Field Trials of Biodiesel (B100) and Diesel Fuelled Common Rail Direct Injection Euro-III Compliant Sports Utility Vehicles in Indian Conditions

Biodiesel is being explored as a sustainable renewable fuel for vehicles in India due to mounting foreign exchange expenditure to import crude petroleum. Significant amount of research and development work is being undertaken in India to investigate various aspects of biodiesel utilisation in different types of engines.

This study is an effort to jointly investigate the use of biodiesel (B100) in an unmodified BS-III compliant sports utility vehicle (SUV) by a consortium of academia (IIT Kanpur) and Industry (M&M) to realistically assess whether biodiesel is compatible with modern engine technology vehicles. Two identical vehicles were operated in tandem using biodiesel (B100) and mineral diesel (B00) respectively for 30,000 kilometers in field conditions. The lubricating oil samples were collected and detailed analysis for assessing the comparative effect of new fuel (B100) vis-à-vis mineral diesel was carried out. After completion of the field trails, the vehicles and the engines were dismantled for assessment of carbon deposits and wear of various vital components/ parts.

This paper reports some of the comparative emission results under vehicle running conditions, lubricating oil tribology results and carbon deposits on various vital engine components.