Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 989–993

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

The effects of turbocharger on the performance and exhaust emissions

of a diesel engine fuelled with biodiesel
Murat Karabektas*
Department of Mechanical Education, Sakarya University, 54187 Sakarya, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper investigates the effects of turbocharger on the performance of a diesel engine using diesel fuel
Received 1 February 2008 and biodiesel in terms of brake power, torque, brake specific consumption and thermal efficiency, as well
Accepted 20 August 2008 as CO and NOx emissions. For this aim, a naturally aspirated four-stroke direct injection diesel engine was
Available online 25 October 2008
tested with diesel fuel and neat biodiesel, which is rapeseed oil methyl ester, at full load conditions at the
speeds between 1200 and 2400 rpm with intervals of 200 rpm. Then, a turbocharger system was
Keywords:
installed on the engine and the tests were repeated for both fuel cases. The evaluation of experimental
Alternative fuel
data showed that the brake thermal efficiency of biodiesel was slightly higher than that of diesel fuel in
Biodiesel
Turbocharger both naturally aspirated and turbocharged conditions, while biodiesel yielded slightly lower brake power
Engine performance and torque along with higher fuel consumption values. It was also observed that emissions of CO in the
Exhaust emissions operations with biodiesel were lower than those in the operations with diesel fuel, whereas NOx
emission in biodiesel operation was higher. This study reveals that the use of biodiesel improves the
performance parameters and decreases CO emissions of the turbocharged engine compared to diesel
fuel.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction important property of biodiesel is its oxygen content of about 10%,

Because of the reduction of petroleum reserves and air pollution
emerged from exhaust emissions, there have been great efforts to
use alternative fuels in diesel engines for substitution of diesel fuel.
Different vegetable oils such as soybean oil, castor oil, rapeseed oil,
jatropha curcas oil have been considered as alternative fuels for
diesel engines [1–3]. The important advantages of vegetable oils as
fuel are that they are renewable, can be produced locally, cheap and
less pollutant for environment compared to diesel fuel. According
to literature, use of vegetable oils as fuel in diesel engines causes
several problems, namely poor fuel atomization and low volatility
originated from their high viscosity, high molecular weight and
density [4]. After the use of vegetable oils for a long period of time,
these problems may cause important engine failures [5,6].
To improve fuel properties and decrease viscosity and density of
oils, various methods such as heating the vegetable oils, mixing
with diesel fuel, emulsion with alcohol and transesterification have
been employed. Many experiments have clearly revealed that the
widely applied and convenient method for reduction of viscosity
and density of vegetable oils is transesterification [7–10]. The fuels
produced via transesterification of the oils are called biodiesel. An
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ90 264 2956520; fax: þ90 264 2956424.
E-mail address: muratk@sakarya.edu.tr
which is usually not contained in diesel fuel [11].
The emissions and engine performance of diesel engines fuelled
with biodiesels have been examined by many investigators [12–21].
The biodiesels used in the experiments performed by these inves-
tigators were produced from different vegetable oils such as
sunflower, rapeseed, soybean, karanja, rubber seed, etc. It was
usually reported that emissions of CO, smoke, HC and PM exhibits
a reduction trend with biodiesel and blends of biodiesel–diesel
fuels compared to pure diesel fuel [14–18] in expense of higher NOx
emissions [7,17,19]. However, there are some investigations
reporting that the power output increases and NOx emissions
decrease with the use of biodiesel [8,12,22]. The differences in
power and NOx emissions can be attributed to the engine modifi-
cations, the fuelling method (neat or blending with diesel fuel), test
procedures and test conditions.
In spite of transesterification treatment, viscosity and density of
biodiesel is still higher than that of diesel fuel. It is well known that
viscosity of fuels affects some processes such as atomization,
vaporization and fuel–air mixing in the engine.
A naturally aspirated diesel engine wastes a high proportion of
heat energy released in the cylinder by exhausting to the ambient.
Some of the wasted heat energy in the exhaust gas can be recovered
by a turbocharger and converted to useful work. In fact, the
turbocharger is widely employed in current diesel engines. The
turbine of a turbocharger is driven by the energy available in the

0960-1481/$ – see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.renene.2008.08.010
990 M. Karabektas / Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 989–993

exhaust gas and its compressor, which is connected to turbine with Table 1
a shaft, increases the pressure of the air supplied to the engine [23]. Test engine specifications

This leads to more incoming air in the cylinder and also increases Make Steyr
the temperature of the air. Cylinder number 4
In this study, the performance parameters and exhaust emis- Type Water cooled, four-stroke
sions of a four-cylinder, four-stroke diesel engine using diesel fuel Bore (mm) 100
Stroke (mm) 100
and biodiesel, which is rapeseed oil methyl ester (RME), have been
Compression ratio 16.8:1
investigated for the cases of both naturally aspirated (NA) and Rated power 51 kW at 2400 rpm
turbocharged (TU) conditions. The tests were performed at various Maximum torque 215 Nm at 1400 rpm
speeds and full load conditions, and the experimental results were Charging Naturally aspirated
compared with each other. Injection pressure (bar) 215
Injection timing 12 BTDC

2. Description of the experimental set up and

testing procedure
As schematically shown in Fig. 1, the experimental set up
consists of a direct injection diesel engine, a hydraulic dynamom-
eter, an exhaust gas analyzer and measurement instruments.
The specifications of the four-stroke, direct injection (DI),
naturally aspirated diesel test engine are given in Table 1. In order to
measure the brake torque, the engine was directly coupled to
a hydraulic dynamometer having a measuring range of 0–400 N.
The engine speed was measured using a tachometer installed on
the dynamometer. A glass burette (100 ml volume and 1 ml divi-
sion) and a stopwatch were utilized to measure the fuel
consumption. Two fuel tanks, one for diesel fuel and another for
biodiesel, were used for supplying the fuels to the test engine. The
fuel delivery was controlled by a valve installed in the fuel line. Air
flow measurement was performed using an inclined manometer,
a damping tank which was used for reducing the air pulsation, and
an orifice plate. The emissions of CO (ppm) and NOx (ppm) in the
exhaust gas were measured using a MRU gas analyzer, which was
calibrated before each test.
The temperature of exhaust gas and charge air temperature
were determined by K type thermocouples. The temperatures of
the water stream entering and leaving the cooling tower were
measured by thermocouples submerged into the water channels.
The test engine was fuelled with diesel fuel and neat rapeseed oil
methyl ester. The properties of these fuels are listed in Table 2.
Tests were conducted at the engine speeds ranging between
1200 and 2400 rpm with intervals of 200 rpm at full load condi-
tions in NA and TU engine operations. The engine was first fuelled
with diesel fuel to determine the baseline parameters of the engine
at NA condition and then, it was fuelled with biodiesel. In order to
calculate mean values, each test was repeated three times.
After tests were completed with diesel and biodiesel fuels for NA
engine operation, a turbocharger with a boost pressure of about
0.7 bar was installed on the engine. The lubrication oil for the
turbocharger was supplied through a pipe attached to the main oil
channel of the engine. The turbine of the turbocharger was con-
nected to the exhaust manifold, and the compressor of the turbo-
charger was connected to the inlet manifold of the engine. After
installing the turbocharger, the previously employed test procedure
was repeated with the fuels tested.
The atmospheric pressure, charge pressure and ambient
humidity were recorded regularly during the tests. In all test cases,
the engine was operated at a standard fuel injection timing of 12
before top dead centre and standard injection pressure of 215 bar.
The engine was warmed up by operating it with diesel fuel for
about 30 min. The experimental data required for the evaluation of
the performance parameters and emissions were recorded after the
engine was reached steady-state operation, which realized easily
by observing a constant cooling water temperature. The variation in
the brake power, torque, brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC),
brake thermal efficiency (BTE), exhaust gas temperature and
exhaust emissions of CO and NOx were determined for each
operation.
3. Experimental results and discussion
Fig. 2 shows the variation in the brake power of the test engine
operated at NA and TU conditions as a function of the engine speed
for diesel fuel (DF) and biodiesel (B). The brake power reached its
peak value at the speed of about 2400 rpm for all fuels and engine
operations. The brake power of the engine with diesel fuel is higher
than that with biodiesel for both NA and TU operations. In the B-NA
operation, the mean reduction in the brake power is 4.8% compared
to DF-NA operation. Due to the fact that the lower heating value of
biodiesel is about 12% lower than that of diesel fuel, both torque
and brake power reduce. However, differences are very small in
most cases. Fig. 2 also shows that the difference in the break power
between diesel fuel and biodiesel reduces in TU operation. The
brake power produced in B-TU operation with biodiesel is on an

Table 2
Properties of Diesel fuel [20] and biodiesel [11]

Property Diesel fuel no. 2 Biodiesel (RME)

Chemical formula C14.09H24.78 C19H35.2O2
Kinematic viscosity (mm2/s) at 40  C 2.82 4.7
Specific gravity 0.85 0.88
Net heating value (MJ/kg) 42.64 37.23
Cetane number 42.6 51
Oxygen content (%) – 10.9
Fig. 1. The schematic outline of the experimental set up.
 M. Karabektas / Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 989–993 991

55 400

50 350
Brake Power (kW)

45

BSFC (g/kWh)
300
40
250
35
200
30

DF-NA B-NA 150 DF-NA B-NA

25
DF-TU B-TU DF-TU B-TU
20 100
1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400 2600 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400 2600
Engine Speed (rpm) Engine Speed (rpm)

Fig. 2. Brake power vs. engine speed for fuels tested at full load. Fig. 4. Brake specific fuel consumption vs. engine speed for fuels tested at full load.

average 3.25% lower than that of DF-TU operation due to better
combustion resulting from increased air supply.
Fig. 3 shows the variation in the torque of the engine fuelled
with diesel fuel and biodiesel vs. engine speed. It is observed that
the engine yields the maximum torque for DF-NA and B-NA oper-
ations in the speed range of 1200–1600 rpm, while the maximum
torque for DF-TU and B-TU operations is obtained in the range of
1400–1800 rpm. The torque of the engine fuelled with diesel fuel is
higher in both NA and TU operations. The reason for the reduction
of torque with biodiesel can also be attributed to the lower heating
value of the fuel. The mean increases in the torque with biodiesel
and diesel fuel in TU operation are determined as 18.7% and 16.8%,
respectively.
Fig. 4 shows the variations in the BSFC of both diesel fuel and
biodiesel with respect to the engine speed. The BSFC is the ratio of
the fuel consumption to the brake power of the engine. The BSFC
for the B-NA operation is on an average 11.5% higher than that for
DF-NA operation. Some investigations were also revealed that the
BSFC increases with the use of biodiesel [24,25]. This increase may
be attributed to the collective outcomes of the higher fuel density,
higher fuel consumption and lower break power due to lower
heating value of the biodiesel. It is also seen from Fig. 4 that the
BSFC decreases for both diesel fuel and biodiesel in the TU opera-
tion compared to NA operation. Compared to NA, the BSFC for the
TU operation is averagely 15.7 and 17.7% lower for diesel fuel and
biodiesel, respectively. The BSFC for the B-TU operation is averagely
8.9% higher than that for the DF-TU operation. This reduction is
mainly caused by the improvement in fuel atomization, air–fuel
mixing and combustion characteristics of the fuel due to the high
air temperature and increased air charge in the cylinder of the
diesel engine in TU operation. The collective factors of lowering fuel
consumption and increasing brake power cause an improvement in
BSFC with the application of turbocharging. It was also reported
that there is a reduction of about 15% in the BSFC of a diesel engine
fuelled with untreated cotton seed oil at the supercharging
condition of 0.4 bar compared to NA condition [26].
BTEs for diesel fuel and biodiesel as a function of engine speed
are shown in Fig. 5. The maximum BTE values are observed in the
ranges of 1600–2000 rpm and 1400–1800 rpm for the NA and TU
operations, respectively. It is seen that biodiesel has higher BTEs
than diesel fuel for all cases and the mean difference in the BTEs
between B-TU and DF-TU operations is about 2.6%. The improve-
ment of BTE with biodiesel can be attributed to the oxygen content
and higher cetane number of biodiesel. These properties lead to
favourite effects on the combustion process and improve BTE
slightly in biodiesel operation in spite of lower heating value of
biodiesel. As can be seen in Fig. 5, the BTE of the engine is improved
with the application of turbocharger both for diesel fuel and bio-
diesel. The main difference in the BTEs between B-TU and DF-TU
operations is increased up to 5.0%. The higher viscosity and density
of biodiesel is compensated with the application of turbocharger
which ensures high temperature and pressure as well as more air in
the cylinder at the timing of injection, thus providing better
combustion and increasing brake power, and consequently causing
higher BTEs.
The variations in the CO emission with the diesel fuel and bio-
diesel in NA and TU operations as a function of the engine speed are

275
0.45

250
0.4
Thermal Efficiency (%)

225
Torque (Nm)

0.35
200
0.3
175
0.25
150

DF-NA B-NA 0.2 DF-NA B-NA

125
DF-TU B-TU DF-TU B-TU
100 0.15
1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400 2600 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400 2600
Engine Speed (rpm) Engine Speed (rpm)

Fig. 3. Torque vs. engine speed for fuels tested at full load. Fig. 5. Thermal efficiency vs. engine speed for fuels tested at full load.
992 M. Karabektas / Renewable Energy 34 (2009) 989–993

3000 nitrogen during the of combustion process, thus causing higher

DF-NA B-NA emissions of NOx. The NOx emission with biodiesel is higher than
2500 DF-TU B-TU that with diesel fuel in both NA and TU operations. In B-NA oper-
ation, an average of 10% increase in the NOx emission was measured
2000 compared to DF-NA operation. This increase is in agreement with
some previous investigations employing various biodiesels [17,19].
CO (ppm)

A noticeable increase in the NOx emissions was observed with the

1500
use of diesel fuel and biodiesel in TU operation. Application of
turbocharger provides more air to the engine and causes higher
1000
combustion temperatures which yields an increase in the forma-
tion of NOx emission. It was determined that in the TU operation,
500 the NOx emissions with diesel fuel and biodiesel are higher on an
average of 27% and 21%, respectively, compared to NA operation.
0
1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400
Engine Speed (rpm) 4. Conclusions

Fig. 6. Carbon monoxide emissions vs. engine speed for fuels tested at full load.
shown in Fig. 6. CO emissions of B-NA operation are averagely 17%
lower than those of DF-NA operation. The reduction in CO emis-
sions with the use of biodiesel was also reported by some investi-
gators [15,24,25]. CO emission from diesel engine is related to the
fuel properties as well as combustion characteristics. It is well
known that better fuel combustion usually results in lower CO
emission. Biodiesel has higher cetane number compared to diesel
fuel [20], which causes lower ignition delay period and autoignition
capability. High oxygen content of biodiesel associated with lower
ignition delay period provides an important reduction in the CO
emission by improving combustion. Moreover, the carbon/
hydrogen (C/H) ratio of biodiesel is slightly lower than that of diesel
fuel, which yields diminished CO emissions with the use of bio-
diesel. It was experimentally determined that the TU operation
causes a noticeable reduction in CO emission. Compared to NA
operation, in the TU operation the CO emissions for diesel fuel and
biodiesel are on an average 47% and 52% lower, respectively. CO
emissions in the B-TU operation are averagely 26% lower than those
in the DF-TU operation. The application of turbocharger provides
increased air to the diesel engine and enables mixing of fuel-air
easily in the combustion chamber, thereby causing better
combustion and lower CO emission values.
Fig. 7 shows variations in the NOx emissions plotted against
engine speed for diesel fuel and biodiesel. It is known that forma-
tion of NOx emissions are strongly dependent upon the equivalence
ratio, oxygen concentration and burned gas temperature. The
oxygen content of biodiesel is the main reason for higher NOx
emissions. The oxygen in the biodiesel can react easily with
The engine performance and exhaust emission characteristics of
biodiesel and diesel fuel were experimentally investigated in
a diesel engine operated at NA and TU conditions. The results
obtained from this study may be summarized as follows.
 The brake power and torque of the engine with diesel fuel are
higher than those with biodiesel for both NA and TU opera-
tions. The turbocharger application to the engine causes
considerable increases in the brake power and torque with
biodiesel when compared to diesel fuel. The rate of increase in
the break power and torque with biodiesel is higher than that
with diesel fuel for TU operation. The values of break power
and torque in the cases of diesel fuel and biodiesel approach
each other in TU operation.
 Because of higher fuel density and lower heating value, bio-
diesel showed slightly higher BSFC for both NA and TU oper-
ations in comparison with diesel fuel. The BSFC decreases for
both tested fuels in the TU operation compared to NA
operation.
 In the NA operation the use of biodiesel yields slightly higher
BTEs, while in TU operation the use of biodiesel improves BTE
further compared with the use of diesel fuel.
 The NOx emission with biodiesel is higher than that with diesel
fuel, while CO emission is lower for both fuels. A noticeable
increase in the NOx emissions was observed in TU operation for
both fuels. The TU operation with biodiesel yields a higher ratio
of decrease in CO emission compared to diesel fuel.
 The use of biodiesel improves the performance and exhaust
emissions of the turbocharged engine better compared with
the use of diesel fuel.

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