An experimental analysis of performance and exhaust emissions of a CRDI diesel engine operating on mixtures containing mineral and renewable components

The manuscript presents a comparative analysis of the performance and emission characteristics of a compression ignition engine equipped with a Common Rail injection system. The engine is fueled with diesel-biodiesel mixtures containing 25% and 50% share (by volume) of renewable components. Conventional diesel is used as a reference. Turkey lard and rapeseed oil are used as raw materials and subjected to the single-stage transesterification process to obtain methyl esters. The experiments are performed on a medium-duty, turbocharged, inter-cooled, Common Rail Direct Injection (CRDI) diesel engine. This study concentrates on one engine speed of 1500 rpm, typical for gen-set applications, and mid-load range from 100 Nm to 200 Nm. The scope of measurements covers the analysis of exhaust gasses concentration and engine efficiency parameters. In addition, the in-cylinder pressure measurements are performed in order to provide insight into the differences in combustion characteristics between examined fuel mixtures. The study reveals that the addition of the renewable component to fuel mixture positively affects a number of examined performance parameters as well as de-creases the concentration of the examined toxic exhaust components, in the majority of cases.