Author(s)

D. L. Cursaru, C. Tănăsescu & V. Mărdărescu

Abstract

Over the last years numerous attempts have been made to minimize the amount of toxic and harmful exhaust gases from diesel powered vehicles. The rapidly exhausted fossil sources coupled with increasing price of petroleum together with the public awareness concerning the environmental protection, are the main reasons that have made many scientists to search for alternative and renewable energy sources. According to the recent EU regulations starting with 1st of January 2010, 5.75wt% of classical diesel fuel must be replaced with more environmental friendly fuels. The most used biofuel is biodiesel (fatty acid methyl esters), mainly synthesized by catalytic transesterification of fatty glycerides. Roughly 10 wt% of glycerol is obtained as by-product in catalytic transesterification of fatty glycerides and there are many researching directions in order to find new applications for the increasing availability of glycerol as a low-cost feedstock. In our study we have tested the energetic and ecologic performances (the exhaust emissions as CO, CO2 and NOx) of biodiesel or alkyl ether-diesel blends by testing the fuels on a Diesel engine 392-L4-DT/104 at different engine speeds. The emission tests were measured by using a FTIR SESAM 1.4 equipment. Engine tests were run on the same engine in the same day in order to have the same atmospheric conditions (96 kPa pressure and 29oC) within the three repetitions of each test and average of measured values were taken. The measured CO emissions of biodiesel and alkyl ether-diesel blends were found to be 15% and 37% lower than that of diesel fuel, respectively. Keywords: biodiesel, alkyl ether, diesel engine, emissions.

Keywords

biodiesel, alkyl ether, diesel engine, emissions