The present study is to evaluate the performance & emission characteristics of biodiesel on a 2.6L turbocharged common rail direct injection engine powered on Sports utility vehicle (SUV). The effect of neat biodiesel and its blends with diesel at various ratios was evaluated. The study was extended to analyze combustion characteristics using pressure time history with various blends. This paper elaborate the effect of biodiesel on both engine & vehicle level. Impact on fuel economy, noise level and drivability was also discussed.
Experimental results revealed significant reduction of power throughout the operating range while running with biodiesel. So the engine injection strategy was optimized specially for biodiesel to obtain the desired performance & emission. Engine performance results were discussed based on the analysis of heat release, which made it possible to give more precise information about the combustion process.
Experiment data reveal that the significant reduction of HC, CO and smoke was observed. However loss in power when using biodiesel has been regained by increasing the fueling & optimizing the combustion parameters results slight increase in emission level. While the fuel economy and noise level of the engine doesn't showed much difference and it's under acceptable level.
Based on this study, it is observed that performance and emission of the vehicle while using blends and neat usage of biodiesel matches with diesel, when the engine is remapped. A practical system, which could be adopted for optimum performance with biodiesel, is possible with this development.