Characterization of particle size distribution from diesel engines fueled with palm-biodiesel blends and paraffinic fuel blends

Biodiesels are promoted as alternative fuels and their applications in diesel engines have been investigated by many researchers. However, the particle size distribution emitted from heavy-duty diesel engines fueled with palm-biodiesel blended with premium diesel fuel and paraffinic fuel blended with palm-biodiesel has seldom been addressed. Thus, five test fuels were used in this work to study the particle size distribution: D100 (premium diesel fuel), B100 (100% palm-biodiesel), B20 (20 vol% palm-biodiesel+80 vol% D100), BP9505 (95 vol% paraffinic fuel+5 vol% palm-biodiesel) and BP8020 (80 vol% paraffinic fuel+20 vol% palm-biodiesel). A Micro-Orifice Uniform Deposit Impactor (MOUDI) equipped with aluminum filters was used to collect size-resolved samples. Experimental results indicated that palm-biodiesel blends and paraffinic fuel blends could improve combustion efficiency in diesel engines, but pure palm-biodiesel could cause incomplete combustion. Adding palm-biodiesel to diesel fuel would slightly increase particles with diameter <0.31 μm but paraffinic fuel blends could decrease particles with diameter <1 μm. The mass median diameter of overall particles (MMD_o) and σ_g,o are 0.439 μm and 3.88 for D100; 0.380 μm and 3.24 for B20; 0.465 μm and 4.22 for B100; 1.40 μm and 4.92 for BP9505; 1.46 μm and 2.25 for BP8020. There are more particles with low aerodynamic diameters (diameter <0.31 μm) in the exhaust of D100, B20 and B100 fuels. On the other hand, a greater fraction of particulate matter of BP9505 and BP8020 existed in coarse particles (diameter: 2.5-10 μm). Energy efficiency also increases significantly by 12.3-15.1% with the introduction of paraffinic fuel blends into the engine. Nevertheless, paraffinic fuel blends also reduce the emission of particulate matters by 36.0-38.4%. Carbon monoxide was decreased by 36.8-48.5%. Total hydrocarbon is 39.6-41.7% less than diesel fuel combustion. Nitrogen oxides emission is about 5% lower for paraffinic fuel. These results show that paraffinic fuel can be very competitive and replaced diesel fuels in the future.