Application and comparison of soy based biodiesel fuel to ultra low sulfur diesel fuel in a HPCR diesel engine - part I: engine performance parameters

In the US transportation sector uses two-thirds of the country's total oil consumption. In order to minimize the consumption in this sector there is a need to investigate alternate sources of energy. Biodiesel is a possible alternative to conventional diesel. Biodiesel has many characteristics similar to petroleum based diesel and can be blended with petroleum. However biodiesel's differences in fuel properties including viscosity, bulk modulus, density, and energy content can have significant impacts on engine performance parameters like BSFC and thermal efficiency. As the availability of biodiesel fuel increases, the need for engines capable of running on various mixtures of biodiesel fuel will be required. Similar to flex-fuel ethanol vehicles, control systems for the diesel engine and aftertreatment systems will need to detect and compensate for the fuel type. In this work, a soy based B100 biodiesel fuel and an ultra low sulfur diesel fuel were tested in a high-speed direct-injection high pressure common rail four-cylinder 1.9 L diesel engine. An internally developed engine control strategy allowed real-time calibration and testing of independent control parameters including start of injection, injection duration, injection pressure, and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) level. Both the fuels were studied under varied injection timing (0°BTDC to 12°BTDC with increments of 3°) and EGR percentages of 0 and 10%. Analysis was performed to determine the Torque, BSFC and Brake thermal efficiency.