SAE TECHNICAL PAPER SERIES

2000-01-0691

A Comparative Analysis of Combustion Process in D. I. Diesel Engine Fueled with Biodiesel and Diesel Fuel
A. Senatore and M. Cardone
Universit Federico II

V. Rocco
Universit di Roma Tor Vergata

M. V. Prati
Istituto Motori CNR

SAE 2000 World Congress Detroit, Michigan March 69, 2000

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2000-01-0691

A Comparative Analysis of Combustion Process in D.I. Diesel Engine Fueled with Biodiesel and Diesel Fuel
A. Senatore and M. Cardone
Universit Federico II

V. Rocco
Universit di Roma Tor Vergata

M. V. Prati
Istituto Motori CNR
Copyright 2000 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.

ABSTRACT
The 1997 Kyoto International Conference Protocol committed industrialized countries to reduce their global emissions of greenhouse gases within the period 20082012 by at least 5% with respect to 1990. In view of this and following the European Community directives, the Italian government approved a three-year pilot project to promote the experimental employment of biodiesel. The methyl esters of vegetable oils, known as biodiesel are receiving increasing interest because of their low environmental impact and their potential as an alternative fuel for diesel engines as they would not require any significant modification of existing engines. Consequently, an experimental research program has been developed to evaluate performance and emissions of a Diesel engine fueled with a methyl ester derived from rape seed (Rapeseed Methyl Ester or RME) by changing the composition of the diesel fuel-RME mixture. This program aims to analyze the performance and emissions of a turbocharged D.I. Diesel engine fueled with a mixture of RME and diesel fuel. In particular, the experimental investigation has performed a careful analysis of heat release, which has made it possible to give more precise information about the combustion process.

will be necessary to follow some fundamental guide lines, including: improvement of production processes; increased efficiency; use of alternative energy sources. In view of these considerations and the EU directives, the goal of reaching a 7% reduction by the year 2010 will require Italy to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases from about 604 CO2 equivalent Mt/year envisaged for 2010 to 498 equivalent Mt/year. Specifically, the 106 equivalent Mt/year to be eliminated include: 82 Mt of CO2, 20 equivalent Mt of methane and 4 equivalent Mt of other greenhouse gases [1]. In particular, the actions needed to achieve these objectives can be subdivided into two categories [1]: A preliminary series of measures will enable Italy to cut its emissions by 75 equivalent Mt/year so that by the year 2010 these will be below the 1990 values (-2%). These measures, besides suggesting a greater use of combined-cycle and co-generation power plants, include the development and diffusion of high-efficiency internal combustion engines and the modernization of the public transport system. A modest though significant contribution (1.5 Mt/year) should also come from the promotion of biofuels. This is the framework surrounding the implementation of a three-year pilot project approved by special legislation on 22 May 1998 [2] which aims to promote the experimental use and facilitate the technological development of the product known as biodiesel, obtained from the esterification of vegetable oils and their derivatives. These preliminary operations will be supplemented by the further introduction of methane fuel in the transport, industrial, residential and tertiary sectors and the promotion and introduction of equipment and systems for reducing electricity consumption in the residential and tertiary sectors. 1

INTRODUCTION
The conferences of Rio de Janeiro 1992, Berlin 1995, Geneva 1996 and Kyoto 1997, subsequently ratified by the conference of Buenos Aires in 1998, have resulted in the promulgation of directives aiming to reduce the global emission of greenhouse gases by 5% compared to the 1990 levels. In order to reach these goals without restricting the economic growth of the individual countries concerned, it

Additional measures will ensure that the 7% figure recommended by the European Union will be reached by enabling a further reduction of 31 equivalent Mt/year. In the context of the above mentioned pilot project the Italian government has confirmed tax exemptions for an annual total of 125,000 tons of biodiesel. At the end of the three year experiment a joint committee will examine the results obtained in order to assess the possibility of extending the duration of the project. These considerations have led to a renewed interest in the experimentation of biofuels and, in particular, in methyl esters derived from the transesterification of vegetable oils. The research effort in this specific sector includes the contribution of the team comprising researchers from DIME and Istituto Motori of Naples and DIM of Rome Tor Vergata University. These researchers are studying the effects of different mixtures of biodiesel (in this case rape seed methyl ester, hereafter referred to as RME) and diesel fuel on the performance and emissions of different types of engines. The results obtained so far [3,4,5] show that the biofuel has good overall behavior, with performance and emission levels comparable to diesel fuel. We have therefore been encouraged to investigate the combustion process of methyl esters more thoroughly. The most significant result obtained in this experimental investigations is the higher emission of nitrogen oxides, which can only be explained after obtaining a thorough understanding of the phenomena characterizing the combustion process.

Instantaneous fuel injection pressure (AVL 41DP 1200K) Instantaneous pressure in the intake pipe (AVL 16QP 100c) Instantaneous pressure in the intake manifold (AVL 16QP 100c) Instantaneous pressure in the exhaust manifold (AVL 16QP 100c) Needle lift ( Wolff Hall-Effect trasducer) Table 1. Engine main characteristics Displacement Compression ratio Bore x stroke Max power Max torque Alimentation Injection 1929 cm3 19.80.8:1 82.6 x 90 mm 68 kW (92CV) at 4200 rpm 19.6 daNm (20.4 kgm) at 2000 rpm With turbocharged Garrett TD 2502 Direct

Fuel injection pump Bosch VER 493 rotary type

FUEL CHARACTERISTICS
ASTM has defined biodiesel as the mono alkyl esters of long-chain fatty acids derived from renewable fats such as oils and animal fats, for use in Diesel engines [6, 7]. The definition of mono alkyl esters means that pure vegetable oils and mono- and di-glycerides cannot be considered as biodiesel. Furthermore, the fact that biodiesel must be produced from renewable fats eliminates any confusion with other substances to which this name has been attributed in the past. The further specification regarding its general use in Diesel engines differentiates it from other biofuels, such as ethanol or other gasoline substitutes. The biodiesel used in the experimental tests described in this paper is a methyl ester of rape seed oil (RME), both in its pure state and blended with a commercial reference diesel fuel containing less than 500 ppm of sulfur. The methyl ester is obtained through a transesterification process in which the use of methyl alcohol and the presence of a catalyst (such as sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide) chemically breaks down the oil molecule into methyl esters of the oil and a glycerine byproduct (Fig. 1). The properties of the two pure fuels are reported in Tab. 2. The biodiesel can be completely blended with the diesel fuel, does not contain aromatics or sulfur and contains about 11% by weight of oxygen. The biodiesel has a high cetane number due to the long linear chain of the fatty acid part of the ester. A particularly interesting feature of both the diesel fuel and the RME is their thermal and oxidative stability.

EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
The experimental set-up is comprises a 1929 cc DI turbocharged Diesel engine equipped with an intercooler and EGR, whose main design characteristics are specified in Table 1, and an electric brake (Schenk WS 260). All engine control signals are interfaced to an AVL Puma V2 Test Commander. The measurements include: Torque Speed Air flow rate (AVL Pintsch Bamag DZK 03) Fuel flow rate (AVL 7030 - A05) Relative humidity Temperature Pressure Emissions (NO - NO2 NOX - CO - CO2 - O2 - HC) Smoke (Smokemeter AVL 4010- A01) Using a fast data acquisition system (Analog Device RTI 860 NI DAQ) and an AVL Encoder for trigger and clock, the following signals were acquired: Instantaneous pressure in two cylinders (AVL GM 12G-90) 2

Recent enhancements in the Diesel engine, with the higher temperatures and pressures involved, and the need for refineries to remove aromatics and sulfur has led to an increased interest in the stability of diesel fuel.

thermogravimetric analysis in both an inert and an oxidative environment by heating the various samples from ambient temperature to 650 C at 10C/min. As far as density is concerned, we recorded a linear increase as the percentage of RME in the blend increased. Viscosity likewise showed an increasing but less marked trend as the RME content increased. As expected, substantial differences were observed in the distillation behavior. While the diesel fuel is composed of hundreds of compounds which have different boiling points, biodiesel contains only a few compounds, mainly alkyl esters C16-C18, which have boiling points very close to the same temperature (330-350C). Consequently, RME does not have a distillation curve proper. A major experimental campaign conducted in France [8] revealed that the addition of 5% of RME to diesel fuel does not significantly modify the diesel fuel characteristics or the engines performance in light- or heavy-duty vehicles.

Figure 1.

Transesterification

Current legislation on diesel fuel does not include specifications regarding its stability. In order to assess the thermal stability of RME, European countries use the iodine number which is a measure of the dual bonds in the fatty acid portion of biodiesel, but this assessment is not acknowledged in the USA. Table 2. Properties of fuels Properties Cetane number C/H/O (molar fraction) Density, g/cm3 (15 C) Viscosity, cSt (37.8 C) Net heating value, kJ/kg Carbon content C (wt%) Hydrogen content H (wt%) Oxygen content O (wt%) Sulphur content S (wt%) Stoichiometric ratio A/F Iodine number, g I2/100g Distillation curve 10% EV. 50% EV. 90% EV. F.B.P . Carbon residue (wt%) Biodegradable Diesel fuel 48 16:30:0 0.83 3.3 43000 86.5 13.4 0.05 14.5 181 255 337 372 0.01 no RME 52 19:34:2 0.89 4.5 36000 77.4 12 10.5 < 0.01 12.6 118 332 340 350 353 0.05 yes

ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE AND EMISSIONS

PERFORMANCE Figures 2-4 show the experimental results on the performance of the engine fueled with pure diesel fuel and pure biodiesel, whose characteristics are specified in Tab. 2. The present paper examines only the working conditions for pure fuels and refers readers to the literature [3, 4, 5] for an analysis of the intermediate blends. It should be remembered that although engine performance depends directly on the air/fuel ratio, while taking into account the different stoichiometric ratio of biodiesel (12.6) compared to that of diesel fuel (14.6), the various operating conditions must be compared according to the relative equivalence ratio = /st For this reason, and because of the different fuel densities, the stoichiometric ratio of each blend has to be determined as a weighted mean value according to the composition of the blend. In view of this and for the different lower heating values (see Tab. 2), the comparison between the two fuels and their blends must be made in terms of their relative heating value, which is defined as:

Qrel =

In addition to the pure diesel fuel and pure biodiesel, blends of the two fuels were also tested. These had the following compositions, expressed in volumetric percentage: Blend A - 30% biodiesel 70% diesel fuel Blend B - 50% biodiesel 50% diesel fuel Blend C - 75% biodiesel 25% diesel fuel We evaluated the density and viscosity of the two pure fuels and the three blends (A, B and C) and simulated their distillation behavior. The latter was achieved through 3

Qi st

According to this relation we can see that, as the stoichiometric ratios and the heating values compensate for each other, the diesel fuel and the methyl ester are characterized by essentially equivalent relative heating values of around 2,900 kJ/kg. In order to take into account the combined effects of the above parameters, it will be necessary to compare experimental results for the same engine operating conditions in terms of the relative equivalence ratio so as to ensure that the blend combustion process takes place with the same excess air values with respect to the fuel mass injected per cycle.

Table 3. Test Conditions

RPM 1 (min) diesel fuel RME 3000 3000 1.63 1.59 2 3 4 5 6 1.68 1.99 2.75 3.15 3.76 1.67 1.97 2.74 3.15 3.75

To clarify this, Figs. 2-4 compare the experimental results according to both the equivalence ratio and the relative equivalence ratio referred to the test conditions illustrated in Tab. 3.

Figure 3. Figure 2. Torque vs and

Power vs and

Figure 4. Specific fuel consumption vs and and specific heat consumption vs 4

These figures present the torque, power and specific consumption respectively for the above test conditions. For the various fuel properties, whenever the comparison is made for the same equivalence ratio value, we observe a marked difference in the curves (Figs. 2a, 3a and 4a), which stresses how the performance of biodiesel is clearly lower (about 20-25%) than that obtained from diesel fuel, when the same quantity of air and fuel is introduced into the cylinder. As expected, this difference tends to cancel itself out if we refer to the relative equivalence ratio (Figs. 2b, 3b and 4b). A major difference obviously remains, and especially at higher loads ( = 1.5-2), between the specific consumption curves (Fig. 4b) as this parameter is by definition inversely proportional to the lower heating value. Therefore, in order to compare diesel fuel and biodiesel provides, specific heat consumption must be considered. This comparison results in entirely coincident slopes of the plotted curves, as shown in Fig. 4c. EMISSIONS Figures 5, 6 and 7 report the experimental results for the regulated exhaust emissions referred to the test plan specified in Tab. 3. In particular figure 5 shows the measured trend of CO emissions as a function of the relative equivalence ratio. This diagram confirms the typical trend of this pollutant, sharply increasing as decreases, i.e. as the load increases. More specifically, these engine operating conditions the experimental data point out significant differences in CO concentration between the two fuels and a slight reduction of this pollutant when biofuel is used.

Figure 6.

Emissions of Smoke vs

Figure 7.

Emissions of NOX vs

Figure 5.

Emissions of CO vs

Similar considerations can be made if we examine the diagram regarding smoke emission (reported in figure 6), expressed in Bosch units and measured under the same engine operating conditions. Here too we observe a clear reduction in smoke emissions for all values of when biodiesel is used.

Finally, figure 7 shows the trend of emissions of nitrogen oxides. These diagrams highlight the typical bell-shaped trend as varies. Unlike the case of carbon monoxide, the concentrations of nitrogen oxides are significantly affected by the type of fuel used. For instance, the concentrations of NOx in the exhaust gas rise considerably, especially at higher load values, when biofuel is used. This can presumably be attributed to a different trend of heat release in the combustion chamber which results in a proportionally different thermal history of combustion products, on which the formation mechanism of this pollutant is notoriously dependent. Consequently, in order to verify this hypothesis, we carried out an experimental study on the evolution of the combustion process by analyzing heat release rate in the above specified test conditions.

HEAT RELEASE ANALYSIS

A detailed experimental description of combustion evolution in Diesel engines is extremely complex because of the simultaneous formation and oxidation of air/fuel mixture. Moreover, knowledge of the combustion process, even in global terms, is extremely useful if we are to better understand the mechanisms governing a greater or lesser concentration of pollutants in the exhaust gas. Heat release analysis therefore makes it possible to assess, at least globally, the effects that the various blends have on the combustion process. In particular, the results of the heat release analysis are hereafter used to analyze the trends of NOx emissions according to the fuel used (pure biodiesel and pure diesel fuel). The trend of heat release (instantaneous rate and integral curve) in a D.I. Diesel engine can be obtained by processing in-cylinder pressure data and using different kinds of inverse single-zone models [9, 10, 11]. The approach followed in the present paper, defined in the technical literature as the simple air model, is essentially based on the application of the first Thermodynamics Law. The following fundamental assumptions have been made: Quasi steady-state process; Uniform composition of the gas inside the cylinder; Uniform distribution of thermodynamic properties; No dissociation of the chemical compounds present after combustion; Specific heats of the gaseous mixture are calculated as a function of temperature; The cylinder is considered as a closed system with respect to the fuel injected mass rate. With specific reference to D.I. Diesel internal combustion engines, we must also assume that the whole combustion process develops according to the mean value of the equivalence ratio. The heat release rate is thus directly expressed by the equation:

dQ n dQ g dQ w dV dU = =p + d d d d d
In this way the difference between the heat globally released (positive) and the heat lost through the cylinder walls (negative) yields the net heat release, which assumes a particular physical significance. As this quantity can be directly derived from the experimental pressure data, it represents the portion of heat energy potentially introduced with the fuel that can be effectively converted into mechanical work. The term U for the gas internal energy (assumed to behave as a perfect gas) is provided by:

dU dm dT = cvT + cv m d d d
which, under the no loss hypothesis and considering the fuel already introduced into the cylinder at intake valve closing, can be reduced to:

dU dT = cv m d d
Imposing mass conservation (no blow-by leakage), the differential form of the gas state equation is:

1 dp 1 dV 1 dT + = p d V d T d
Finally, combining the previous equations, we can write:

dQ n dQ g dQ w dV dU = =p + d d d d d
The latter relation makes it possible to calculate the instantaneous net heat release rate; all the quantities on the right hand side are known or can be easily derived once the indicated pressure cycle has been measured. Therefore, if we want to determine gross heat release starting from the net heat release, the heat transfer through the wall has to be evaluated:

Q w = hS (Tg Tw )
The technical literature contains several correlations for evaluating the heat transfer coefficient but the only one specifically developed for D.I. Diesel engines is the Hohenberg's relation [12]:

dQ g d

dQ n dQ w dV dU dQ w + =p + + d d d d d

In accordance with the above hypotheses, the combustion process can be considered as an equivalent external heat flux (not due to the oxidation of the injected fuel) which causes a variation of internal energy U in the system. Consequently, the first thermodynamic law can be rewritten as follows:

h = C1V 0.06 p 0.8 T 0.4 (v p + C 2 ) 0.8

in which C1 and C2 are tuned constants for which the values of 130 and 1.4 have been respectively assumed, as recommended by Hohenberg himself on the basis of a wide experimental investigation. 6

Figures 8-10 show the net heat release rate diagrams for three different operating conditions ( = 3.75, = 3.15 and = 1.61) for pure diesel fuel and pure methyl ester, respectively.

These figures point out that the heat release rate initially follows a downward trend, corresponding to the end of compression stroke which suddenly changes slope at combustion starting. By analyzing these diagrams we can observe that when the engine is fueled with biodiesel, the process starts in advance in all operating conditions, a feature which becomes more evident as the load increases. This determines a similar trend in the mean temperature variation rate of gases in the cylinder, as shown in figures 11-13. Therefore, depending on the fuel used, the maximum temperature increase rate is found at somewhat different engine crank angle positions. In particular, compared with the operating conditions tested using diesel fuel, when biodiesel is used the temperature variation rate peaks at a position closer to piston top dead center.

Figure 8.

Heat release rate vs crank angle degree

Figure 11. Gases mean temperature variation rate vs crank angle degree

Figure 9.

Heat release rate vs crank angle degree

Figure 12. Gases mean temperature variation rate vs crank angle degree

Figure 10. Heat release rate vs crank angle degree 7

Figure 13. Gases mean temperature variation rate vs crank angle degree This different behavior obviously determines a different thermal history of the gases in the cylinder for the same value of , shown in figures 14-16.

Figure 16. Gases mean temperature vs crank angle degree These figures show the trend of the instantaneous mean temperature of the gases in an interval of the crank angle involving the whole combustion process. On the basis of these observations and the analysis of the diagrams in figures 11-13, it can be understood how biodiesel combustion determines an in-cylinder thermal history that is not only in advance but also characterized by higher absolute values of the mean temperature peaks, especially as the load increases. Although these observations are made in terms of gas mean temperature values, they are nevertheless clearly indicative of corresponding increases in the temperatures locally reached in the combustion chamber, on which the reaction rate of nitrogen oxide formation typically depends. In order to identify the causes of this advanced heat release, observed for all operating conditions, accurate measurements of the instantaneous injection pressure and the injector needle lift have been taken. Figures 17-19 show the trends of these quantities under the same test conditions. Here too, for the above reasons, a comparison at the same relative equivalence ratio has been made in order to reproduce the same energy release conditions. The diagrams plotted in these figures show that fuel injection starts considerably in advance when biodiesel is used. This higher advance value is clearly determined by a faster increase in the injection pressure, as can be seen in the diagrams. The reason why the injection system behaves in this way lies primarily in the different modulus of elasticity caused by the differing densities of the two fuels. Indeed, although the properties of RME are very similar to those of diesel fuel, the methyl ester has a slightly higher density (Tab. 2) which affects the fuel compression process in the volumetric injection pump. Thus, for the same variation in the volume created by the first part of the pump stroke, the higher density of biodiesel causes a faster increase in injection pressure. In addition to this phenomenon, there is also a different quantity of fuel injected per stroke for the same value of , although this factor is much less marked. In conclusion, when biofuel is used, the increase 8

Figure 14. Gases mean temperature vs crank angle degree

Figure 15. Gases mean temperature vs crank angle degree

in NOx emissions seems to be fundamentally determined by an operating mode of the injection pump which causes a premature needle lift compared to the nominal conditions when the engine is fueled with diesel fuel.

control unit could assign the optimal injection advance value according to the composition of the biodiesel-diesel fuel blend by making reference to a given map drawn up a priori in the laboratory.

Figure 17. Needle lift and fuel injection pressure vs crank angle degree

Figure 19. Needle lift and fuel injection pressure vs crank angle degree

CONCLUSION
Biodiesel fuel has attracted considerable attention in recent years because of both its environmentally friendly characteristics (biodegradability) and its low environmental impact in terms of net global release of carbon dioxide. Biodiesel assumed an even more important role after the recent world conferences (Kyoto '97 and Buenos Aires '98) on the question of global warming, during which the international community guaranteed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 5% compared to 1990 levels by the year 2010. Moreover, biodiesel does not contain sulfur and is therefore already compatible with the limits foreseen for the year 2005 (< 50 ppm) whereas diesel fuel will have to undergo a more rigorous and expensive desulfurisation process. This research has proved the good overall behavior of biodiesel, in terms of both performance and exhaust emissions, even if the reduction in some pollutants (CO and particulates) has been accompanied by more or less marked observations of higher concentrations of NOx compared to diesel fuel fueled engines. In order to reach a more detailed understanding of the dependence of nitrogen oxides on the type of fuel used, a further experimental investigation has been performed fuelling the engine with pure biodiesel and pure diesel fuel according to the test plan reported in table 3. The results of these experiments can be summarized as follows:

Figure 18. Needle lift and fuel injection pressure vs crank angle degree This behavior results in an equally premature release of heat which, as we have seen above, generates higher temperatures inside the cylinder during the combustion process. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that if we modify the injection system so as to restore the nominal advance conditions, the phenomenon will be eliminated or drastically reduced so as to return the NOx emissions to comparable values, regardless of the fuel used. The difficulty in adapting the operating conditions of traditional mechanical injection systems to the kind of fuel used (biodiesel or biodiesel-diesel fuel blends) can be easily overcome by employing electronically controlled injection pumps such as the recent Common Rail injection system [13, 14]. By adopting this solution, the 9

 Confirming previous results [3, 4, 5], engine performance (torque, power) is substantially unaffected if the biodiesel and the diesel fuel are compared in terms of the relative equivalence ratio in order to take into account the different lower heating value and the stoichiometric ratio. The same considerations can be made for fuel consumption if the two fuels are compared in terms of specific heat consumption. In both cases the emissions of carbon monoxide and carbon particulates, here measured as smoke in Bosch units, have the typical sharply rising trend as falls, i.e. as the load increases. In these engine operating conditions the experimental data for biodiesel points to an appreciable drop in concentrations of both types of pollutants. The concentrations of nitrogen oxides show a significant increase (up to around 20% in half load conditions) compared to the values of engine fueled with diesel fuel. This can be essentially attributed to a different evolution of the combustion process, to which the NOx formation mechanism is typically related. In order to follow the evolution of the combustion process (in global terms) we analyzed the heat release obtained from measurements of indicated pressure cycles. This analysis, performed for all the engine operating conditions, showed that, in the case of biodiesel, heat release always takes place in advance with respect to T.D.C. (between 3 and 5 degrees) compared to when the engine is fueled with diesel fuel. This leads to a similar advance in the variation rate of the mean gas temperature in the cylinder which, in turn and for the same value of , results in a different thermal history of the burnt gases. This behavior determines consistently higher peaks in the mean temperatures reached in the combustion chamber and, hence, the related to the higher concentrations of nitrogen oxides measured in the exhaust gas. The measurement of both instantaneous injection pressure and injector needle lift showed a greater advance in the fuel injection process when biodiesel was used. There are two reasons for this behavior: the first and predominant factor concerns the different densities of the two fuels; the second is the different quantity of injected mass per cycle. We can deduce from the above considerations that the higher concentrations of NOx detected when the engine was fueled with biodiesel do not seem to be primarily due to the characteristics of the fuel but, rather, to the operation of the injection system (increased injection advance).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A sincere thanks to Novaol s.r.l. for RME supply:

REFERENCES
1. P . Andreini, L. Galbiati "La strategia europea e italiana per lambiente e per la riduzione di CO2" La Termotecnica, marzo 1998 2. Decreto Ministeriale n. 219 del 22 maggio 1998, pubblicato sulla G.U. d. R.I. n. 158 del 9.7.1998. 3. V. Rocco, M.V. Prati, A. Senatore, E. Cerri, M. Benfenati "Fuelling a Small Diesel Engine by Using Diesel fuel and RME: Comparative Results and Particulate Characterization" 1 Convegno Internazionale sui Carburanti Alternativi e i Combustibili, Lecce 1996 4. V. Rocco, R. Montanari, M.V. Prati, A. Senatore "Analysis of Particulate Emitted from an IDI Turbocharged Small Diesel Engine Fuelled with Diesel Fuel, Biofuel and their Blend" 1995 Fall Technical Conference Volume 3 ASME, 1995. 5. M. Cardone, M.V. Prati, V. Rocco, A. Senatore "Analisi Sperimentale delle Prestazioni e delle Emissioni di un Motore Diesel Alimentato con Miscele di Biocombustibile e Gasolio" MIS-MAC V Metodi di Sperimentazione nelle Macchine, Roma, 13 febbraio 1998 6. S. Howell U.S. Biodiesel Standards-An Update of current activities SAE Paper 971687, 1997 7. J.H. Van Gerpen et alt. Determining the influence of contaminants on Biodiesel Properties SAE Paper n. 971685, 1997 8. X. Montagne Introduction of rapeseed methyl Ester in Diesel Fuel - The French National Program SAE Paper n. 962065, 1995 9. J.B. Heywood "Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals" Mc Graw - Hill Book Company, 1988 10. V. Rocco "D.I. Diesel Engine In-Cylinder Pressure Data Analysis Under T.D.C. Setting Error" SAE Paper n. 930595, 1993 11. D. Laforgia "Biodiesel Fueled I.D.I Engines Performances, Emissions and Heat Release Investigation" 1 Convegno Internazionale sui Carburanti Alternativi e i Combustibili, Lecce 1996 12. G.F. Hohenberg "Advanced Approaches for Heat Transfer Calculations" SAE Paper n. 790825, 1979 13. G. Stumpp, M. Riccio "Common Rail - An Attractive Fuel Injection System for Passenger Car DI Diesel Engines" SAE Paper n.960870, 1996 14. W. Boehner, K. Hummel "Common Rail Injection System for Commercial Diesel Vehicles" SAE Paper n:970345, 1997 15. J. Krahl, A. Munack, M. Bahadir, L. Schumacher, N. Elser "Reveiw: Utilization of Rapeseed Oil, Rapeseed Oil Methyl Ester or Diesel Fuel: Exhaust Gas Emissions and Estimation of Environmental Effects" SAE Paper n. 962096, 1996

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CONTACT
Prof. Adolfo Senatore DIME Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica lEnergetica - Universit di Napoli Federico II via Claudio, 21 Napoli 80125 Italy Phone: 0039-081-7683276 Fax: 0039-081-2394165 e-mail: senatore@unina.it per

DEFINITIONS, ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS

RME: Rapeseed Methyl Esters ASTM: American Society for Testing and Material

11