Applied Energy 155 (2015) 440446

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Emissions and fuel consumption characteristics of a heavy duty diesel

engine fueled with Hydroprocessed Renewable Diesel and Biodiesel
Devendra Singh a,b,, K.A. Subramanian b, S.K. Singal a
a
b

Indian Institute of Petroleum, Mohkampur, Haridwar Road, Dehradun 248005, India

Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Hauz Khas, Delhi 110016, India

h i g h l i g h t s
 A novel lubricity additive was used for Hydroprocessed Renewable Diesel (HRD).
 HRD fueled engine emits 29% lower NOx than B100 fuel.
 HRD outperformed B100 and petro-diesel in terms of BSFC.
 HRD is a promising alternative fuel for CI engine.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 30 January 2015
Received in revised form 10 June 2015
Accepted 14 June 2015

Keywords:
Jatrophacurcas biodiesel (B100)
Hydroprocessed Renewable Diesel (HRD)
European Stationary Cycle (ESC)
Regulated emissions

a b s t r a c t
Renewable biofuels such as Hydroprocessed Renewable Diesel (HRD) and Biodiesel (B100) are perceived
as potential alternative fuels for compression ignition (CI) engine. HRD and B100 are produced from the
same feedstock i.e. Jatrophacurcas oil by transesterication and hydro-deoxygenation reactions respectively. Petro-diesel served as a reference fuel. The main objective of this study is to identify a better alternative fuel among HRD and B100 in terms of emissions and fuel consumption characteristics. The CHO
based lubricity additive was added in HRD to give adequate lubricity to fuel injection pump. Both biofuels
showed substantial reduction in particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC)
emissions as compared to petro-diesel. But NOx increased by 26% for HRD and 77% in the case of B100
fueled engine. Brake specic fuel consumption (BSFC) of the engine fueled with HRD was lower than with
B100 and petro-diesel. A comparative analysis of emission results revealed that the engine fueled with
B100 performed well on many counts such as PM, CO and HC, but the HRD outperformed B100 in terms
of NOx emission and BSFC, which are vital parameters for CI engines. Hence, HRD may be considered as a
promising alternative fuel for CI engines over other transesteried biodiesels.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Energy is considered as the backbone of any growing economy.
The latest world energy outlook report states that China will dominate energy demand growth until mid-2020s. After that India will
take over as the leading engine of energy demand [1]. The global
crude oil scenario has been registering a paradigm shift from fossil
to shale oil (tight oil) in the recent past. But shale oil, a low cost
resource is not renewable in nature and makes other alternatives
(carbon neutral transport fuels) less attractive, so adversely

Corresponding author at: Indian Institute of Petroleum, Mohkampur, Haridwar

Road, Dehradun 248005, India. Tel.: +91 135 2525874.
E-mail addresses: devendra@iip.res.in (D. Singh), subra@ces.iitd.ac.in
(K.A. Subramanian), satish@iip.res.in (S.K. Singal).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.06.020
0306-2619/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

affecting our environment [2]. India imports most of the crude

oil for its energy requirement from Middle East countries and the
recent slowdown in oil production may raise serious concerns over
the oil supply [1]. Therefore, energy security is still a major challenge for Indian economy. India is a diesel driven economy and
Petro-diesel accounted for 42.47% of total production of all types
of petroleum products [3]. Complying with stringent emission
norms for the latest automotive engines poses another challenge
to the automotive industry. In the wake of these challenges, biofuels, being renewable in nature and offering the hope of some measure of self-reliance, has been emphasised during the last decade as
one of the viable alternatives for compression ignition (CI) engines.
The Government of India launched the National Mission on
Biodiesel in April 2003 under the National Policy on Biofuel, declaring Jatrophacurcas as the most suitable tree-borne oilseed for

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D. Singh et al. / Applied Energy 155 (2015) 440446

biodiesel production in India [4]. The Bureau of Indian Standards

(BIS) has already prepared a standard (IS-15607) for B100 biodiesel, which is the Indian adaptation of ASTM D-6751 and
EN-14214 [5].
Second generation biodiesel fuels produced from different
sources were extensively studied as neat as well as a blended fuel
in a CI engine with respect to typical fuel properties, engine performance and engine exhaust emissions. It is reported in most of the
literature that, NOx increases with the use of biodiesel due to
higher adiabatic ame temperatures and oxygen contents [610].
A few researchers found the opposite trend [11,12], negating the
idea that biodiesel fuel bound oxygen increases NOx emissions.
An et al. [13] showed a reduction of NOx with the use of B100,
owing to lower in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate, except
under a few operating conditions (low speeds and high load),
where the opposite trend was observed. However, it has emerged
from the literature, and agreed by the majority of researchers, that
fundamental effects such as higher levels of unsaturation (iodine
number) in biodiesel would increase the adiabatic ame temperature and consequently thermal NOx emissions. Sun et al. [14]
reported that diesel engines equipped with the pump line nozzle
(PLN) type of fuel injection, which prevents effects such as the
inadvertent advance of the start of injection due to the higher bulk
modulus and viscosity of biodiesel, lead to an increase in combustion temperature and hence thermal NOx. This effect was
described by Caresana [15] and contradicted the common belief
that biodiesel always entails higher injection pressures.
Poor oxidative stability and the poor cold ow properties of biodiesel were considered major stumbling blocks behind its utilization in a CI engine as a neat fuel. Hence, nding an alternative
renewable fuel which not only addresses the environmental issues,
but also possesses better oxidative stability and low temperature
characteristics, is the need of the hour. Hydroprocessed
Renewable Diesel (HRD) has been identied as a prospective
alternative fuel for CI engine application in the recent past. HRD
is also known by terms such as hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO),
hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO), renewable diesel, green diesel,
Bio-Hydrogenated Diesel (BHD), and hydrogenation derived
renewable diesel (HDRD) [16]. It possesses similar physicochemical properties as that of petro-diesel and can be produced
from any triglyceride oil, utilising the existing infrastructure of
conventional petroleum processing facilities [17]. It was also estimated that lifetime emissions from green diesel (HRD) were lower
than that of biodiesel and petroleum diesel [18].
HRD possesses a very high cetane number (CN) and better cold
ow properties, oxidative stability and caloric value than biodiesel. The bulk modulus of HRD is lower than those of biodiesel and
petro-diesel at higher injection pressures [19]. Sugiyama et al. [20]
reported that brake thermal efciency of an engine fueled with
HVO is higher than petro-diesel. Mass based fuel consumption of
neat HRD or blends with petro-diesel are also reported to be lower
than petro-diesel, due to its relatively higher heating value
[21,22,2427].
Emission characteristics of neat HRD have been studied extensively. Most literature shows signicant reduction in CO, HC, PM
and smoke emissions with the use of the HRD against
petro-diesel but the reported results on NOx emissions are
ambiguous. A majority of researchers [16,22,23,25,2729] showed
that HRD reduces NOx, whereas some are uncertain about NOx
emission and tried to correlate it with driving conditions
[20,30,31], and a few have reported that NOx increases with the
use of HRD [24,26] due to its higher CN and heating value. It was
shown that HRD leads to higher in-cylinder pressure and heat
release rate as compared to diesel, which results in slightly higher
NOx. Overall, it is still unclear whether HRD reduces or increases
NOx emissions in comparison to petro-diesel.

Previous research work on the application of biofuels in CI engines was emphasized through the comparative performance and
emissions of these biofuels against petro-diesel. Knothe et al.
[32] reported that hexadecane and dodecane (alkane components
of petro-diesel) reduces NOx on the Federal Test Procedure (FTP)
cycle compared to petro-diesel, due to the absence of unsaturation
in these alkanes which negates the effect of chain length on NOx.
Another recent study by Na et al. [30] showed a reduction of
NOx in urban dynamometer driving schedule (UDDS) for renewable diesel as compared to petro-diesel, but highway cruise did
not show any signicant change in NOx with the usage of HRD in
heavy duty trucks but, these tests were conducted on a chassis
dynamometer and the vehicle exhaust was diluted with air and
passed through constant volume sampling (CVS) before emission
measurements. Moreover, speeds and torques of a chassis
dynamometer cannot be compared with an engine dynamometer
test. Westphal et al. [33] compared the emissions of a heavy duty
diesel engine fueled with hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO,
Trademark: NExBTL) and Jatropha methyl ester (JME). It was
reported that the engine fueled with HVO produced lower NOx
than diesel and JME, but no justication was provided for this
trend. Whereas, in the present study, two biofuels (HRD and
B100) produced from same feedstock (Jatrophacurcas oil) have been
compared against Petro-diesel, with respect to physic-chemical
properties, emissions and performance. Knothe et al. [32] used a
commercial lubricity additive for renewable diesels whereas a
novel lubricity additive (sulphur less) was used in this study.
Engine test were conducted on engine dynamometer using
European Stationary Cycle (ESC) to investigate the effect of fuel
properties and engine operating conditions on raw emissions and
performance under controlled test cell condition, i.e. fuel temperatures, intake air pressure and relative humidity were kept the same
for all tests. ESC is one of the mandatory legislative cycle used for
certication of heavy duty engine emissions (Euro III and beyond).
Since HRD is proposed to be used in an unmodied diesel engines
as a drop-in fuel to supplement diesel in the near future. Its performance and emission characteristics on this cycle are worth
studying.
2. Materials and methodology
2.1. Production of Hydroprocessed Renewable Diesel and Biodiesel
HRD and biodiesel samples were produced from Jatrophacurcas
oil, using the process described by Kumar et al. [34] and Ghosh
et al. [35] respectively. Typical fuel properties of petro-diesel,
HRD and B100 are shown in Table 1. It is important to note that
833 ppm of the synthesised lubricity additive (CHO) was added
in HRD fuel to match the desired fuel properties specied in ASTM
D975 and provide adequate lubricity to fuel injection system.

Table 1
Pysico-chemical Properties of Petro-diesel, HRD, B100.
Fuel properties
Density at 15 C
Viscosity at 40 C
Flash point, min
Net caloric valuea
Cetane number (CN)
Oxygen
Water content
Sulphur

kg/m3
mm2/s
C
MJ/kg
min
ppm
ppm

Petro-diesel

HRD

B100

831
3.18
65
42.26
51
nil
59
481

804
3.43
122.7
43
>74
87 ppm
46
nil

870
4.6
171
37.7
59.4
12%
410
nil

a
Net caloric values were calculated using the formula: NCV = GCV Heat of
evaporation of water generated due to combustion of the fuel, where GCV and NCV
correspond to Gross caloric value and Net caloric value, respectively; GCV was
estimated following the procedure of ASTM D 4809.

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D. Singh et al. / Applied Energy 155 (2015) 440446

2.2. Test engine and engine dynamometer

Experiments were conducted on a four stroke, six-cylinder,
direct injection, water-cooled, heavy duty diesel engine coupled
with a transient dynamometer of 440 kW, capable of running the
European Stationary Cycle (ESC). A brief specication of the test
engine is given in Table 2 and the schematic of the engine test
bench setup is shown in Fig. 1.
2.3. Fuel ow meter and emission analysers
Fuel consumption measurements were performed for all fuel
types using fuel ow meter (AVL 735) based on coriolis principle
and fuel temperature were maintained at 38 C. Engine exhaust
emissions (CO, HC, NOx and PM) were measured using an instantaneous raw gas emission analyser (AVL AMAi60), employing a
chemi-luminescence detector (CLD) for NOx measurements,
heated ame ionization detection (HFID) for total hydrocarbons
and non-dispersive infrared detection (NDIR) for CO. The particulate matter (PM) for all fuel types was measured using the partial
ow dilution tunnel (AVL SPC 472). Measuring range and accuracy
of the different devices used in this study are given in Table 3.

Engine benchmarking in terms of fuel consumption and emissions measurement was done on Petro-diesel, followed by HRD
and nally B100. ESC test was repeated three times for each fuel
to estimate the uncertainty (systematic and random) of measured
values and the results were reported at 95% condence level.
Utmost care was taken to avoid any intermixing of fuel samples,
by using a fresh fuel lter for each fuel type, and purging the fuel
ow lines of an engine as well as the fuel ow-meter and fuel conditioning system each time during changeover.
3.3. Error analysis
Experimental uncertainty analyses for all measured values as
well as derived values were reported at 95% condence level. The
overall estimation of uncertainty of a measured value x was
obtained in terms of root-of-the-sum-of-the-squares (RSS)
accounted for each of the component elements of the uncertainties
i.e.

r
XiK
ux
u2
i1 i
The overall uncertainty for all derived values was calculated
using the principal of propagation of uncertainty, including both
bias (systematic) and precision (random) uncertainties;

3. Test cycle and methodology

ux

3.1. Test cycle

European Stationary Cycle (ESC), a thirteen mode steady state
cycle with different weighting factor, was used for measuring fuel
consumption and emission characteristics. ESC is a combination of
three speeds and four load points; duration of each mode is 120 s,
except the rst mode (idle) whose duration is 240 s. The total duration of ESC is around 1680 s. Calculated values of A, B, C speeds are
1609 rpm, 1907 rpm and 2205 rpm respectively. Details of the ESC
modes along with weighting factors are shown in Fig. 2.
3.2. Methodology
Engine torques, speeds, emissions and fuel consumption data
were logged continuously throughout the test cycle at the rate of
10 Hz. Specic emissions and brake specic fuel consumption values for each mode were also computed. The measured data were
collected under identically controlled conditions for all fuels. The
test cell temperature was maintained in the range of 2330 C,
while the engine inlet air temperature and relative humidity were
controlled at 25 1 C and 3540% respectively.
Measurement of PM was done by extracting a raw exhaust sample from the engine exhaust stream and mixing it with dilution air
using a partial ow dilution ratio in such a way that the temperature at the test lter remained below 325 K (52 C). PM samples
were taken on 70 mm Teon coated glass ber lters (Pallex
T60A). For gravimetric analysis of PM, a conditioned weighing
chamber was used, whose temperature was maintained at
295 3 K (22 3 C) and a relative humidity at 45 8%.

Table 2
Engine Specications.
Engine type
Displacement
Firing order
Maximum horse power
Peak torque, Nm
Fuel system

6-cylinder, Euro-III/Bharat Stage-III, DI,

Turbocharged, water-cooled, diesel engine
5.9 cc
1-5-3-6-2-4
180 hp @ 2500 rpm
675Nm@1500 rpm
Distributor injection pump

q
usystematic 2 urandom 2

4. Results and discussions

4.1. Mass emissions results
4.1.1. Specic NOx emissions
Nitrogen oxides (NOx) formations in an internal combustion
engine can be explained by three mechanisms such as thermal
NOx, prompt NOx and fuel bound NOx. The thermal NOx is a post
ame phenomenon, strongly dependent on in-cylinder combustion
temperature that can be analysed by the extended Zeldovich
mechanism [36]. Prompt NOx is formed by reaction of atmospheric
nitrogen with hydrocarbon radicals during rich combustion,
whereas fuel bound NOx formed by reaction of fuel-bound nitrogen with the oxygen. However, thermal NOx is considered as the
main contributor to NOx formation in a CI engines at higher combustion temperatures. Dec [37] also proposed a conceptual model
of NOx formation, reporting that the bulk of NOx formation
occurred on the lean side of the diffusion ame during the
quasi-steady-state combustion period and in the bulk gases after
the primary heat release ends.
Specic NOx (g/kW h) of the engine fueled with Petro-diesel,
HRD and B100 was calculated by using the following formula;

Pi13
MassNOxi  WFi
Specific NOx Pi1
i13
i1 Poweri  WFi
where MassNOx = qNOx  CNOx  qexh
qNOx = ratio of density of exhaust component and density of
exhaust gas
CNOx = concentration of the respective component in the raw
exhaust gas, ppm
qexh = exhaust mass ow rate, kg/h
WFi = weighting factor
Poweri = engine power in each mode, kW
Specic NOx values for all fuels are shown in Table 4. B100 and
HRD fueled engine showed 77% and 26% higher NOx respectively
than petro-diesel. Among HRD and B100 fuels, it is interesting to
note that the HRD fueled engine showed 29% lower NOx than B100.

D. Singh et al. / Applied Energy 155 (2015) 440446

443

Fig. 1. Schematic of engine dynamometer test bench.

Table 3
Measuring range and accuracy.
Emission analysers

Measuring range

Accuracy

CLD for NOx

Lowest possible measuring range

010 ppm

60.3% of lowest
range full scale

Highest possible measuring range

FID for HC
Lowest possible measuring range

010,000 ppm

Highest possible measuring range

NDIR for CO
Lowest possible measuring range

020,000 ppm

Highest possible measuring range

Particulate matter microbalance
Fuel ow meter

05000 ppm
02.1 g
0125 kg/h

010 ppm C3

050 ppm

60.3% of lowest
range full scale

60.3% of lowest
range full scale
0.001 mg
0.12%

It is observed from Table 4 that B100 produced higher NOx than

HRD and petro-diesel. This trend may be explained by the higher
degree of hydrocarbon unsaturation (Iodine number 93.78) and
presence of around 12% oxygen, which are known to have a synergistic effect on NOx emissions and are directly correlated with
thermal NOx. The effect of higher levels of unsaturation in the
hydrocarbon chain on NOx emissions was also reported by
McCormick et al. and Schonborn et al. [38,39]. System effects such
as the articial advance of the start of injection for B100 fuel may
also result in higher NOx. On the other hand HRD (predominantly a
saturated hydrocarbon fuel with negligible amount of oxygen and
having lower bulk modulus than B100) showed relatively lower
NOx than B100.
The HRD fueled engine shows higher NOx than Petro-diesel.
HRD, (higher CN than petro-diesel) when injected in the engine
at its default injection timing, results in relatively shorter ignition
delay, thereby advancing the start of combustion (SOC) in the
cycle, which ultimately raises the pressure and local gas temperature in the cylinder, thus leading to higher thermal NOx formation.

Fig. 2. ESC description mode wise along with weighting factor (%).

Similar trends of higher NOx for HRD were also reported by

Kousoulidou et al. [26]. Hence, higher CN fuels injected at the
engines default injection timing would produce more NOx. But
NOx emitted from the engine fueled with HRD was signicantly
lower than for B100, although it has a very high CN. The reason
for this reduction could be attributed to the lower bulk modulus
[19] and negligible oxygen content of HRD that probably counterbalanced the effect of higher CN to some extent, thus limiting NOx
emissions quite lower than the B100. Higher NOx may, however,
be further reduced for the HRD fueled engine by using the exhaust
gas recirculation (EGR) or by retarding the fuel injection timing of
the engine or by using selective catalytic reduction (SCR) devices in
the exhaust stream. It may be inferred from these results that HRD
outperformed B100 in terms of NOx emission reduction, which is
considered as an important pollutant so far as biofuels in CI engines is concerned.

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D. Singh et al. / Applied Energy 155 (2015) 440446

Table 4
Comparative specic NOx emission (g/kW h).

Table 5
Comparative specic PM emission (g/kW h).

Fuels

Specic NOx

Uncertainty

Fuel type

PM (g/kW h)

Uncertainty

Diesel
HRD
B100

5.26
6.64
9.31

0.28
0.11
0.15

Petro-diesel
HRD
B100

0.077
0.056
0.044

0.015
0.003
0.001

4.1.2. Mode-wise NOx emission

Averaged NOx emissions (mode-wise) for Petro-diesel, HRD and
B100 fuels after completion of ESC are shown in Fig. 3. It is
observed that NOx emission was highest for B100 and lowest in
the case of petro-diesel, whereas the HRD fueled engine produced
higher NOx than Petro-diesel but consistently lower than B100 fuel
during all 13 modes.
Further investigations done on three modes i.e. second, eighth
and tenth modes, where speeds were 1609, 1907 and 2205 rpm
respectively, and loads were 100%, revealed that NOx emission
was lowest in the tenth mode, highest in the second mode and lies
in between in the eighth mode. Higher NOx in the second mode
(lower speed) may be correlated with the longer residence time
available for combustion products, in contrast to the other two
modes where residence time was relatively short. On the other
hand, NOx analysis during the 10th to 13th modes (engine speed
2205 rpm and varying torque) revealed that NOx emission was
directly proportional to engine load (torque). This is strong
evidence that both speed and load inuence NOx emissions significantly. Moreover, the magnitude of NOx at full load is predominantly depends on the engine speed. For example, the heavy
duty engine emits more NOx during uphill driving conditions
(low speed and full load).
4.1.3. Particulate matter (PM) emissions
Table 5 shows the brake specic PM emissions of the engine
fueled with petro-diesel, HRD and B100 running on ESC. It is
observed that PM fell by around 27% and 43% with the use of
HRD and B100 fuels respectively in place of petro-diesel, indicating
the merits of these biofuels in terms of PM emissions. Soot formation during combustion is a complex phenomenon and depends on
many parameters such as fuel/air ratio, ignition delay, and fuel
composition (aromatic and sulphur content). The observed decline
in the PM with the use of HRD may be correlated with the negligible sulphur and aromatic content of HRD. Moreover, higher CN of
HRD may cause shorter ignition delay resulting in less soot formation during premixed phase, which further aids PM reduction.
Reduction in PM with the use of B100 is also expected, as its oxygen content might be expected to aid efcient combustion.

1400

Petro-diesel
HRD

1200

B100

NOx, ppm

1000
800
600

Moreover, biodiesel also had negligible sulphur that augments

the additional reduction in PM. The HRD fueled engine produced
only 27% more PM than B100. This higher PM level for HRD may
be correlated with the negligible oxygen content of this fuel.
Although PM emissions were higher for HRD than for B100, the
absolute gure was only 0.056 g/kW h, which was still around
44% less than the ESC specied limit of 0.1 g/kW h for the Euro
III diesel engine.
4.1.4. CO and HC emissions
Averaged values of brake specic CO and HC emissions from
engines fueled with petro-diesel, HRD and B100 after completion
of ESC are shown in Table 6. The data shows the advantage of
the biofuels (HRD and B100) over petro-diesel in terms of CO and
HC emissions. In general, formation of CO in a CI engine is attributed to incomplete combustion processes and HC emissions depend
on the quality of the fuel and air mixture. From Table 6 it can be
seen that HRD and B100 reduce CO emission by 16% and 27%,
and HC emission by 16% and 41% respectively compared with
petro-diesel. This reduction in CO and HC for B100 was expected,
as it contains around 12% oxygen. The HRD fuel showed a signicant reduction in CO and a marginal reduction in HC, probably
because of better combustion characteristics linked to its higher
CN than petro-diesel. Among the two biofuels, HRD showed marginally higher CO and HC emissions compared to B100, unsurprising given its absence of oxygen content. However, the absolute
values of CO and HC emissions, even in the case of HRD, were much
lower than the ESC specied limits of 2.1 g/kW h and 0.66 g/kW h,
respectively, for the Euro III diesel engine.
4.1.5. Mode-wise CO and HC emissions
Fig. 4 illustrates the concentration of CO in ppm in the exhaust
gases during the ESC for petro-diesel, HRD and B100. It is observed
that, similar trend are seen in all modes, with the highest CO for
petro-diesel, lowest for B100 and for HRD, it is relatively higher
than B100 but consistently lower than petro-diesel. B100 showed
the different trend in the rst mode (idle speed 750 rpm and zero
load) and in the seventh mode (lower speed 1609 rpm and only
25% load). Higher CO was observed for B100 than for HRD, that
may be attributed to the higher viscosity of B100, which may result
in poor atomization and only partial burning of B100 at the lower
in-cylinder temperatures in these modes. It is noteworthy to state
that in modes 2, 8 and 10 (full load at varying speeds) almost identical CO concentrations were seen, indicating the insensitivity of
CO emission towards speed at full load. The effect of engine load
on CO may be observed from results in modes 10 to 13, where
the speed was 2205 rpm and load was varied from 100% to 25%,
CO was lowest in 10th mode (100% load) and highest in 11th mode
(25% load) among these four modes. Hence, it may be inferred from

400
Table 6
Specic CO and HC after completion of ESC.

200
0
1

10

11

Modes
Fig. 3. Comparative NOx emission (ppm) during ESC.

12

13

Fuel type

CO, g/kW h

Uncertainty

HC, g/kW h

Uncertainty

Petro-diesel
HRD
B100

0.50
0.42
0.37

0.02
0.05
0.01

0.060
0.050
0.035

0.020
0.012
0.010

D. Singh et al. / Applied Energy 155 (2015) 440446

140

brake specic values (g/kW h) are shown in Fig. 6. It is interesting

to note that HRD fueled engine consistently showed the lowest
BSFC, whereas B100 registered the highest BSFC. This trend was
attributed to a higher caloric value of HRD (around 14%) than
B100. HRD also showed a lower BSFC than Petro-diesel, which is
a very important nding in terms of fuel conservation and a significant advantage associated with the HRD. This reduction may be
explained by the marginally higher caloric value of HRD (around
2%) than petro-diesel (Table 1).

Petro-diesel
HRD

120

B100

100

CO, ppm

445

80
60
40
20

5. Conclusions

0
1

10

11

12

13

Modes
Fig. 4. Comparative CO emission (ppm) during ESC.

30

Petro-diesel
HRD

HC, ppm

25

B100

20
15
10
5
0
1

10

11

12

13

Modes
Fig. 5. Comparative HC emission (ppm) during ESC.

340

Petro-diesel

BSFC,g/kWh

320

HRD

300

B100

280
260
240
220
200
180
2

10

11

12

The experimental study investigated the effect of the two biofuels Hydroprocessed Renewable Diesel (HRD) and Biodiesel (B100),
produced from the same source, i.e. Jatrophacurcas oil, on regulated
emissions and fuel consumption of a CI engine, compared to
petro-diesel. A CHO based lubricity additive was added into
HRD to meet the fuel properties as specied in ASTM D975 and
to provide adequate lubricity to fuel injection systems.
Comparative emission and fuel consumption characteristics of
the engine were studied to identify the better biofuel of the two:
HRD and B100. Following points may be concluded from this study.
 HRD fuel exhibits physico-chemical properties specied in
ASTM D 975.
 The use of neat biofuels (HRD and B100) results in signicant
reductions in PM, HC and CO emissions compared to
petro-diesel, but NOx is substantially higher.
 The HRD fueled engine produced around 29% lower NOx emissions than B100.
 The HRD fueled engine showed 27% higher PM emission than
B100, but the absolute value was only 0.056 g/kW h, which
was still around 44% less than the ESC specied limit of
0.1 g/kW h
 For all fuels (petro-diesel, B100 and HRD) NOx emissions were
directly related to engine load, but inversely related to speed,
whereas CO and HC emissions were inversely related to engine
load.
 The fuel consumption, expressed as the BSFC, for the engine
fueled with HRD, was lower than for B100 and petro-diesel.
 HRD outperformed B100 in terms of the NOx emissions and fuel
economy, which are vital parameters if they are to be used as
biofuels in CI engines.
 The overall conclusion is that HRD fuel in particular is a promising biofuel, which has potential to substitute other transesteried biodiesels.

13

Modes
Fig. 6. Brake Specic Fuel Consumption (g/kW h) during ESC.

Fig. 4 that CO emissions are inversely related to engine load and

show little sensitivity towards speed under full load operations.
Comparative steady state HC emissions for petro-diesel, HRD
and B100 in each mode are shown in Fig. 5. It is observed that during the rst mode (750 rpm and no load) and seventh mode
(1609 rpm and 25% load) HC emissions are relatively higher than
for the rest of the modes. This suggests that HC emissions are
inversely related to engine load, possibly due to owing to overleaning of the air/fuel mixture during these mild operating conditions.
4.2. Fuel consumption
Fuel consumption of the engine fueled with all three fuels
(petro-diesel, HRD and B100) was measured during the ESC. Its

Acknowledgement
The authors extend sincere thanks to the Director, IIP for being
the main source of inspiration behind this experimental study.
Thanks are also due to Dr A.K. Sinha and Hydro-processing group
for providing the Hydroprocessed Jatrophacurcas oil and Dr. A K
Chatterjee for synthesising and providing the lubricity additive.
Acknowledge Mr. Kalyan Singh and Mr Satish Kumar for evaluating
Cetane number and caloric value of fuels respectively. Last but
not the least; authors bestow their gratitude to all staff members
of AFLAD lab.
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