Combustion Analysis of a Diesel Engine Running on Different Biodiesel Blends

Enrico Mattarelli, Carlo Alberto Rinaldini and Tommaso Savioli
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Enrico Mattarelli: Department of Engineering "Enzo Ferrari", University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Vivarelli 10, 41125 Modena, Italy
Carlo Alberto Rinaldini: Department of Engineering "Enzo Ferrari", University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Vivarelli 10, 41125 Modena, Italy
Tommaso Savioli: Department of Engineering "Enzo Ferrari", University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Vivarelli 10, 41125 Modena, Italy

Energies, 2015, vol. 8, issue 4, 1-11

Abstract: Rape-seed biodiesel is an interesting option to address the problem of decreasing availability of conventional fossil fuels, as well as to reduce the CO 2 emissions of internal combustion engines. The present paper describes an experimental campaign carried out on a current production 4-cylinder, 4-stroke naturally aspirated diesel engine, running on standard diesel fuel and on three different blends of rape-seed biodiesel (20%-50%-100%). Performance, emissions and in-cylinder pressure traces were measured at full load. It was found that the influence of rape-seed biodiesel in the fuel blend is not constant at each operating condition. However, as the biodiesel content increases, full load performance tends to drop, in particular brake specific fuel consumption (maximum worsening: +18%), while soot emission goes down. The maximum improvement observed in terms of soot concentration is 37.5%, at 1200 rpm. The combustion analysis revealed that the main differences among the fuels occur in the first phase of combustion: the burn rate is slower for biodiesel blends at low speeds, and faster at high.

Keywords: biodiesel; diesel engine; combustion; soot; rapeseed (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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