Engine performance and emissions of a diesel engine operating on diesel-RME (rapeseed methyl ester) blends with EGR (exhaust gas recirculation)

A. Tsolakis, A. Megaritis, M.L. Wyszynski and K. Theinnoi

Energy, 2007, vol. 32, issue 11, 2072-2080

Abstract: The effects of biodiesel (rapeseed methyl ester, RME) and different diesel/RME blends on the diesel engine NOx emissions, smoke, fuel consumption, engine efficiency, cylinder pressure and net heat release rate are analysed and presented. The combustion of RME as pure fuel or blended with diesel in an unmodified engine results in advanced combustion, reduced ignition delay and increased heat release rate in the initial uncontrolled premixed combustion phase. The increased in-cylinder pressure and temperature lead to increased NOx emissions while the more advanced combustion assists in the reduction of smoke compared to pure diesel combustion. The lower calorific value of RME results in increased fuel consumption but the engine thermal efficiency is not affected significantly. When similar percentages (% by volume) of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) are used in the cases of diesel and RME, NOx emissions are reduced to similar values, but the smoke emissions are significantly lower in the case of RME. The retardation of the injection timing in the case of pure RME and 50/50 (by volume) blend with diesel results in further reduction of NOx at a cost of small increases of smoke and fuel consumption.

Keywords: Biodiesel; Emissions; Combustion; EGR; Retarded injection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (79)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544207000953
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:32:y:2007:i:11:p:2072-2080

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2007.05.016

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().