the viscosity of biodiesel fuels from their fatty acid ester composition.’

Fuel 78 (1999): 1319–1326

12.

Faria

M. D. C.

da Cunha Pinto

R. R.

Valle

M. L. M.

‘The influence of physico-chemical properties of diesel/biodiesel mixtures on atomization quality in direct injection diesel engines.’ SAE paper 2005–01-4154, 2005.

13.

Mao

Wang

Yang

Yuan

‘Numerical simulation and experimental research on the free spray characteristics of bio-diesel fuel.’ SAE paper 2008–01-1598, 2008.

14.

Postrioti

Grimaldi

C. N.

Ceccobello

Di Gioia

‘Diesel common rail injection system behavior with different fuels.’ SAE paper 2004–01-0029, 2004.

15.

Martini

Astorga

Farfaletti

‘Effect of biodiesel fuels on pollutant emissions from EURO 3 LD diesel vehicles (1).’ Report EUR 22745 EN, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, European Commission, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, 2007.

16.

Lapuerta

Armas

Rodriguez-Fernandez

‘Effect of biodiesel fuels on diesel emissions.’

Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 34 (2008): 198–223

17.

Ertunc Tat

‘Investigation of oxides of nitrogen emissions from biodiesel fuelled engines.’ PhD Dissertation, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA, 2003.

18.

Zhang

Boehman

‘Impact of biodiesel on NO _x emissions in a common rail direct injection diesel engine.’

Energy Fuels 21 (2007): 2003–2012

19.

Alam

Song

Zello

Boehman

‘Spray and combustion visualization of a direct-injection diesel engine operated with oxygenated fuel blends.’

Int. J. Engine Res. 7 (6) (2006): 503–521 DOI: 10.1243/14680874JER01506.

20.

Mandpe

Kadlaskar

Degen

Keppeler

‘On road testing of advanced common rail diesel vehicles with biodiesel from the Jatropha Curcas plant.’ SAE paper 2005–26-356, 2005.

21.

Savvidis

Triandafyllis

Grammatikis

Gkatzianis

Katopodis

‘Influence of various blends cottonseed methylester biodiesel on steady state emissions using an old technology Ford Escort on a chassis dynamometer.’ SAE paper 2007–01-4062, 2007.

22.

Karavalakis

Tzirakis

Zannikos

Stournas

Bakeas

Arapaki

Spanos

‘Diesel/soy methyl ester blends emissions profile from a passenger vehicle operated on the European and the Athens driving cycle.’ SAE paper 2007–01-4043, 2007.

23.

McGill

Storey

Wagner

Irick

Aakko

Westerholm

Olof Nylund

Lappi

‘Emission performance of selected biodiesel fuels.’ SAE paper 2003–01-1866, 2003.

24.

Peterson

C. L.

Reece

D. L.

‘Emissions testing with blends of esters of rapeseed oil fuel with and without a catalytic converter.’ SAE paper 961114, 1996.

25.

Krahl

Munack

Schroder

Stein

Bunger

‘Influence of biodiesel and different designed diesel fuels on the exhaust gas emissions and health effects.’ SAE paper 2003–01-3199, 2003.

26.

Pinto

A. C.

Guarieiro

L. L. N.

Rezende

J. C.

Ribeiro

N. M.

Torres

E. A.

Lopes

E. A.

de P. Pereira

P. A.

de Andrade

J. B.

‘Biodiesel: An overview.’

J. Braz. Chem. Soc. 16 (6B) (2005): 1313–1330

27.

Ban-Weiss

G. A.

Chen

J. Y.

Buchholz

B. A.

Dibble

R. W.

‘A numerical investigation into the anomalous slight NO _x increase when burning biodiesel: A new (old) theory.’

Fuel Processing Technol. 88 (2007): 659–667

28.

Cheng

A. S.

Upatnieks

Mueller

C. J.

‘Investigation of the impact of biodiesel fuelling on NO _x emissions using an optical direct injection diesel engine.’

Int. J. Engine Res 7 (4) (2006): 297–318 DOI: 10.1243/14680874JER05005.

29.

Mueller

C. J.

Boehman

A. L.

Martin

G. C.

‘An experimental investigation of the origin of increased NO_x emissions when fuelling a heavy-duty compression-ignition engine with soy biodiesel.’ SAE paper 2009–01-1792, 2009.

30.

Kawano

Ishii

Goto

‘Effect of biodiesel blending on emission characteristics of modern diesel engine.’ SAE paper 2008–01-2384, 2008.

31.

Sharp

C. A.

Howell

S. A.

Jobe

‘The effect of biodiesel fuels on transient emissions from modern diesel engines, Part I, regulated emissions and performance.’ SAE paper 2000–01-1967, 2000.