The effects of various aspects of FAME quality and sources on injector nozzle fouling, when blended into diesel were investigated systematically.
The B10 fuels used for this investigation are representative of available FAME qualities in the market. The variables used to assess quality were age, water content, saturation level, monoglycerides level, antioxidant content and feedstock.
The B10 fuels were tested in a PSA (Peugeot Société Anonyme) DW10 bench engine operating to a modified version of the CEC (Coordinating European Council) F-98 Nozzle Coking Test. Power loss was used as the primary indicator of nozzle fouling.
Power loss did not exceed 1% with any of the B10 blends tested, which is within the repeatability limits.
These results show that this set of B10s, formulated with market quality and worst-case quality FAME, did not cause measurable injector nozzle fouling in this modified version of the industry standard engine test. This suggests that the majority of FAME in the market should not cause injector nozzle fouling, when used at B10 level.