Effects on Performance, Efficiency, Emissions, Cylinder Pressure, and Injection of a Common-Rail Diesel Engine When Using a Blend of 15% Biodiesel (B15) or 15% Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO15)

Road mobility is evolving driven by environmental and energy constraints. The pursuit of cleaner and more efficient drivetrain systems has resulted in significant R&D work in the areas of fuels, engine efficiency, and pollutant control. It is essential to reduce the environmental impacts of internal combustion engines due to the overwhelming presence of vehicles equipped with these engines in today’s fleet, so the need to develop fuels with the potential to significantly reduce CO₂ emissions is obvious. The main objective of this work is to understand the behavioral effects in the engine when fueled with different biofuel percentages blended in conventional diesel (B7, B15 and HVO15). This was accomplished by several experimental tests carried out on a dynamometer using a vehicle equipped with a common-rail Diesel engine, considering performance analysis (power and torque) and WLTP cycles to realize fuel consumption and emission data. Additionally, to understand the way the engine perceives the use of different fuels the in-chamber pressure and the fuel injector behavior were measured, considering different load and engine speed conditions. It was observed that B7 was the most efficient fuel, presenting fuel consumption values of 5.94 kg/100km, lower than 6.10 kg/100km for HVO15 and 5.99kg/100km for B15. The differences in performance for B7 and HVO15 were almost unnoticeable. Nevertheless, some consistent differences in injector opening times and in-cylinder pressure were noted, which supports the observed engine performance and efficiency results, allowing to detect the relation of engine adaptation to different fuel properties, its energetic and environmental effects.