Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser

A comprehensive review of biodiesel as an alternative fuel

for compression ignition engine
Ambarish Datta n, Bijan Kumar Mandal
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur, Howrah 711103, West Bengal, India

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In search of alternative fuels for CI engines, many experimental studies have been carried out and posted
Received 11 December 2014 in the literature during the last few decades. This paper presents a comprehensive review on the pro-
Received in revised form duction, performance and emissions from a compression ignition engine using biodiesel as alternate to
14 December 2015
fossil based diesel fuel. The properties of biodiesel produced from different sources and their fatty acid
Accepted 17 December 2015
composition have also been described. The experimental set up used by different researchers for the
investigations and their ndings regarding performance and emissions with respect to mineral diesel
Keywords: have been presented in short for a large number of studies. For better illustration of the facts, results of a
Biodiesel few experimental studies available in the literature have been presented in the form of different graphs
Alternative fuel for selective important performance and emission parameters as case studies. The overall impression is
Properties
that the performance of the engine slightly deteriorates with the use of biodiesel partially or fully instead
Production
of diesel, but the environmental aspects are signicantly improved.
Performance
Emission
& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Review

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800
2. Production of biodiesel and its properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800
2.1. Production of biodiesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800
2.2. Properties of biodiesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 802
3. Engine performance with biodiesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803
3.1. Effect on brake thermal efciency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803
3.2. Effect on brake specic fuel consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
3.3. Effect on exhaust gas temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 807
3.4. Summary of performance analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
4. Effect of biodiesel on engine emissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
4.1. Effect on CO emission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
4.2. Effect on CO2 emission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
4.3. Effect on NOx emission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813
4.4. Effect on HC emission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814
4.5. Effect on smoke emission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 816
4.6. Summary of emission analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819

Abbreviations: ASTM, American Society for Testing and Materials; BSFC, Brake specic fuel consumption; bTDC, Before top dead centre; CI, Compression ignition; COME,
Canola oil methyl ester; DI, Direct injection; EGR, Exhaust gas recirculation; EGT, Exhaust gas temperature; EN, European standards for products and services by European
Committee for Standardization; ESG, Eruca sativa gars; FFA, Free fatty acid; GHG, Green house gas; GTL, Gas to liquid; H2SO4, Sulfuric acid; HOME, Honge oil methyl ester; IS,
Indian Standard; JOME, Jatropha oil methyl ester; KOH, Potassium hydroxide; MEPS, Methyl ester of paradise oil; MOEE, Mahua oil ethyl ester; MOME, Mahua oil methyl
ester; NaOH, Sodium hydroxide; NOME, Neem oil methyl ester; PBDF, Petroleum based diesel fuel; PKOME, Palm kernel oil methyl ester; PNOME, Peanut oil methyl ester;
RME, Rapeseed methyl ester; SOME, Seasame oil methyl ester; SVO, Straight vegetable oil; THC, Total hydrocarbon; VOME, Vegetable oil methyl ester; WFO, Waste frying oil;
WPOME, Waste palm oil methyl ester
n
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ambarish.datta84@gmail.com (A. Datta).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.12.170
1364-0321/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
800 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821
5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819
1. Introduction
The availability of adequate amount of conventional fossil fuel
for internal combustion engines and the associated effects of
global warming and other environmental issues arising due to the
combustion of fossil fuels are the two most threatening problems
of our present day civilization. The rapid industrialization and
urbanization are also making our planet unsafe for us and for the
generations to come. People are now all well aware of the lethal
effects of environmental pollution created by the random use of
fossil fuels. China tops the list of green house gas emitters and
India is not far behind. In fact, India is already the fth largest
greenhouse gas emitter of the world and is expected to become
the third largest GHG emitter by the year 2015. Transport sector
contributes signicant amount of GHG emission [13] particularly
in the developing and developed countries. The maximum amount
of green house gases added to the atmosphere are from electricity
and transportation sectors and the corresponding values are 34%
and 27% [3]. Also the vehicle population throughout the world is
increasing rapidly and in India the growth rate of automotive
industry is one of the largest in the world. It has been anticipated
quite clearly that the problem cannot be solved with the con-
ventional fossil fuels as their reserves are limited and also the
emission norms are expected to be more stringent in future [4].
This situation can be handled by using biofuels as fuels for com-
pression ignition (CI) engines wherever possible.
Another concern is the peak oil theory, which predicts a rising
cost of oil derived fuels caused by severe shortages of oil during an
era of growing energy consumption. According to the peak oil
theory [5], the demand for oil will exceed supply and this gap will
continue to grow, which may cause a growing energy crisis
starting between 2010 and 2020. According to Demirbas [6], a
peak in global oil production may occur between 2015 and 2030.
After that the production process will highly decelerate. India is
the worlds fourth largest petroleum consumer after United States,
China and Japan [7] which makes India dependent upon the oil
exporting countries for meeting its own energy demand.
Diesel engine is the most fuel efcient combustion engine
among the available ones and the transport sector mainly uses
diesel fuel due to its better fuel economy and more effective
power. Several countries such as USA, Germany, France, Italy,
Brazil, and Indonesia are using biodiesel blended with diesel.
Malaysia normally uses palm biodiesel as an alternative to diesel
in their country despite the use of palm oil as edible oil also [8].
The soyabean and the rapeseed biodiesels are generally used in
USA and Europe respectively [9]. In a country like India, biodiesel
also can be used as alternative automotive fuel and also in other
sectors as CI engine fuels. Biodiesel is a fastest growing alternative
fuel. India has huge potential for biodiesel, but it is not yet
explored properly to replace at least some percentage of mineral
diesel with biodiesel. It will be more effective and sustainable, if
biodiesel is produced from non-edible type oil seeds, like karanja
(Pongamia Pinnata) and ratanjyot (Jatropha Curcus) [1013]. The
above oil seeds can be cultivated in the wastelands available in
India. Another advantage of biodiesel is that it can be used in
internal combustion engines in a similar fashion as petro diesel
without any modication of engine geometry.
Rudolf Diesel, the father of diesel engine, demonstrated the
rst use of vegetable oil in compression ignition engine. He used
peanut oil as fuel for his experimental engine. With the availability
of cheap petroleum and appropriate methods for the renement of
crude oil to obtain petro-diesel, diesel engine started evolving.
Later after 1940, vegetable oils were used again as fuel in emer-
gency situations, during the period of Second World War.
Because of the increase in the crude oil prices, limited reserve
of fossil fuels and also for the environmental concern, researchers
showed renewed interest on vegetable oils for producing suitable
alternate to the diesel fuel. Researchers from different corners of
the world are making sincere attempts to nd out the suitable
alternative to diesel fuel which does not require major engine
modications. The literature is already rich with many experi-
mental ndings, but the observations are not always unidirec-
tional. Thus, there is a need of summarizing most of the works
carried out on biodiesel in the last few decades. Motivated by this,
the authors have attempted to review the important works on
biodiesel to get the state of the art of biodiesel production pro-
cesses, its performance and emission characteristics as CI engine
fuels. The authors have also presented some of the experimental
results from the literature to supplement the summarization
process.
2. Production of biodiesel and its properties
Biodiesel are produced from feedstocks which are renewable in
nature. Since biodiesel is thought to be the alternative fuels for
compression ignition engines which use diesel as the fuel, the
properties of biodiesel should match with the fuel properties as
specied by ASTM and/or EN as well as IS standard in India.
2.1. Production of biodiesel
For the commercialization of biodiesel as CI engine fuel
throughout the world, different production processes of it should
be identied and made available to the people working at grass
root level. The raw materials needed for its production may vary
from country to country. Keeping this in mind researchers are
trying to nd several ways to produce biodiesel from locally
available different feedstocks such as vegetable oil both edible
and non-edible, animal tallow, waste cooking oil and algae. As the
viscosity of the oils and fat derived from the above mentioned
feedstocks is much higher and unsuitable for using in unmodied
CI engines, the rst step is to reduce its viscosity. This is done
through a chemical reaction called transesterication. In this
process, the triglyceride present in the oil or fat reacts with alcohol
(methanol or ethanol) in the presence of a catalyst which is
alkalime in nature. A catalyst such as sodium or potassium
hydroxide is required. Glycerol (also called glycerin) is produced as
a byproduct. The overall reaction of the transesterication process
has been shown in Fig. 1 following Saka and Kusdiana [14].
Generally, methanol is used to produce biodiesel because of its
availability and lower reaction time, and the nal product (bio-
diesel) is called as methyl ester of the raw oil used. Sometimes,
ethyl alcohol is also used for the production of biodiesel, and it is
called as the ethyl esters of the corresponding oil. Ideally, trans-
esterication is potentially a less expensive way of transforming
the large, branched molecular structure of the bio-oils into smaller,
straight chain molecules of the type required in regular diesel
combustion engines. The approximate proportions of different
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821
CH2OCOR1 CH2OH R1 COOCH3
| | | soyabean oil, direct transesterication with methanol as an alcohol
CHOCOR2 + 3 CH3OH CHOH + R2COOCH3
| | | higher acid value of crude coconut oil, they used a two stage
3
CH2OCOR CH2OH R3COOCH3
(Triglycerides) (Methanol) (Glycerin) (Methyl Esters)
Fig. 1. Transesterication reaction [14].
reactants and products in the transesterication reaction are:
100kgs of oil 10kgs of methanol-100kgs of biodiesel
10kgs of glycerol
A biodiesel blend is pure biodiesel mixed with petro-diesel in
appropriate proportions. Biodiesel blends are referred to as Bxx.
The xx indicates the amount of biodiesel by volume in the blend
of biodiesel and petro-diesel [6]. For example, B80 refers to a blend
of 80% biodiesel and 20% petro-diesel by volume. The biodiesel
production techniques from various raw feedstocks as reported by
different researchers are presented in the next part of this section.
Sharma and Singh [15] produced biodiesel from karanja and
mahua oils as well as the mixture of the two non-edible oils in the
same ratio on volume basis. The higher fatty acid content of the
above said two straight vegetable oils forced them to use two step
reactions. The rst one was acid esterication for lowering fatty
acid content to a desired limit. The second step was alkaline
transesterication for the conversion of the already treated oil to
fatty acid methyl ester or biodiesel. H2SO4 and KOH were added as
catalysts with methanol for esterication and transesterication
processes respectively. They preferred methanol over ethanol
because methanol was less costly and the reaction was also faster.
Ilkl et al. [16] produced biodiesel from safower oil by transes-
terication process using NaOH as a catalyst. After separation of
glycerol from product, H2SO4 was added as a depolarizer and the
biodiesel was then washed adding equal amount of water to
separate catalyst and the remaining portion of alcohol.
Saka and Kusdiana [14] employed a method to produce bio-
diesel through transesterication reaction of rapeseed oil without
using a catalyst. The above said method was termed as a super-
critical methanol biomass conversion method. The pressure and
temperature in this process were quite elevated compared to the
normal pressure and temperature of transesterication reaction.
Venkanna and Reddy [17] produced biodiesel from honne oil
through a three stage transesterication process with methanol
which comprised of acid esterication, alkali transesterication
and post treatment. H2SO4 was used as catalyst in acid esterica-
tion and KOH was used in alkali transesterication. The post
treatment method consisted of gentle water wash thrice using
distilled water. Biodiesel was produced from eruca sativa gars
(ESG) vegetable oil by Li et al. [18] on lab scale through transes-
terication process with methanol. They used a heteropoly acid
salt as catalyst during the transesterication process of ESG oil.
Production of biodiesel from rubber seed oil through a two
stage method of transesterication with methanol, which followed
an alkali esterication using H2SO4 as a catalyst and transester-
ication with methanol using NaOH as a catalyst was studied by
Ramadhas et al. [19]. Biodiesel production from non-edible animal
tallow was studied by Oner and Altun [20]. Biodiesel was prepared
through transesterication of tallow with methanol in the pre-
sence of NaOH as catalyst. Ghadge and Raheman [21] produced
biodiesel from mahua oil having high free fatty acid in it. Firstly,
the fatty acid content was determined by a standard titrimetry
method and after that a pretreatment method was involved for
lowering the higher acid value. Finally, the transesterication
reaction was carried out with methanol using KOH as an alkaline
catalyst. Biodiesels from different straight vegetable oils having
high phosphorous content and having either low or high acid
801
values were studied by Mendow et al. [22]. Due to low acidity of
was used to obtain biodiesel using NaOH as a catalyst. Due to
method of transesterication with methanol. It was consisted of
alkali esterication using H2SO4 as a catalyst followed by trans-
esterication using NaOH as a catalyst to obtain biodiesel.
Charpe and Rathod [23] treated waste sunower frying oil with
methanol as an alcohol in the presence of P. uorescens enzyme as
catalyst for the production of biodiesel. Due to low cost the
researchers used waste sunower frying oil as raw material and P.
uorescens as catalyst because of its higher conversion rate. Soy-
bean oil was used to produce biodiesel by Lin and Lin [24] through
transesterication process with methanol using NaOH as a catalyst
accompanied by peroxidation to improve the fuel properties of the
biodiesel. Water wash and distillation process were used to
remove un-reacted methanol, water and other impurities. Nabi
et al. [25] and Srivastava and Verma [26] produced biodiesel from
karanja oil. Nabi and the co-workers rst removed water and other
contaminants from karanja oil and then reduced the fatty acid
concentration of the oil by acid esterication process using H2SO4
as catalyst. Thereafter, they followed the normal transesterication
process using methanol in the presence of NaOH as a catalyst.
On the other hand, Srivastava and Verma [26] did not employ
any pretreatment (like acid esterication) of raw karanja oil, but
they used some after treatment of the biodiesel produced by the
transesterication process. The after treatment method employed
was bubble wash method with the aid of 10% phosphoric acid
solution in warm water. For getting the nal quality biodiesel, it
was puried by passing air through aquarium stone for at least
24 h. The whole process was repeated three times to get the nal
product in the form of karanja biodiesel. They have tested both
karanja oil and its biodiesel and the biodiesel yield was found to be
84% which was lower than that obtained (97%) by Nabi et al. [25].
Sharon et al. [27] produced biodiesel from used palm oil by
transesterication process in laboratory scale setup with the
addition of methanol in a proportion of 6:1 molar ratio, using
NaOH as a catalyst. After completion of the reaction process, gly-
cerol was separated using separating funnel. Patil and Deng [28]
prepared biodiesel from raw jatropha and karanja oils in two steps
namely, acid esterication and alkali transesterication. But, in
case of corn and canola oils only the alkali transesterication step
was needed as the fatty acid content of them were lower than that
of jatropha and karanja. In another study, Ghadge and Raheman
[29] reported the production of biodiesel from crude mahua oil by
transesterication reaction with methanol in the molar ratio of 6:1
by using KOH as an alkaline catalyst followed by a pretreatment
method consisting of determination of ph value by titrimetry and
esterication of crude mahua oil with methanol by using H2SO4 as
a catalyst. Wang et al. [30] also followed two step esterication
processes consisting of acid esterication and alkali transester-
ication for the production of biodiesel from non-edible oils. Acid
esterication was done by anhydrous sulfuric acid as an acid cat-
alyst and alkali transesterication was done by KOH as an alkali
catalyst with methanol. Lu et al. [31] reported a pre-esterication
of crude jatrohpa oil, using sulfuric acid as a catalyst during pro-
duction of biodiesel. After pre-esterication process the researcher
transesteried crude jatropha with methanol using KOH as a
catalyst.
The above review shows that biodiesel can be produced from
various raw materials under different conditions using different cata-
lysts depending on acid values of raw feedstocks. The biodiesel yield
depends not only on the type of feedstocks used, but also depends on
molar ratio of alcohol to oil, the catalyst type and its amount and
reaction conditions such as temperature, duration and sometimes
pressure. The information related to different production processes as
802 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821

Table 1
Biodiesel production using various types of feedstocks with reaction variables.

Name of Researchers Feedstock Alcohol type Molar ratio of Catalyst used Catalyst amount Reaction condition Biodiesel yield (%)
alcohol to oil

Saka and Kusdiana Rapeseed oil Methanol 42:1 NaOH 350400 C at 45 95%
[14] 65 MPa
Sharma and Singh Karanja oil Methanol 6:1 H2SO4 1 ml 50 C for 1 h 98.6%
[15] Mahua oil 8:1 KOH 1 wt% 95.71% 94.0%
Mixture of two (hybrid)
Ilkl et al. [16] Safower oil Methanol NaOH 0.4% 5565 C for 2 h
Venkanna and Reddy Honne oil Methanol 8:1 H2SO4 0.5 ml 45, 55, 60 and 89%
[17] 65 C;
4:1 KOH 0.751.5% 30, 60, 90, 120
and 150 min
Li et al. [18] Eruca sativa gars oil Methanol 6:1 heteropoly acid 0.04 m mol 65 C for 12 h 98.1%
Ramadhas et al. [19] Rubber seed oil Methanol 6:1 H2SO4 0.5% 4050 C for 2 h -
9:1 NaOH 5g
Oner and Altun [20] Animal tallow Methanol 6:1 NaOH 2g 60 C for 3 h
Ghadge and Rahe- Mahua oil Methanol H2SO4 1% 60 C for 30 min 98%
man [21] 6:1 KOH 0.7%
Mendow et al. [22] Crude soybean oil Methanol NaOH 0.35% 60 C for 2 h
Coconut oil H2SO4 60 C for 1.5 h
Charpe and Rathod Waste sunower frying oil Methanol 3:1 P. uorescens 5% 45 C 63.84%
[23] enzyme
Lin and Lin [24] Soybean oil Methanol 6:1 NaOH 60 C
Nabi et al. [25] Karanja oil Methanol H2SO4 1% 50 C for 1 h 97%
NaOH 1%
Srivastava and Verma Karanja oil Methanol NaOH 28.5 g 70 C for 1 h 84%
[26]
Sharon et al. [27] Palm oil Methanol 6:1 NaOH 0.6 wt% 65 C for 3 h 87%
Patil and Deng [28] Karanja, jatropha, canola and Methanol 9:1 H2SO4 0.5% 60 C for 2 h 80%
corn oil KOH 2% 55 C for 1 h 9095%
KOH 0.45 g
Ghadge and Rahe- Mahua oil Methanol 6:1 KOH 0.7% w/v 60 C for 30 min 98%
man [29]
Wang et al. [30] Euphorbia lathyris, Sapium Methanol 8:1 H2SO4 0.21 wt% 60 C for 30 min 86.2%
sebiferum, Jatropha curcas oil 6:1 KOH 0.61.2 wt% 88.3% 86.2%
Lu et al. [31] Jatropha curcas oil Methanol 6:1 metatitanic acid 1.3% 90 C for 2 h 98%
KOH

followed by the researchers have been summarized and presented in
Table 1 to get an overall idea at a glance.
Minute look at the above said table reveals that the biodiesel
yield has an average value of more than 85%. The analysis of the
results shows that maximum yield of 99% is obtained with ESG oil.
Mahua, jatropha, karanja and rapeseed oil have also high yield in
the range of above 90%. The yield from waste frying oil is normally
low and it is only 63.84% with sunower based waste frying oil.
Another interesting point can be noted that the yield is not
always the same for a particular oil. Depending upon the fatty acid
contents and its distribution, acid esterication process may be
needed before the alkaline esterication to lower the acid value of
the oil. This process will produce more biodiesel than if only
alkaline esterication is used in case of oil having higher free
fatty acid.
More recently, production of biodiesel has been started from
different types of algae and it was found that the oil yield of algae
based biodiesel is signicantly higher than the oils and animal fats
described earlier in this section. These biodiesels are generally
referred in the literature as third generation biodiesels and this
could be a potential alternative due to its much lower gestation
period [32] and huge availability [33]. A comprehensive review on
it has been presented by Mata et al. [32]. Khan et al. [33] has also
presented a critical evaluation on the prospects of biodiesel pro-
duction from microalgae. They have emphasized the need to
explore the possibilities of producing biodiesel from microalgae, as
it will not raise the fuel vs. food debate. This is due to the fact that
the production of microalgae does not require the normal land
where cereal crops are being produced. Demirbas et al. [34] also
produced biodiesel from algal oil by using transesterication
method. Deng et al. [35] also stated that microalgae have the
potential to become the viable alternative for production of
biodiesel.
As the end of this section, the ow chart showing different
processes along with their reactants and products for biodiesel
production from vegetable oils has also been shown in Fig. 2 from
the work of Sharma et al. [36]. The ow chart for biodiesel pro-
duction from microalgae has also been presented in Fig. 3 based on
the work of Naja et al. [37].
2.2. Properties of biodiesel
The performance, combustion and emission characteristics of
any biodiesel fueled engine depend on the thermo-physical
properties of biodiesel. The viscosity, density, cetane number,
caloric value, ash and re points, cloud and pour points are the
major properties of biodiesel which are to be considered. Several
researchers have reported that the properties of biodiesel depend
upon their fatty acid contents and chemical compositions. There-
fore, before using the biodiesel in a compression ignition engine it
is mandatory to measure its properties as specied by ASTM
D6751 and EN 14214 standards, which are the most popular and
well known standards for biodiesel. In India, IS 15607 standard is
followed for using biodiesel as fuel in an automotive engine. Dif-
ferent properties of biodiesel produced from various oils and those
of petro-diesel are compiled from the previous works of several
researchers and are presented in Table 2 for comparison.
Generally, the properties of biodiesel are similar to that of
petro-diesel. Among all the parameter, viscosity is the most
important as it is directly linked with the injection system of the
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821 803

engine. The higher viscosity affects the uidity as well as the
atomization during combustion which may also cause incomplete
combustion and carbon deposits at the injectors [6,52,53]. Flash
point is the measure of ammability of the fuel. Flash point is also
inuenced by the chemical properties of biodiesel, such as pre-
sence of double bonds, number of carbon atoms [52]. Cetane
number is the measure of combustion quality and the higher
cetane number implies a shorter ignition delay. Since, biodiesel
generally have longer fatty acid carbon chain, its cetane number is
higher than diesel. This also enhances the ignition quality by
shortening the delay period, which nally increases the combus-
tion duration [6,52]. Caloric value is the measure of energy
content of a fuel [54]. Since biodiesel contains 11% oxygen by
Vegetable Oils Recycled
Dilute acid esterification
Methanol + KOH
Sulphur + Methanol
Methanol
Recovery Transesterification
weight [6]; the higher heating values are relatively lower than
petro-diesel [6]. For the above said reason, the lower caloric
value is less than that of diesel [52]. Qi et al. [55] observed that due
to the higher density and lower heating value of biodiesel the
power output and the torque are lower than those of diesel.
Moreover, biodiesel contains very small amount of phosphorous
and sulfur and hence the emission of oxides of sulfur (SOx) is
almost negligible. In addition, the higher ash point (more than
100 C) of biodiesel makes the storage and transportation issues
less important. The properties of biodiesel at low temperatures are
poorer than those of diesel oil. The pour point is generally higher
than that of diesel and this may create some complications for the
operation in cold weather. Biodiesel has good lubricant properties
with respect to diesel oil, in particular, diesel with a very small
amount of sulfur. This is very important to reduce wear in the
engine and the injection system. Table 3 shows average fatty acid
prole for different feedstocks for biodiesel fuel. Although the fatty
acid distributions are not the same in different feedstocks, but a
pattern is noticed among the different feedstocks. These variations
will affect the cetane number of biodiesels produced from various
feedstocks.

3. Engine performance with biodiesel

Crude Glycerin Crude Biodiesel
Alternative fuels or supplementary fuels used in engines are
Glycerin Refining Refining
normally evaluated on the basis of both engine performances and
Residue their environmental impacts. The most important performance
parameters considered by the researchers in the eld of internal
Glycerin combustion engines are power output and exhaust gas tempera-
ture, specic fuel consumption and brake thermal efciency. This
Fig. 2. Typical ow chart of biodiesel production [36]. section presents and discusses the results of different studies
available in the literature related to the above said parameters of
compression ignition engine using biodiesel and blends of bio-
diesel and petro-diesel as fuels.

3.1. Effect on brake thermal efciency

Fig. 3. Flow chart of biodiesel production from microalgae [37].
The ratio of the brake power developed by the engine and the
energy released per unit time due to complete combustion of fuel
is called brake thermal efciency of the engine. From the energetic
point of view, it is the most important parameter for the evalua-
tion of performance of an engine. Some of the results on brake
thermal efciency of CI engine reported in the literature by dif-
ferent researchers have been presented in the following section.

Table 2
Properties of diesel and biodiesel produced from different feedstocks.

Different fuels Density Kinematic viscosity at 40 C Cetane no. Heating value Cloud point Flash point Fire point Pour point Refs.
(kg/m3) (mm2/s) (MJ/kg) (C) (C) (C) (C)

Diesel 850 2.442.60 4750 4244.3 6875 80  20 [21,25,27,49]

Mahua 880916 3.985.72 3739.4 129208 141 6 [21,29,38]
Karanja 880890 4.379.6 4858 36.1242.13  214.6 170205  65.1 [25,26,3942]
Palm 870878.4 4.55.11 50- 62 37.239.91 14 173 182 8 [27,43,44]
Cotton seed 850885 69.6 52 37.541.68 2 4 [43,45]
Jatropha 873 4.23 42.673 10.2 148 4.2 [40]
Polanga 869 3.99 41.397 13.2 140 4.3 [40]
Soybean 885914 4.05739.5 3751.3 37.339.66 69163 [43,44,46,47]
Sunower 880885.6 4.3814.4 5051.6 37.539.95 183 [43,44]
Rapeseed 872885 4.58511 37.654.5 37.339.9 177275 [34,43,46]
Honge 890 5.6 45 36.01 163 [48]
Peanut 886.4 5.251 54 39.7 193 [44]
Corn 885.8 4.363 55.4 39.87 167 [44]
Palm Kernel 876.6 3.248 62.1 38.53 131 [44]
Waste Fried 884.2 4.869 55 39.68 167 [44]
Jojoba 866 19.2 63.5 43.38 61 [49]
Neem 820 8.8 51 40.1 [50]
804 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821

Table 3
Average composition (%) of fatty acids for different feedstocks.

Feedstock Palmitic Stearic Palmitoleic Oleic Linoleic Linolenic Arachidic Refs.

Mahua 1628.2 1425.1 4151 8.917.9 03.3 [15,21,29,38]

Rubber seed 10.2 8.7 24.6 39.6 16.3 [19]
Sunower 4.96.8 2.33.26 16.9332.6 59.473.73 0 [19,44]
Rapeseed 3.495.2 0.851.4 64.466 18.922.3 5.68.23 1.9 [19,44]
Cotton seed 11.67 0.89 13.27 57.51 0 [19]
Soybean 11.711.75 3.153.97 21.2723.26 53.755.53 6.318.12 1.23 [19,44]
Jatropha 13.2316 5.407 0.85 41.6249.39 3336.99 0.22 40.80 0.20 [30,31,51]
Honge 10.5 5.56 49.39 20.37 3.66 1.36 [31,51]
Karanja 3.711.65 2.48.9 44.571.3 10.818.3 [39,41]
Peanut 17.2 2.7 40.5 36.6 0.5 0.9 [44]
Corn 11.4 1.3 27.1 60.2 [44]
Palm 49.8 2.9 38.6 6.6 [44]
Palm Kernel 11.5 1.4 15.9 1.8 [44]
Waste Fried 27.3 4.9 36.1 25.7 1.9 [44]

Gumus [56] observed a reduction in brake thermal efciency of
a four stroke single cylinder diesel engine using hazelnut kernel oil
methyl ester (biodiesel) as fuel. This type of behavior was attrib-
uted to the lower heating value and higher viscosity of biodiesel
than that of diesel, which resulted higher brake specic fuel con-
sumption and led to a decrease in brake thermal efciency. He also
reported from his experimental investigation that with the
advancement of injection timing and increase in compression ratio
and injection pressure, brake thermal efciency increased as the
fuel consumption decreased under the above mentioned condi-
tions. Puhan et al. [57] noted a slight decrease in brake thermal
efciency with linseed biodiesel compared to mineral diesel.
Ozsezen et al. [58] used waste palm oil methyl ester (WPOME),
canola oil methyl ester (COME) and petroleum based diesel fuel
(PBDF) as fuels to run an inline six cylinder water cooled, direct
injection, naturally aspirated four stroke 6.0 L Ford Cargo CI engine
having compression ratio 15.9:1. They observed that the use of
WPOME and COME with respect to the use of PBDF resulted in
marginal reductions of brake thermal efciency by 1.42% and 0.12%
respectively at full load condition and at a constant speed of
1500 rpm. It can be concluded that the chemical energy of the
above said test fuels have been converted into mechanical energy
almost in the same manner.
Mahanta et al. [59] used karanja oil methyl esters for their
experimental work on diesel engines. They found a 27% decrease
in brake thermal efciency of the engines when neat biodiesel was
used instead of neat diesel. Agarwal and Dhar [60] used neat
karanja oil and preheated karanja oil to run a four stroke diesel
engine. The decrease in efciency with this straight vegetable oil
was found to be even more. It was also reported that when SVO
was preheated, the efciency increased but still remained much
lower than diesel fuel. The reductions in brake thermal efciency
were found to be 45% and 25% with non-preheated and preheated
straight vegetable oils respectively. The main reasons behind these
reductions in thermal efciency were reported to be poor volatility
and higher viscosity of both the above said fuels. Rao et al. [61]
reported a slight decrease in brake thermal efciency of a single
cylinder direct injection air cooled gen-set diesel engine when
jatropha biodiesel was used instead of petro-diesel. According to
them, the decrease in efciency of the engine with jatropha oil
methyl ester and its blends was due to the early start of com-
bustion of biodiesel resulting an increase in compression work and
heat loss.
Banapurmath et al. [6263] experimented with biodiesels
produced from marotti oil (non-edible obtained from a medicinal
plant in India) and honge oil on a single cylinder water cooled four
stroke diesel engine. They found a decrease in thermal efciency
with the addition of marotti oil methyl ester (biodiesel) to diesel.
The highest brake thermal efciency with neat marotti oil methyl
ester was obtained at 80% load as 28.38%, whereas at the same
loading condition the value with diesel fuel was 31.25%. B20 blend
of marotti oil methyl ester and diesel showed better thermal
efciency compared to other blended fuels. The increase in the
efciency with B20 compared to B10 was attributed to more
complete combustion and the additional lubricity of biodiesel
which reduced the frictional power losses. Further increase of
biodiesel percentage in the blends decreased the effective caloric
value of the fuel and thus the efciency was reduced. In case of
honge oil methyl ester, brake thermal efciency was lower than
that of diesel. At 80% load condition, the authors found the max-
imum efciency. In case of diesel, it was 31.25%, whereas with
honge oil methyl ester it was 29.51%.
On the contrary, some reverse trends in the variation of brake
thermal efciency were also observed by several researchers. In an
experimental study conducted by Laforgia and Ardito [64] on an
indirect injection diesel engine, it was observed that brake thermal
efciency increased with biodiesel by about 10% over mineral
diesel as fuel. Raheman and Ghadge [65] conducted an experi-
mental study on indirect injection Ricardo E6 diesel engine with
pre-combustion chamber. They found an increase in brake thermal
efciency with the increase in compression ratio because of
improvement of combustion characteristics. They also observed
that the efciency increased when advance ignition was provided.
This was mainly due to more time available for injection and thus
reduction in rapid combustion leading to an undesirable effect
called knocking. However, the effect of increase of compression
ratio and advance injection timing were noted to be more pro-
minent in case of blends having higher percentages of biodiesel
compared to diesel. An experimental work was carried out by
Deore and Jahagirdar [66] on a single cylinder, four stroke, water
cooled diesel engine of small capacity (3.5 kW) using biodiesels
from jatropha and karanja and mineral diesel as fuels. The
experiment was carried out keeping the compression ratio xed at
18. At higher load, it was observed that the brake thermal ef-
ciency of the engine using jatropha biodiesel was higher than
using diesel and karanja biodiesel by 9.29% and 2.76% respectively.
Song and Zhang [67] observed slightly higher thermal ef-
ciency for soybean oil methyl ester compared to mineral diesel as
fuel. They explained this increase in thermal efciency from the
fact that biodiesel contained small amount of oxygen which acted
as combustion promoter and led towards complete combustion of
biodiesel blended fuels. Ceviz et al. [68] observed that with the use
of hazelnut oil methyl ester as fuel in a four stroke direct injection
diesel engine, the effective efciency increased by about 12% for
B20 compared to mineral diesel. While experimenting on single
cylinder air cooled (using radial fan) diesel engine, Rath et al. [69]
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821 805

observed slight improvement in brake thermal efciency using efciency with load is lower with biodiesel than with diesel.
neat karanja oil methyl ester instead of mineral diesel. At the same However, the difference in efciency with mahua biodiesel and
operating condition, the brake thermal efciency with diesel was diesel remains almost same at all load conditions. The maximum
28.25%, whereas the thermal efciency with neat karanja biodiesel decreases in brake thermal efciency for mahua, jatropha and
was found to be 32.5%. The authors explained that the higher used palm biodiesels are noted to be 13%, 7.2% and 7.26% respec-
viscosity of karanja oil methyl ester increased the mechanical tively with respect to neat diesel. So, it can be concluded from
efciency of the engine and that resulted to the improvement of these case studies that the brake thermal efciency decreases in
brake thermal efciency. general when biodiesels are used instead of diesel under the same
From another experimental study by Raheman and Ghadge [70] operating conditions.
on the indirect injection Ricardo E6 diesel engine with pre-
combustion chamber, it was reported that at a compression ratio 3.2. Effect on brake specic fuel consumption
of 18:1 and injection timing of 40 bTDC, brake thermal efciency
obtained using mahua biodiesel was comparable to that with neat Brake specic fuel consumption is one of the most important
diesel fuel. Also, it was observed by Canakci [71] and Zhu et al. [72] parameters to describe the performance of an engine and is
that there was no such signicant change in brake thermal ef- dened as the fuel consumption rate to produce unit brake power.
ciency of biodiesel in comparison to petro diesel when used in an Generally, the specic fuel consumption of the blended fuel is
unmodied diesel engine. Kong and Kimber [73] used neem bio- more because of the lower heating value of biodiesel than con-
diesel in large diesel engines having capacity in the range of MW. ventional diesel. The heating value of biodiesel is less than that of
They observed a slight decrease in brake thermal efciency at diesel due to around 11% oxygen content in the fuel which does
higher load while using neem biodiesel as fuel. Finally, they con- not contribute to heat generation during combustion inside the
cluded that on an average the thermal efciency with neem-diesel cylinder [25]. The variations in specic fuel consumption rate
blend was comparable to that of diesel. An et al. [74] experimented using biodiesel as fuel for various operating conditions of engines
with waste cooking oil biodiesel on a four cylinder, four-stroke, as adopted by different researchers in the elds of alternative fuels
turbocharged, direct injection Euro IV diesel engine at different during the past few decades have been reviewed and presented in
speeds and two load conditions. At full load condition, biodiesel this section.
and biodieseldiesel blended fuels gave better brake thermal Gumus [56] observed that the brake specic fuel consumption
efciency than that of diesel. However, at part load (25% of full increased when hazelnut kernel oil methyl ester was used as the
load) condition the result was found to be quite different and a complete replacement of mineral diesel as CI engine fuel. It was
reverse trend was observed. It was attributed to low fuel/air because of its low heat content and higher viscous nature that
equivalence ratios of biodiesel at part load, which could not turn increased the fuel consumption rate. About 22.66% increase in
its oxygenated nature to be an advantage at that stage. Also it was BSFC was observed throughout the load range. It was also reported
reported that higher kinematic viscosity of biodiesel pre- that the brake specic fuel consumption decreased with the
dominated the atomization process as well as mixing with air and advancement of injection timing, increase in compression ratio
led to a poorer combustion, thus thermal efciency was reduced. and injection pressure. Laforgia and Ardito [64] also reported the
To have a better idea about the variation of brake thermal same kind of behavior with biodiesel and the reasons behind this
efciencies of CI engines fueled with different biodiesels, some of kind of behavior were also same as explained by Gumus [56].
the results reported in the literature have been partially repro- Utlua and Kocak [77] conducted an experimental study on a four
duced and presented in Fig. 4(a)(c) as case studies. cylinder, direct injection, turbocharged, intercooled diesel engine
It has been observed that Puhan et al. [75], Banapurmath et al. using waste frying oil methyl ester and reported that the brake
[76] and Sharon et al. [27] carried out the investigations using very specic fuel consumption with waste frying oil methyl ester was
similar type of experimental setup. The corresponding results 14.34% higher than that of diesel fuel. They concluded that the low
using methyl esters of mahua, jatropha and used palm oil as fuels heating value and the higher density of waste frying oil methyl
have been shown in Fig. 4(a)(c) respectively. The gures show ester were responsible for the increased fuel consumption rate.
that the efciencies with the above said three biodiesels are lower Raheman and Ghadge [65] investigated the effect of compres-
than that of diesel fuels. It can further be noted from gures that sion ratio (varied from 18:1 to 20:1) and ignition timing (varied
the efciency increases with load upto certain value in all the from 35 to 45 bTDC) on the performance of a Ricardo E6 engine.
cases for all fuels including neat diesel. But, the rate of increase of They found that lower compression ratio and retarded ignition

35 32 35

28
Brake Thermal Efficiency (%)
Brake Thermal Efficiency (%)

Brake Thermal Efficiency (%)

30
30
24
25
20 25
20
16
15
20
12
10
8
15
5 Diesel 4 Diesel Diesel
Mahua Biodiesel Jatropha Biodiesel Used Palm Biodiesel
0 0 10
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Brake Power (kW) Brake Power (kW) Brake Power (kW)

Fig. 4. Effect of different biodiesels on brake thermal efciency.

806 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821
timing caused a poorer combustion of biodiesel and it led to an
increase of specic fuel consumption by 38.3% for neat biodiesel
than that of diesel. At higher compression ratio, the increment
reduced to 22.4% only. It was attributed to the lowering of viscosity
and increase in volatility of biodiesel which yielded relatively
better performance at higher compression ratio. The advancement
of injection timing showed that mean BSFC was reduced by 15.8%
for 10 advancement of fuel injection and the major portion
(almost 11%) of this was recorded for 5 advancement from 35
bTDC to 40 bTDC. In another study by Raheman and Ghadge [70]
on the same test setup and same test fuels, at xed compression
ratio of 18:1 and static injection timing of 40 bTDC, brake specic
fuel consumption was found to be 41.4% higher for 100% mahua
biodiesel than that of diesel because of 12% low caloric value and
4% higher viscosity of mahua biodiesel compared to those of diesel
fuel. Kaplan et al. [78] experimented on a Peugeot make medium
duty diesel engine with sunower oil methyl ester as fuel. They
found that the fuel consumption with sunower oil methyl ester
was higher than mineral diesel. The 10% lower caloric value of
sunower oil methyl ester with respect to diesel was the main
reason behind this kind of behavior, as pointed out by them.
Hasimoglu et al. [79] conducted an experimental study with
Mercedes Benz, four cylinder, turbocharged, direct injection diesel
engine using rened sunower oil methyl ester (biodiesel) as fuel.
They observed a 13% increase in the specic fuel consumption
with biodiesel. This type of behavior was due to the combined
effect of lower heating value and higher density as reported by
Hasimoglu and the co-authors. Qi et al. [80] studied the effect of
soybean oil methyl ester on the performance, emission and com-
bustion of a single cylinder, naturally aspirated, four stroke, water
cooled, direct injection, high speed diesel engine. It was reported
by them that the 10.2% lower heating value of soybean oil methyl
ester resulted about 11% higher biodiesel consumption rate than
diesel for a desired amount of power output. An experimental
investigation was carried out by Canakci [71] on a John Deere, four
cylinder, four stroke, turbocharged, direct injection diesel engine
using diesel and soybean biodiesel. He noted a 13.8% higher value
of brake specic fuel consumption in case of biodiesel with respect
to mineral diesel. Zhu et al. [72] conducted an experimental study
in an Isuzu naturally aspirated, water cooled, four cylinder, direct
injection diesel engine using waste cooking oil biodiesel and its
blends with ethanol and diesel. It was found that BSFC increased
approximately by 13% with biodiesel mainly due to the lower
caloric value of biodiesel compared to Euro V diesel fuel.
Puhan et al. [57] used linseed oil methyl ester in a single
cylinder, four stroke, constant speed, vertical, air cooled, direct
injection diesel engine. They observed approximately about 9%
increase in specic fuel consumption with linseed oil methyl ester
throughout the load range compared to that of diesel under the
same operating conditions. Higher viscosity and low caloric value
of biodiesel were identied to be the possible reasons for the
increase of fuel consumption rate. Anand et al. [81] observed that
BSFC of waste cooking oil biodiesel and diesel blended fuel was
17% higher compared to mineral diesel due to the combined effect
of higher viscosity and lower caloric value of waste cooking oil
biodiesel, while using in a single cylinder, four cylinder, naturally
aspirated diesel engine. Ozsezen et al. [58] experimented with
waste palm oil methyl ester and canola oil methyl ester in a Ford
Cargo, six cylinder, naturally aspirated, direct injection diesel
engine and found that specic fuel consumption rates of the tested
biodiesels were higher than that of petroleum based diesel fuel by
7.45% and 6.18% respectively. According to them, that kind of
behavior was due to the higher density, which resulted in higher
amount (mass basis) of biodiesel injection in the combustion
chamber for the production of same amount of power output.
Also, poorer atomization slowed down the fuelair mixture for-
mation rate due to the higher kinematic viscosity of biodiesel.
Agarwal and Dhar [60] used neat karanja oil and preheated
karanja oil for their experimental study. It was reported by them
that higher viscosity of karanja oil caused poorer atomization and
increased the fuel consumption compared to diesel. It was also
reported that the viscosity of the oil reduced due to preheating of
the karanja oil, which resulted better atomization and combustion,
thus the fuel consumption rate was found to be less than that of
normal karanja oil. The increments of fuel consumption rate were
found to be approximately 39% and 17% respectively for non-
preheated straight vegetable oil of karanja and preheated karanja
oil. Song and Zhang [67] experimented on a four cylinder, four
stroke, supercharged, direct injection diesel engine with soybean
oil methyl ester. It was observed that lower caloric value and
higher density of soybean oil methyl ester caused a higher amount
of biodiesel supply (by weight) to the combustion chamber due to
higher discharge of fuel injection pump and resulted in higher
BSFC value than mineral diesel.
McCarthy et al. [82] conducted an experimental study on a
vertical, liquid cooled diesel engine and found an increase in BSFC
of about 7% and 10% compared to that of diesel respectively for the
mixture of animal tallow (80%)-canola oil methyl ester (20%) and
chicken tallow (70%)-waste cooking oil methyl ester (30%). This
was attributed to the lower caloric value or energy content of
biodiesel. Ceviz et al. [68] experimented with hazelnut oil methyl
ester (biodiesel) as CI engine fuel and reported that brake specic
fuel consumption increased for B100 blend approximately by 12%
and decreased for B20 blend by 8.2% compared to diesel. This kind
of behavior was thought to be due to better combustion with B20.
But caloric value of the fuel decreased by a large amount when
B100 was used and this was not compensated even by the
improved combustion of the fuel. Aksoy [83] experimented on a
single cylinder, four stroke, air cooled diesel engine with a pre-
combustion chamber using waste frying oil methyl ester and
soybean oil methyl ester. Due to the lower caloric value of bio-
diesels produced from raw soybean and waste frying oil the spe-
cic fuel consumption increased by an average of 18.5% and 14.2%
respectively compared to mineral diesel.
Rao et al. [61] also found the similar trend with jatropha bio-
diesel. The increment in BSFC was noted to be marginal in case of
jatropha biodiesel. Ycesu and lkili [84] experimented on a sin-
gle cylinder, four stroke, direct injection, air cooled Lombardini
engine using cotton seed oil methyl ester and found about 8%
higher fuel consumption of biodiesel compared to diesel. This was
mainly because of the higher mass and lower caloric value of the
ester which resulted in higher volume of fuel accumulation during
combustion of biodiesel than that of diesel. Yadav and Singh [85]
also reported an increment of brake specic fuel consumption
during experimentation on a single cylinder, four stroke diesel
engine with jatropha, karanja and neem biodiesels because of
their lower energy content approximately by 10% than diesel. In
case of a lower amount blend of karanja oil methyl ester (B15 and
B20), a reverse trend was observed by Mahanta et al. [59] during
an experimental study on a water cooled, direct injection, four
stroke diesel engine. It was reported by them that due to 10%
higher oxygen content of biodiesel it exhibited better combustion
characteristics and hence the fuel consumption with B15 and B20
blended fuels was approximately 14% lower at full load condition
compared to diesel.
Deore and Jahagirdar [66] observed that with jatropha biodie-
sel at compression ratio 18 and lower load, the specic fuel con-
sumption was lower than diesel by 9.61% and at higher load it was
higher than diesel by 3.57%. It was also observed that specic fuel
consumption was lower than diesel by 6% at lower load and higher
than diesel by 5% at higher load corresponding to a compression
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821
ratio of 16. On the other hand, the increase in BSFC with jatropha
biodiesel was more at compression ratio 14 and it was about 29%
higher than diesel. In case of karanja biodiesel, the specic fuel
consumption was higher than jatropha biodiesel by about 11 to
30% for different compression ratios at low loads. The authors
pointed out that the differences in density and viscosity among
different biodiesel and diesel were responsible for this kind of
behavior.
At the end of this section, it can be said that except a few,
almost all the studies showed an increase of BSFC in the range of
515% for different biodiesels. For further illustration and com-
parison experimental results from the work of Puhan et al. [75]
and Sharon et al. [27] have been plotted in Fig. 5(a) and
(b) respectively for mahua and used palm oil biodiesels.
It can be seen from both the gures that the specic fuel
consumption rates of both the biodiesels are higher than that of
diesel over the entire load range. The maximum increase in BSFC
noted are not to be 20% and 14.55% with mahua and used palm oil
biodiesel respectively.
3.3. Effect on exhaust gas temperature
Exhaust gas temperature is an indicator of the heat release rate
of the tested fuel during combustion period [86] and its effective
utilization to produce power. It depends on the nature of com-
bustion and the heat loss to the exhaust which again depends on
the fuel consumption rate. The higher fuel consumption rate
results higher amount of heat rejection, which causes higher
exhaust gas temperature [41]. Generally, the fuel consumption
with biodiesel is higher than that with diesel and also the com-
bustion is improved due to the presence of excess oxygen in the
fuel itself. These set the general trend of increased exhaust gas
temperature with biodiesel fuels.
Godiganur et al. [38] experimented on a Cummins made six
cylinder turbocharged diesel engine using diesel, mahua oil
methyl ester and its blends with diesel as fuels. They observed an
increase in exhaust gas temperature with the increase in engine
load. The exhaust gas temperature was found to increase with the
percentage increase of biodiesel in the blended fuel. The mean EGT
of the engine with neat mahua oil methyl ester was noted to be
nearly 12% higher than that with diesel. The trend was due to
more heat loss with biodiesel as explained by Godiganur and co-
researchers. Buyukkaya [87] experimentally investigated the
effects of rapeseed biodiesel and its blends with diesel on engine
performance, emission and combustion of a six cylinder turbo-
charged diesel engine. They reported that with increase in bio-
diesel share in the blended fuel the exhaust temperature increased
1.4
Diesel
1.2 Mahua Biodiesel
1.0
BSFC (kg/kWh)
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
0 1 2 3
Brake Power (kW)
Fig. 5. Effect of different biodiesels on brake specic fuel consumption.
807
and the maximum exhaust temperature with B100 rapeseed bio-
diesel was found to be approximately 490 C, whereas the corre-
sponding value with diesel fuel was noted to be 475 C running at
a relatively high speed of 2100 rpm. Datta et al. [88] experimented
on a double cylinder, four stroke, diesel engine fueled with jatro-
pha oil methyl ester and its blends with diesel. They observed an
increase in exhaust gas temperature with jatropha oil methyl ester
and its blends due to the higher ame temperature of jatropha
biodiesel compared to that with diesel.
Puhan et al. [75] conducted an experimental study on a four
stroke, compression ignition, constant speed, vertical, water
cooled, direct injection diesel engine using mahua oil methyl ester
as fuel. It was reported by them that exhaust gas temperature of
methyl ester of mahua oil was higher than that of mineral diesel
approximately by 3.7%. They identied the longer duration of after
burning period to be responsible for higher exhaust gas tem-
perature. Behet [86] observed an increment of exhaust gas tem-
perature approximately by 12% compared to that of diesel when
fueled with anchovy sh biodiesel during experimentation on a
single cylinder direct injection diesel engine at a constant speed of
3600 rpm. The possible reason of higher exhaust gas temperature
with anchovy sh biodiesel might be the higher oxygen content of
it, which led to better combustion. This increased combustion
temperature as well as the exhaust temperature. Higher viscosity
and density of biodiesel were also identied by the author as
inuencing parameters for increase of exhaust gas temperature. In
an experimental investigation, Banapurmath et al. [62] observed
that the exhaust gas temperature increased with marotti oil
methyl ester (biodiesel) compared to diesel. They explained the
above fact on the basis of the poor volatility, high viscosity and the
slower combustion of marotti oil methyl ester.
Reverse trend was also observed by Kegl [89] while experimenting
on a four stroke, six cylinder, in line, water cooled bus engine with
rapeseed biodiesel. This type of behavior might be due to the low
heating value of biodiesel as reported in this study. Lin et al. [44]
experimented on a single cylinder, four stroke, water cooled, direct
injection diesel engine with various kinds of biodiesels prepared from
eight different oils namely, soybean, peanut, corn, sunower, rapeseed,
palm, palm kernel and waste fried oil using methanol as alcohol
during transesterication. They observed that the exhaust gas tem-
peratures with those biodiesels were slightly lower than that with
diesel. It was reported by them that the lower energy content of those
biodiesels reduced total heat release during combustion and hence the
exhaust gas temperature reduced. Sureshkumara et al. [90] experi-
mented on a single cylinder, four stroke, water cooled diesel engine at
a constant speed of 1500 rpm with karanja oil methyl ester. They
reported a lower exhaust gas temperature for karanja oil methyl ester
Diesel
0.7
Used Palm Biodiesel
0.6
BSFC (kg/kWh)
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
4 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Brake Power (kW)
808 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821
compared to that of diesel. Oxygenated nature of the biodiesel which
led to more complete combustion was held responsible for this kind of
variation.
On the other hand, Raheman and Phadatare [41] reported that
there was no such signicant change in exhaust gas temperature
between karanja oil methyl ester and diesel due to nearly same
amount of heat loss at the exhaust.
To summarize the variation of exhaust gas temperature from
biodiesel fueled CI engines, some results related to exhaust gas
temperature from two different experimental works carried out by
Puhan et al. [75] and Datta et al. [88] are presented in Fig. 6(a) and
(b) respectively and discussed.
Fig. 6(a) and (b) clearly show that the exhaust gas temperatures
using mahua biodiesel and jatropha biodiesel as fuels are higher
than those with diesel under the same operating condition.
3.4. Summary of performance analysis
The performance related information under normal operating
conditions as observed by several researchers with different bio-
diesels and their blends with diesel have been summarized and
presented in Table 4. The increase and decrease in different per-
formance parameters as shown in the above mentioned table are
with respect to mineral diesel only.
It can be noted from the table that brake thermal efciency
decreases in most of the cases by around 10% for neat biodiesel
(B100). The decrease is marginal in case of B10 and B20 blends.
The decrease is much more with straight vegetable oil. The BSFC
increases by more than 10% for neat biodiesel. The exhaust gas
temperature is normally higher with biodiesel and its blends with
diesel. The maximum decrease in brake thermal efciency is noted
to be 27% with karanja biodiesel. On the other hand, the maximum
increase of brake specic fuel consumption is found to be 38.3%
with neat mahua biodiesel. A 20% increase of exhaust gas tem-
perature with neat jatopha biodiesel is reported to be highest
among all the studies reviewed in this work. The opposite trend,
i.e., increase in brake thermal efciency and decrease in BSFC as
well as exhaust gas temperature are also found in few cases.
Brake thermal efciency of an engine depends upon the
properties of the fuel such as lower heating value (caloric value),
viscosity and density. In case of neat biodiesel or dieselbiodiesel
blended fuels, caloric value of the fuel is less compared to that of
neat diesel and viscosity and density are higher. The decrease in
lower heating value is mainly responsible for the higher BSFC in
case of biodiesel. This higher fuel consumption and the improve-
ment in combustion due to the oxygen enrichment with biodiesel
result in higher exhaust gas temperatures. The analysis of all the
300
Diesel
Exhasut Gas Temperature ( C)
Mahua Biodiesel
250
200
150
100
50
0 220
0 1 2 3
Brake Power (kW)
Fig. 6. Effect of different biodiesels on exhaust gas temperature.
experimental studies suggests that it will be benecial and wise if
biodieseldiesel blends having 1020% biodiesel are used with
little sacrice in the performance of the engine.
4. Effect of biodiesel on engine emissions
The increased use of fossil fuels in the form of diesel and petrol,
particularly in the automobile sector and the continuously grow-
ing emission of harmful pollutants from the tail pipe of engines are
largely responsible for several diseases and fast degradation of the
global environment. The hydrocarbon emitted from the exhaust of
the automobiles forms ground-level ozone which is the major
component of smog. Ozone affects human beings causing lung
decease, eye irritation and respiratory problems. Hence, it is now
almost mandatory for any fuel to be used as automobile fuel to
meet the stringent emission norms set by the different regulating
authorities throughout the world. Keeping this in mind, the
emissions from different biodiesel fueled CI engines have been
critically reviewed and summarized based on the diversied
works reported in the literature. The major pollutants from the
engine exhaust that have been identied and considered for this
review work are CO, CO2, NOx, hydrocarbon and smoke. The effect
of biodiesel addition to diesel in different proportions on the
above said emissions from CI engines has been presented and
discussed in the next few sections.
4.1. Effect on CO emission
Carbon monoxide (CO) is produced by the incomplete com-
bustion of carbon-containing substances. The carbon present in
any fuel is converted to CO2 and CO (product of incomplete com-
bustion) during burning of fuel in the presence of oxygen within
the engine cylinder. It is obvious that the emissions of CO2 and CO
are interrelated i.e., if CO2 emission increases then CO emission
decreases naturally. It is expected that CO emission will decrease
with the increasing biodiesel percentage in the biodieselmineral
diesel blends as biodiesel itself contains 11% oxygen in its mole-
cules. Some of the previous experimental works on the effect on
CO emission while using biodiesel and dieselbiodiesel blends as
fuel for compression ignition engine have been presented and
analyzed in this section.
The effect of adding mahua oil methyl ester to diesel on the
engine emission was studied by Godiganur et al. [38]. It was
observed that CO emission decreased with diesel/biodiesel blends
due to more complete oxidation of biodiesel than that of diesel.
Some of the CO formed during combustion was further oxidized
340
Diesel
Exhaust Gas Temperature ( C)
Jatropha Biodiesel
320
300
280
260
240
4 1 2 3 4 5 6
Brake Power (kW)
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821 809

Table 4
Performances of different biodiesel fueled engines compared to diesel at normal operating condition.

Name of researchers Biodiesel and it blends BTE BSFC EGT

Godiganur et al. [38] Mahua oil; B20, B40, B60, B100 decrease increase increase 12% for
B100
Raheman and Phadatare Karanja oil; B20, B40, B60, B80, B100 increase for B20 and B40, decrease 0.87.4% for B20 and No signicant
[41] decrease for B60, B80 and B40, increase 1148% for B60, B80 change
B100 and B100
Lin et al. [44] Soybean oil, peanut oil, corn oil, sunower oil, increase decrease
rapeseed oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil and waste
fried oil; B100
Gumus [56] Hazelnut kernel oil; B5, B20, B50, B100 decrease increase 22.66%
Puhan et al. [57] Linseed oil; B100 decrease increase 9%
Ozsezen et al. [58] Waste palm oil and canola oil; B100 decrease 1.42% and 0.12% increase 7.45% and 6.18%
Mahanta et al. [59] Karanja oil; B15, B20 decrease 27% decrease 14%
Agarwal and Dhar [60] Neat and preheated karanja oil (SVO); 100% (neat) decrease 45% and 25% increase 39% and 17% increase 64%
Rao et al. [61] Jatropha oil; B20, B40, B60, B80, B100 decrease increase increase
Banapurmath et al. [62] Marotti oil; B10, B15, B20, B100 decrease increase
Banapurmath et al. [63] Honge oil; B100 decrease increase
Laforgia and Ardito [64] Not Mentioned; B100 increase 10% increase
Raheman and Ghadge Mahua oil; B20, B40, B60, B80, B100 decrease 11.3% for B100 increase 38.3% for B100 increase 14% for
[65] B100
Deore and Jahagirdar Jatropha and karanja oil; B100 increase 9.29% for jatropha decrease 9.61% at lower load and
[66] 3.57% at higher load for jatropha
Song and Zhang [67] Soybean oil; B10, B20, B30, B50, B80, B100 increase increase
Ceviz et al. [68] Hazelnut oil; B20, B40, B60, B80, B100 increase 12% for B20 and decrease 8.2% B20 and increase
decrease 1.5% B100 12% for B100
Rath et al. [69] Karanja oil; B5, B10, B15, B20, B30, B40, B50 and increase decrease increase
B100
Raheman and Ghadge Mahua oil; B20, B40, B60, B80, B100 decrease 10.1% for B100 increase 41.4% for B100 increase 16% for
[70] B100
Canakci [71] Soybean oil; B20, B100 decrease 0.34 for B20 and increase 2.9% for B20, increase
increase 0.24 for B100 13.8% for B100
Zhu et al. [72] Waste cooking oil; B100 increase increase 13%
Kong and Kimber [73] Neem oil; B10, B20, B100 decrease
An et al. [74] Waste cooking oil; B10, B50, B100 increase
Puhan et al. [75] Mahua oil; B100 increase increase 3.7%
Utlua and Kocak [77] Waste frying oil; B100 increase 14.34% decrease 6.35%
Kaplan et al. [78] Sunower oil; B100 increase
Hasimoglu et al. [79] Rened sunower oil; B100 increase 13% decrease
Qi et al. [80] Soybean oil; B100 increase 11%
Anand et al. [81] Waste cooking oil; B10, B20, B40, B80, B100 decrease increase 17% for B100
McCarthy et al. [82] Animal tallow (80%)-canola oil methyl ester (20%) increase 7% and 10%
and chicken tallow (70%)-waste cooking oil
methyl ester (30%)
Aksoy [83] Waste frying oil and soybean oil; B100 increase 18.5% and 14.2%
Ycesu and lkili [84] Cotton seed oil; B100 increase 8% decrease 12%
Yadav and Singh [85] Jatropha, karanja and neem oil; B100 decrease increase increase
Behet [86] Waste anchovy sh oil; B25, B50, B75, B100 decrease 7.39% for B100 increase 8.32% for B100 increase 12% for
B100
Buyukkaya [87] Rapeseed oil; B5, B20, B70, B100 increase increase 7.5% for B100 increase 3% for
B100
Datta et al. [88] Jatropha oil; B10, B20, B40, B50, B100 decrease increase increase 20% for
B100
Kegl [89] Rapeseed oil; B100 comparable increase decrease
Sureshkumara et al. [90] Karanja oil; B20, B40, B60, B80, B100 increase decrease

and converted to CO2 due to the presence of certain amount of
oxygen in biodiesel itself. It was also observed that CO emission
initially decreased with load and later on increased sharply upto
the full load. Nabi et al. [45] experimented on a single cylinder,
water cooled, naturally aspirated, four stroke, direct injection
diesel engine using cotton seed oil biodiesel and reported that CO
emission with biodiesel was lower than that of diesel fuel. In case
of B30 blend of cotton seed oil, CO emission was reduced by 24% in
comparison to neat diesel fuel. They also concluded that the oxi-
dation process of CO to CO2 was enhanced due to the presence of
oxygen in biodiesel fuel.
Zou and Atkinson [91] carried out experiments on two vehicles,
namely Toyota Helix Utility with oxidation catalytic converter and
Volswagen Wolf without oxidation catalytic converter using canola
biodiesel. They used standard testing cycle of diesel engine for this
study. The Euro 2 drive cycle test was consisted of four urban
driving cycle test with a maximum speed of 50 km/h and one urban
driving cycle test with a maximum speed of 120 km/h. The sam-
pling time for the emission test was 1200 seconds. They observed a
narrow range of reduction (about 10%) of CO emission with bio-
diesel as compared to that of diesel. During a comparative study by
Rakopoulos et al. [43] on a four stroke, direct injection (DI), Ricardo/
Cussons Hydra Diesel engine with methyl esters of cottonseed oil,
soybean oil, sunower oil, rapeseed oil and palm oil blended with
diesel (10% and 20% blend), it was observed that CO emission was
slightly reduced with the use of biodiesel blends in comparison to
that of the neat diesel fuel. The maximum reduction was noted with
cotton seed biodiesel and it was approximately 14%.
It was observed by elikten et al. [46] that CO emission reduced
while using rapeseed and soybean oil methyl esters as fuels in a
four cylinder diesel engine. At higher injection pressure of 350 bar,
it was also observed that CO emission decreased by 21% and 28%
810 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821
respectively for rapeseed and soybean biodiesel. Raheman and
Phadatare [41] observed a huge reduction of CO emission while
using karanja oil methyl ester and its blends with diesel instead of
mineral diesel. CO emission was found to be reduced by nearly 74%
when neat karanja biodiesel was used instead of mineral diesel.
Kegl [89] reported that more reduction in CO emission at tailpipe
using biodiesel was achieved by retarding the injection timing.
Randazzo and Sodr [92] experimented on a station wagon having
turbo-charged, four cylinder diesel engine of compression ratio
17.6:1. The test vehicle was also equipped with a platinumrho-
dium catalytic converter and exhaust gas recirculation valve to
reduce pollutant emissions and NOx respectively. The results
showed that addition of soybean biodiesel to diesel had little
inuence in lowering CO emission. But the addition of ethanol
increased the CO emission signicantly. The possible reason
behind this increment was the higher latent heat of vaporization
of ethanol, which led to a reduction of combustion temperature
and resulted in decrease of oxidation rate of CO into CO2.
Lin et al. [93] experimented on a Cummins direct injection
heavy duty diesel engine having compression ratio of 17.9:1 at
constant injection pressure of 250 bar and injection timing of 12.3
bTDC with waste cooking oil biodiesel. They reported decrease of
CO emission by 3.33% to 13.1% with the use of different blends (B5-
B30) of the above said biodiesel and ultra low sulfur diesel. Yoon
and Lee [94] experimented on a four cylinder, turbocharged diesel
engine and employed both single fuel and dual fuel mode with
biogas and biodiesel. In both the conditions, the CO concentration
was found to be lower with biodiesel due to 11% higher oxygen
content of biodiesel. This led to complete combustion resulting
lower CO emission.
In an experimental study on a four cylinder, inline turbo-
charged diesel engine with intercooler using karanja biodiesel and
its blend with methanol as fuels, it was observed by Anand et al.
[42] that CO emission was approximately 46.5% lower at higher
load for biodieselmethanol blend compared to neat biodiesel. The
more complete combustion due to the oxygen enrichment with
methanol blending was found to be the reason for this kind of
behavior. Nabi et al. [50] experimented on a single cylinder four
stroke diesel engine with diesel and its blends with neem bio-
diesel. They observed a 4% reduction of CO emission in case of
dieselneem biodiesel blends compared to that of conventional
diesel fuel. In another experimental study by Datta et al. [88]
observed that, in case of jatropha oil methyl ester and its blends,
the CO emission was reduced by 24% compared to diesel. It was
also reported by them that, due to more complete combustion, CO
was decreased with biodiesel and its blends. Also, the presence of
oxygen in biodiesel and higher combustion temperature set
favorable conditions for oxidation of CO to CO2.
It was also observed by Puhan et al. [75,95] during experi-
mental studies on Kirloskar made single cylinder, four stroke
diesel engine fueled with mahua oil alkyl esters that the higher
oxygen content (about 1012%) of mahua oil methyl and ethyl
esters enhanced the combustion process and thus oxidized the CO
into CO2. It was reported that the difference in cetane number, and
energy content of biodiesel and petro-diesel were also responsible
for this kind of behavior. The reduction in CO emission with mahua
biodiesel was reported to be approximately 6779% compared to
that of diesel. Puhan and Nagarajan [96] experimented on the
same test rig and also observed the same trend for mahua oil ethyl
esters. Similar type of behavior was observed with cotton seed oil
methyl ester by Aydin and Bayindir [97] while using the biodiesel
on a single cylinder, direct injection, four stroke, water cooled
diesel engine. Gumus and Kasifoglu [98] experimented on a
Lombardini single cylinder diesel engine using apricot seed kernel
oil methyl ester and its blends with diesel as fuels. A reduction of
CO emission was observed by them and they concluded that the
reduction in CO emission was mainly due to oxygen content of
biodiesel which improved the combustion process. Behet [86]
also observed a reduction in CO emission while using waste
anchovy sh biodiesel and the maximum reduction was found to
be 31.2%. Sureshkumara et al. [90] also reported that karanja bio-
diesel emitted lower amount of CO compared to diesel.
It was observed by Swaminathan and Sarangan [99] during an
experimental study on a Kirloskar made single cylinder, four
stroke, direct injection diesel engine, that the addition of diethy-
lene glycol dimethyl ether to pongamia methyl ester (karanja
biodiesel) reduced CO emission. At full load condition, the reduc-
tion was observed to be 44%. The additives provided extra oxygen
to oxidize CO. Amarnath and Prabhakaran [100] experimented on
a Kirloskar made single cylinder, four stroke, water cooled diesel
engine using karanja oil methyl ester and also observed a reduc-
tion of CO emission. It was also pointed out by them that at higher
compression ratio the CO emission further reduced due to better
combustion. In addition, they tried to examine the effect of
injection pressure on CO emission and observed a reduction of it at
higher injection pressure. The availability of more surface area for
combustion of very ne droplets under this condition resulted to
almost complete combustion, which led to a less amount of CO at
tailpipe. Bayrakeken [101] experimented on a single cylinder, four
stroke, air cooled diesel engine fueled with crude and rened
soybean oil methyl ester. They observed that CO emission
decreased with both crude and rened soybean oil methyl ester by
11.98% and 6.96% respectively in comparison to that with mineral
diesel.
Venkata Subbaiah and Raja Gopal [102] experimented on a
single cylinder, four stroke, water cooled diesel engine with rice
bran oil biodiesel and ethanol blending with mineral diesel. They
reported that with rice bran oil biodiesel CO emission decreased
compared to that with diesel by 25.8%. Small amount of ethanol
addition to biodiesel decreased the CO emission compared to that
of biodiesel, but when the percentage of ethanol in the blends
became more than 7.5%, higher amount of CO emission was
observed than that with biodiesel. More complete combustion
with cotton seed oil methyl ester reduced the CO emission com-
pared to that with diesel as observed by Aydin and Bayindir [103]
during their study on a Rainbow-186, direct injection, single
cylinder diesel engine. The same trend was noted by Ulusoy et al.
[104] and Sharma et al. [105] with sunower oil methyl ester and
neem biodiesel respectively. Ulusoy et al. [104] used a heavy duty
turbo diesel engine during the study whereas agri-genset engine
was used by Mathur et al. [105]. A signicant reduction (29%) in CO
emission was observed by Aydin and lkili [112] with rapeseed
methyl ester compared to that with diesel while experimenting on
a similar type of test engine as used by Aydin and Bayindir [103].
lkili [106] observed approximately 30% reduction in CO
emission from a Lombardini, single cylinder, air cooled diesel
engine under different injection pressures when sunower oil
methyl ester was used as fuel instead of diesel. Shirneshan [107]
experimented on a four cylinder, water cooled, heavy duty diesel
engine with waste frying oil methyl ester and reported that the CO
emission decreased with the addition of waste frying oil methyl
ester (biodiesel) to diesel. In another study by Ranganathan and
Sampath [108] on a four stroke, single cylinder, air cooled, direct
injection diesel engine with cotton seed oil biodiesel, it was found
that CO emission was approximately 26% less than that with neat
diesel. The extra oxygen available in the biodiesel molecule
enhanced the combustion process and reduced the CO emission as
mentioned by them. Rao et al. [114] also used cotton seed oil
biodiesel on a single cylinder, direct injection diesel engine and
found that CO emission decreased by 18% and 24% using B25 and
B100 blend of used cotton seed oil biodiesel respectively.
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821
0.12
Diesel
Mahua Biodiesel
0.10
CO (% volume)
CO (% volume)
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00
0 1 2 3 4 0
Brake Power (kW)
Fig. 7. Effect of different biodiesels on CO emission.
On the other hand, some researchers found some opposite
trend of CO emission with the use of different biodiesels. Sahoo
et al. [40] experimented on a three cylinder water cooled tractor
engine using jatopha, karanja and polanga based biodiesel for
three different engine speeds. They adopted the 8 mode test cycle
of ISO 8178 type C1 for conforming the Euro 2 standard. During
experimentation, they observed that CO emission increased gra-
dually with blending of higher concentration of biodiesel to diesel
except karanja biodiesel. They indicated that the non-homogenous
nature of the blended fuels and the higher latent heat of vapor-
ization resulted poorer combustion and hence more CO formation.
An air cooled, single cylinder, four stroke, DEUTZ F1L511, direct
injection diesel engine was employed by Huzayyin et al. [109] for
experimentation with mixture of jojoba oil and gas oil as fuel. They
observed that with the increase in jojoba oil percentage in the fuel
blend, CO emission increased. It was observed by Saleh [49] during
an experimental study on a two cylinder, four stroke, water cooled
diesel engine, that with the use of jojoba oil methyl ester as fuel
increased the CO emission compared to that of diesel due to the
higher viscosity of biodiesel which led to poorer atomization and
poorer distribution of airfuel mixture.
Pugazhvadivu and Jeyachandran [110] observed an increment
in CO emission using waste frying oil (without preheating) as fuel
on a Kirloskar made single cylinder diesel engine. The increment
was attributed to the higher viscosity of waste frying oil, which led
to poorer combustion and formation of locally rich airfuel mix-
ture zone and thus, suitable condition for CO formation was cre-
ated. Heavier molecular structure and higher viscosity of honge,
jatropha and sesame oil methyl esters led to poor atomization and
resulted to a higher CO emission for biodiesel compared to diesel
as observed by Banapurmath et al. [76] during an experimental
study on a Kirloskar made single cylinder, variable compression
ratio, computerized diesel engine.
Baiju et al. [39] conducted an experimental study on a single
cylinder, four stroke, naturally aspirated, constant speed com-
pression ignition engine using blends of karanja oil methyl ester
and ethyl ester with diesel. With karanja oil methyl ester, it was
observed that at lower loads, CO emissions did not vary much for
all fuels considered by them. However, at full load, higher CO
emissions were observed with B20 blend of karanja oil ethyl ester
than any other blends of methyl ester due to the enrichment of
oxygen which resulted in better combustion with methyl ester of
karanja oil. Tsolakis et al. [111] conducted an experimental study
on a Lister-Petter TR1 naturally aspirated, air cooled, single cylin-
der direct injection diesel engine. They also employed exhaust gas
recirculation technique by adding different percentages of exhaust
gas to the intake air mainly to reduce NOx in the tailpipe. But, in
811
0.45 0.20
Diesel Diesel
0.40 Jatropha Biodiesel Used Palm Biodiesel
0.35
0.15
CO (% volume)
0.30
0.25
0.10
0.20
0.15
0.05
0.10
0.05
0.00 0.00
1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Brake Power (kW) Brake Power (kW)
case of CO emission, the effect was found to be detrimental. They
observed that rapeseed oil methyl ester emitted less amount of CO
than that of diesel in normal and 10% EGR conditions, but there
was practically no variation in CO emission between mineral diesel
and biodiesel in the case of 20% EGR. The possible reason for less
CO emission in the rst two cases was the oxygen enrichment
during the time of combustion by means of oxygenated fuels
(biodiesels). However, at 20% EGR, this effect was compensated
due to the dilution effect of the exhaust gas recirculation.
At the end of this section, the authors like to compare some
results on CO emission from CI engines using neat biodiesel and
neat diesel as fuels from the previous works of Puhan et al. [75],
Banapurmath et al. [76] and Sharon et al. [27]. It may be noted that
similar type of engine setup was used in the above said three
studies and the corresponding results on CO emissions have been
presented in Fig. 7(a)(c) respectively.
It is reected from Fig. 7(a) and (c) that the emission of CO is
lower with mahua and used palm biodiesel than that with diesel
at all loads conditions. The maximum reduction is found to be 30%
and 52.9% for mahua and used palm biodiesel respectively. On the
other hand, the emission of CO with jatropha biodiesel reported by
Banapurmath et al. [76] is higher than that with diesel at all loads
as shown in Fig. 7(c). The maximum increment is found to be
37.77% at full load condition. Poor atomization characteristics of
jatropha biodiesel due to its higher viscosity resulted in improper
mixing of biodiesel with air and led to higher CO emission. Also,
form the gures it is observed that, in general, the CO emission
increases with load. At the end of the review of CO emissions from
biodiesel fueled engines, it is observed that CO emissions from CI
engines decrease with biodiesel fuels in most of the cases. How-
ever, a few studies show even the increase of CO emission to some
extent with certain specied biodiesels under certain operating
conditions.
4.2. Effect on CO2 emission
It is well-known that complete combustion inside the com-
bustion chamber helps in increasing CO2 (carbon dioxide) emis-
sion rapidly. Although there is no possibility of occurring complete
combustion, but it may be nearly complete combustion depending
upon the engine operating conditions and the fuel used for run-
ning the engine. Most of the researches have measured CO2
emissions along with CO emission to nd a correlation between
them. CO emission has been described just in the previous section
and this section is devoted to CO2 emission. In most of the cases,
the operating conditions and engine used to study the CO2
812 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821

emissions have already been described in the previous section of
CO emission.
It was observed by Godiganur et al. [38] and Nabi et al. [45] that
the presence of excess oxygen in mahua biodiesel and cotton seed
oil biodiesel respectively resulted better combustion, which
helped to convert CO into CO2 and thus CO2 emission increased.
Fontaras et al. [47] while experimenting on new European driving
cycle observed that during cold start, tailpipe CO2 emission from
an automobile increased by 14% for B100 and 9% for B50 blend of
soybean biodiesel. But, for Artemis driving cycles, it was noted that
B50 blend had no impact on CO2 emission and for B100 it
increased only slightly. Randazzo and Sodr [92] used soybean
biodiesel upto maximum of 20% (B20) and observed that CO2
emission increased with the increase of biodiesel content in diesel
biodiesel blends. It was also reported by them that small percen-
tages of ethanol addition to B20 blend reduced CO2 emission
substantially.
Huzayyin et al. [109] observed that with the increase in jojoba
oil percentage in the blended fuel, CO2 emission increased. In an
experimental study on the emissions from dual fuel engine using
soyabean oil methyl ester as one of the fuel, Yoon and Lee [94]
observed more CO2 emission with biodiesel. They explained that
oxygen present in biodiesel allowed CO to oxidize into CO2. They
also commented that the life cycle CO2 emission was less with
soyabean biodiesel than that of diesel fuel as soyabean plants
absorbed CO2 during harvesting through the process of photo-
synthesis. Puhan et al. [75] and Puhan and Nagarajan [96] also
observed the same trend of increased CO2 emissions with methyl
ester of mahua oil and ethyl ester of mahua oil respectively.
Amarnath and Prabhakaran [100] observed that with the use of
karanja biodiesel CO2 emission increased. They also concluded that
higher oxygen content of karanja biodiesel was responsible for
more CO2 emission and less CO emission. Venkata Subbaiah and
Raja Gopal [102] also reported a higher CO2 emission with rice
bran oil biodiesel. They also noticed that when small amount of
ethanol was added to biodiesel, a further increase of CO2 emission
was observed because of the presence of oxygen in ethanol
molecules.
On the other hand, Gumus and Kasifoglu [98] observed that
apricot seed kernel oil methyl ester emitted lower amount of CO2
compared to that of diesel when used in CI engine. They concluded
that the scarcity of air in the mixture formation slowed down the
combustion process and thus decreased the formation of CO2. The
decrease of CO2 emission with biodiesel fuels was also observed by
Behet [86]. Sureshkumara et al. [90] also reported a reduction in
CO2 emission for karanja biodiesel. On the basis of the experi-
mental study already mentioned in the previous section,
Swaminathan and Sarangan [99] observed a reduction of carbon
dioxide emission in the range of 28% with the use of diethylene
glycol dimethyl additive with pongamia methyl ester. A reduction
in CO2 by 16% was observed by Aydin and lkili [112] with B20
blend of rapeseed methyl ester compared to diesel. With sun-
ower oil methyl ester, it was observed by lkili [106] that sun-
ower biodiesel produced less CO2 at all conditions. Lower CO2
emission was explained by him in the following manner. Biodiesel
is a low carbon fuel and has a lower elemental carbon to hydrogen
ratio than diesel fuel which leads to a lower CO2 emission. Shir-
neshan [107] found that for waste frying oil methyl esterdiesel
blended fuel, CO2 emission decreased compared to that with die-
sel. However, at higher concentration of biodiesel in the blended
fuels, CO2 emission increased but still remained lower than that
with neat diesel. zcanli et al. [113] noted a decrease in CO2
emission with increase in castor biodiesel content in the blended
fuel and the most probable reason behind this was reported to be
the lower elemental carbon to hydrogen ratio in the biodiesel
investigated. Rao et al. [114] also reported a reduction of CO2
emission from CI engine with the use of cotton seed oil biodiesel.
But, Zou and Atkinson [91] reported that CO2 emission remained
almost same for both 100% canola biodiesel and 100% petroleum
diesel.
On the basis of the review and analysis of the reports available
in the literature on CO2 emissions from CI engines using different
kinds of biodiesel and diesel blends, two types of opposite trends
have been identied. Quite a large number of studies showed
increase of CO2 emissions due to the improved combustion uti-
lizing the oxygen present in the biodiesel fuel itself. On the other
hand, substantial number of experimental investigations also
reported reduction of carbon dioxide in the exhaust gas from
biodiesel fueled engines. The lower elemental carbon to hydrogen
ratio in the molecular structure of biodiesel can be identied to be
the possible reason to lower the CO2 emission. Accordingly, two
results of opposite nature from the experimental works of Sharon
et al. [27] and Gumus and Kasifoglu [98] are presented in Fig. 8
(a) and (b) respectively for illustration.
It is quite evident from Fig. 8(a), that the CO2 emission of used
palm biodiesel is higher than that with diesel at all loads and a
maximum increase is noted to be 8.76%. However, the reverse type
of trend is observed in Fig. 8(b) with apricot seed kernel biodiesel
and the maximum reduction is noted to be 10.88%. Theoretical
investigation shows that the emission of CO2 from CI engines
should increase with biodiesel addition to diesel fuel because of
improved combustion due to the presence of oxygen in the
molecular structure of biodiesel. However, the lower elemental
carbon to hydrogen ratio in biodiesel will tend to decrease the CO2
emissions. The nal emission level of CO2 from CI engines using

7 0.07
Diesel Diesel
Used Palm Biodiesel Apricot seed kernel Biodiesel
6 0.06
CO2 (% by volume)

CO2 (kg/MJ)

5 0.05

4 0.04

3 0.03

2 0.02
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5
Brake Power (kW) Brake Power (kW)

Fig. 8. Effect of different biodiesels on CO2 emission.

 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821
biodiesels as fuels will be decided on the relative inuence of
those two opposite effects and this can only be answered from
experimental studies.
4.3. Effect on NOx emission
Mainly two oxides of nitrogen, namely, nitric oxide (NO) and
nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are formed due to the oxidation of nitrogen
present in the intake air during the combustion process. These
oxides of nitrogen were found in the exhaust emissions and are
together referred to as NOx. The amount of NOx formed, mostly
depends on the combustion temperature, the oxygen concentra-
tion and residence time of the combustion product gases inside
the high temperature zone within the engine cylinder. If the
combustion temperature becomes more than 1200 C, NOx is
formed within the engine cylinder and it is emitted with the
exhaust gas. Several studies on NOx formation in CI engine using
biodiesel blended fuels have been briey presented and
discussed below.
Godiganur et al. [38] reported that the NOx emission increased
by 11.6% compared to diesel while using neat mahua oil methyl
ester. According to them, the better combustion characteristics of
mahua biodiesel over neat petro-diesel increased the in-cylinder
pressure and temperature and enhanced NOx formation. Baiju
et al. [39] observed from their experimental investigation that NOx
emissions from the engine using karanja biodiesel/diesel blends
and neat karanja biodiesel were higher than that using diesel at
part load condition. However, NOx emission was found to be
higher for diesel compared to biodiesel at loads close to the
maximum load. They have also noted that biodiesel prepared from
karanja oil using ethyl alcohol emitted more NOx than methyl ester
of karanja oil under the same operating conditions. Nabi et al. [45]
reported about 10% increase in NOx emission using biodiesel as
fuel instead of neat mineral diesel. It was also suggested by them
that the reduction of NOx with biodiesel might be possible with
the proper adjustment of injection timing and introducing exhaust
gas recirculation (EGR) technique.
Sahoo et al. [40] observed that the presence of oxygen molecule
in polanga biodiesel caused an increase in combustion gas tem-
perature which resulted in an increase in NOx emission. Celikten
et al. [46] observed no signicant change in NOx emission at lower
engine speeds, but the emission was found to be more with bio-
diesel compared to mineral diesel at higher engine speeds. An
increase in NOx emissions with rapeseed and soybean oil methyl
esters were noted to be 12.7% and 20% respectively at an injection
pressure of 250 bar. It was also reported that NOx emission
increased with the increase in injection pressure for all tested fuels
including neat diesel. The corresponding increase of NOx emission
were reported to be 26%, 21% and 20% respectively for pure diesel,
neat rapeseed and neat soyabean biodiesel when the injection
pressure was increased from 250 bar to 350 bar. A higher NOx
emission with rapeseed biodiesel was observed by Buyukkaya
[87]. The increases in NOx emissions were found to be 6%, 9% and
12% with B20, B70 and B100 blends of rapeseed biodiesel with
diesel respectively. However, the NOx emission decreased with
increase of speed for all the blended fuels. The increase in volu-
metric efciency of the engine, faster mixing of the fuel and air
and shortened ignition delay at higher speeds were indicated to be
the possible reasons for this. Kegl [89] reported an increase in NOx
emission while using rapeseed biodiesel instead of mineral diesel.
He also observed that by retarding the injection timing, NOx
emission with biodiesel could be brought down below the emis-
sion level noted with mineral diesel. Soltic et al. [115] reported
that NOx emissions decreased when GTL was used, but the use of
oxygenated fuels such as RME, neat soybean and rapeseed oils
increased it to some extent. Yoon and Lee [94] reported the NOx
813
concentration increased with the addition of soyabean biodiesel to
mineral diesel for all the test conditions due to relatively high
temperature prevailing in the ame zone and the maximum
increase was noted to be 15% at full load.
Lin et al. [44] experimented on a diesel engine with biodiesel
prepared from various feedstocks such as soyabean, palm, sun-
ower, rapeseed and waste fried oil and found an increase in NOx
emission compared to petroleum diesel due to the higher pressure
and temperature attained during their combustion. The maximum
increase in NOx emission was noted to be 25.97% with rapeseed
biodiesel and minimum with palm kernel biodiesel (5.58%). It was
observed by Saleh [49] that the NOx emission increased with the
decrease in engine speed as well as increase in biodiesel mass
fraction in the fuel. The maximum increase was found to be 16% at
1600 rpm. He also employed exhaust gas recirculation technique
and observed 50% reduction in NOx emission. The excess oxygen
content increased the NOx emission from the diesel engine with
neem oil methyl esterdiesel blend compared to diesel, as
observed by Nabi et al. [50]. They also reported a substantial
amount of reduction in NOx emission with the use of EGR tech-
nique, particularly for B15 blend. In another study by Datta et al.
[88], an increase of NOx by an amount of 24% was found when
jatropha biodiesel was used instead of mineral diesel. Gumus and
Kasifoglu [98] used apricot seed kernel oil methyl ester as fuel and
noted an increase in NOx emission by 10% with B100 blend com-
pared to diesel. They commented that the higher oxygen content,
the higher peak pressure, the higher combustion temperature and
combustion duration were responsible for higher NOx emission
with biodiesel.
In case of anchovy sh biodiesel, Behet [86] observed that the
NOx emission of biodiesel was slightly higher compared to diesel
because of higher oxygen content of biodiesel. With methyl ester
of paradise oil, it was observed by Devan and Mahalakshmi [116]
that the presence of oxygen in biodiesel molecules and a shorter
ignition delay for biodiesel advanced the start of combustion and
led to higher NOx emission. The emissions were reported to be
higher by 5% and 8%, respectively with B50 and B100 blends of
methyl ester of paradise oil. It was observed by Swaminathan and
Sarangan [99] that the addition of oxygenative additive (diethy-
lene glycol dimethyl ether) to karanja biodiesel reduced NOx
emission by 31%. Amarnath and Prabhakaran [100] reported that
the more oxygen content of karanja biodiesel led to a higher NOx
emission in general. The oxygen of fuel reacted with nitrogen of
fresh air and formed nitric oxide and other oxides of nitrogen were
mainly responsible for higher NOx emission. The higher the com-
pression ratio and injection pressure, more oxygen was available
under favorable condition which caused higher NOx emission.
It was reported by Venkata Subbaiah and Raja Gopal [102] that
higher oxygen content of rice bran oil biodiesel resulted in higher
NOx emission in their experimental investigation. The increase was
found to be 4%, but small quantity of ethanol addition to cotton-
seed biodiesel reduced NOx emission by 9.4%. Aydin and lkili
[112] reported that the higher oxygen content of rapeseed bio-
diesel and the resulting higher combustion temperature led to
higher amount of NOx formation compared to diesel. They found
an increase of NOx emission by 16.7% with B20 blend at medium
speed of 2000 rpm and 11.8% with B100 at higher speed of
3000 rpm. Shirneshan [107] found that NOx emission increased
with the use of waste frying oil methyl ester (biodiesel) blended
diesel fuels compared to neat diesel at all operating conditions.
The maximum increase was found to be 11.66%. zcanli et al. [113]
reported comparatively a higher increase (44.68%) in NOx emission
with castor biodiesel blended fuel compared to diesel. According
to them, better combustion utilizing the oxygen already present in
the fuel and enhanced combustion temperature as well as the in-
cylinder temperature rise were responsible for higher NOx
814 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821
formation. Ranganathan and Sampath [108] and Rao et al. [114]
used neat cotton seed oil biodiesel as fuels of CI engines and noted
an increase of NOx emission by 11% and 10% compared to diesel
respectively.
On the other hand, Zou and Atkinson [91] observed a 10%
reduction in NOx emission using canola biodiesel. Rakopoulos et al.
[43] also noticed different trends in NOx emission during their
experimental study with biodiesel produced from various feed-
stocks. The NOx emissions were slightly reduced with the use of
biodiesel or vegetable oil blends of various feedstocks compared to
that with neat diesel fuel. This reduction was higher with higher
percentage of biodiesel in the blend. An effective reduction of NOx
emission (around 26%) was reported by Raheman and Phadatare
[41] in their work with neat karanja biodiesel. The B20 blend of
karanja biodiesel and diesel showed the similar results with nar-
row range of variation with respect to mineral diesel. The average
value of NOx emissions from the two test fuels containing soya-
bean biodiesel (B50 and B100) during the New European and
Artemis driving cycles showed opposite trends as reported by
Fontaras et al. [47]. In case of B50, a reduction of 23% in NOx
emission was noted, whereas it increased by 69% for neat soya-
bean biodiesel. This was attributed to the fact that the thermal as
well as the uid properties of the blended fuel determined the
emission characteristics from the engine.
Huzayyin et al. [109] observed that NOx emission was reduced
while using jojoba oil methyl estergas oil blends with respect to
100% gas oil. The maximum reduction of NOx emission had been
observed at the rated engine speed of 1500 rpm. Pugazhvadivu
and Jeyachandran [110] observed a reduction in NOx emission
compared to conventional diesel using normal and preheated
waste frying oil as fuels. However, the reduction was found to be
less with preheated oil. Puhan et al. [75,95] also observed reduc-
tion in NOx emission while using methyl as well as ethyl esters of
mahua oil. The maximum reductions with respect to neat diesel
were found to be 9% and 27% respectively. In another experimental
study on the same engine, Puhan and Nagarajan [96] found an
average reduction of NOx emission by 12% with mahua oil ethyl
ester. Puhan and the co-workers opined that higher cetane num-
ber of methyl and ethyl esters was the main factor for this
reduction. The lower ignition delay period, which in turn reduced
the peak temperature during premixed combustion reduced the
possibility of thermal NO formation. Banapurmath et al. [76] also
found more NOx emission with diesel fuel compared to honge,
jatropha and sesame biodiesels. The maximum reduction was
observed with JOME and the minimum was with SOME. The cor-
responding values were noted to be 10.18% and 7.4% respectively.
Lower heat release rate of biodiesel and hence lower peak
600
Diesel
550
Mahua Biodiesel
500
NOx (ppm)
450
400
350
300
250
0 20 40 60
Brake Power (kW)
Fig. 9. Effect of different biodiesels on NOx emission.
temperature during combustion compared to diesel were thought
to be the probable reasons for this reduction. It was observed by
Bayrakeken [101] that NOx emission decreased with the addition
of both crude and rened soybean oil methyl ester by 20.5% and
20.1% respectively compared to that of diesel fuel. Aydin and
Bayindir [103] and Sharma et al. [105] experimented with cotton
seed and neem oil biodiesels and found a decrease in NOx emission
compared to normal diesel. lkili [106] observed 25% reduction in
NOx emission from the CI engine for different injection pressures
of 150 bar, 200 bar and 250 bar when fueled with sunower bio-
diesel instead of diesel.
In another study, Aydin and Bayindir [97] experimented with
different blends of cottonseed biodiesel and mineral diesel. They
observed maximum NOx emission with the use of B5 blends at
medium engine speed (around 1750 rpm). Tsolakis et al. [111] used
exhaust gas recirculation technique to reduce NOx emission sig-
nicantly from a rapeseed oil methyl ester fueled compression
ignition engine and the emission level became even less than that
from ultra low sulfur diesel fueled engine. The addition of ethanol
to soybean biodieselmineral diesel blended fuels reduced the NOx
emission as observed by Randazzo and Sodr [92]. Banapurmath
et al. [48] found that NOx emissions were lower for producer gas
diesel dual fuel operation compared to producer gashonge oil or
its methyl ester dual fuel operation due to availability of higher
oxygen in honge oil or its methyl ester molecular structure. It was
clearly observed that producer gas did not change the basic nature
of NOx emissions when added to diesel, vegetable oil or
biodiesel fuels.
The analysis of the different studies mentioned above shows
that NOx emissions are more with biodiesel in most of the cases.
However, some studies are also found where reductions in NOx
emission are reported under all load conditions or at certain load
range. For ready reference, some results regarding NOx emission
from the previous works of Godiganur et al. [38] and Puhan et al.
[75] are presented here in graphical form in Fig. 9(a) and
(b) respectively.
In both the studies, biodiesel prepared from mahua oil has been
used as fuel. From Fig. 9(a), it can be observed that the maximum
rise of NOx emission with biodiesel as fuel is noted to be 11.6%
higher than that with petro-diesel. On the other hand, 4% reduc-
tion in NOx can be noted in Fig. 9(b) for the same biodiesel.
4.4. Effect on HC emission
The emission of unburned hydrocarbon (HC) from engines
depends on the compositions and combustion characteristics of
the fuels used. If combustion is improved and shifts towards
completeness, then HC emission decreases and vice versa. Since
450
Diesel
400 Mahua Biodiesel
350
300
NOx (ppm)
250
200
150
100
50
0
80 100 0 1 2 3 4
Brake Power (kW)
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821
biodiesel contains some amount of oxygen within its own struc-
ture, it is expected that HC emission will decrease with the use of
biodieseldiesel blended fuels and also with neat biodiesel. It may
also be noted that a few studies reported in the literature show
increase of HC emission to some extent with the use of biodiesel
blended fuels under certain operating conditions. Some of the
important studies reported in the literature regarding HC emis-
sions from biodiesel fueled CI engines are described here along
with the ndings from those experimental investigations.
Godiganur et al. [38] observed a 32% reduction in HC emission
level with blends of methyl ester of mahua oil and diesel with
respect to neat diesel. Nabi et al. [45] reported that PM emission
with cotton seed oil biodiesel was lower than that with diesel fuel.
With B20 blend of cotton seed biodiesel, the PM emission was
reduced by 24%. A narrow range of reduction (about 10%) of HC
emission was observed with canola biodiesel by Zou and Atkinson
[91]. Sahoo et al. [40] mentioned that the excess oxygen helped to
reduce the emissions of HC and PM by improving combustion of
karanja, jatropha and polanga based biodiesel blends. The max-
imum reductions of HC were reported to be 20.64%, 20.73% and
6.75% with neat karanja, jatropha and polanga biodiesels respec-
tively. The maximum reduction of PM in the exhaust was found to
be in the range of 40% for all the three tested fuels. Kegl [89]
reported that with the use of rapeseed biodiesel, HC emission
reduced by 25% compared to that with mineral diesel when
injection pump timing was retarded. Fontaras et al. [47] observed
that with soyabean biodiesel, HC emission increased (by 31% for
B50 blend and 58% for B100) for New European driving cycle, but
an average decrease of HC by 20% was noted for Artemis driving
cycle. Tsolakis et al. [111] noted that the use of neat rapeseed oil
methyl ester as fuel instead of ultra low sulfur diesel resulted to a
reduction of HC emission by nearly 50% and it increased slightly
when EGR technique was used.
Randazzo and Sodr [92] experimentally investigated the effect
of biodiesel and ethanol addition to diesel on HC and other
emissions. They observed a slight reduction of HC emission with
soybean biodieselmineral diesel blend. However, with the addi-
tion of ethanol to the blended fuel, the HC emission was found to
be more. Due to presence of higher amount of organic condensates
and volatile particles, the soot formation and PM emission were
more in case of RME, neat soybean and rapeseed oil as observed by
Soltic et al. [115]. In another experimental study with waste
cooking oil biodiesel by Lin et al. [93], it was observed that the use
of biodiesel instead of ultra low sulfur diesel reduced the PM and
HC emissions. The use of different blends of ultra low sulfur diesel
and waste cooking oil biodiesel as fuels decreased PM emission by
5.298.32% and HC by 10.536.0%. Lin et al. [44] observed that
when fueled with various vegetable oil methyl esters, THC emis-
sions were low in case of VOME due to lower carbon and hydrogen
content compared to petroleum diesel. The maximum and mini-
mum HC reductions of 33.14% and 22.47% were obtained with
PKOME and PNOME respectively.
Puhan and his co-workers [75,95,96] used different kinds of
mahua biodiesel and noted that the emission of HC was too low
for MOME and MOEE compared to diesel. The maximum reduc-
tions with methyl ester and ethyl ester of mahua oil were found to
be 60% and 63% respectively. It was mainly due to presence of
oxygen in the fuel, which enhanced the combustion process to
reduce exhaust emissions. Gumus and Kasifoglu [98], Sur-
eshkumara et al. [90] and Devan and Mahalakshmi [116] experi-
mented with biodiesels prepared from apricot kernel seed, karanja
and paradise oil respectively and reductions in HC emission were
observed in all the cases. Gumus and Kasifoglu [98] found HC
reductions of 18.66% with B100 and 2.66% with B5 blend of apricot
seed kernel oil methyl ester compared to neat diesel. Sur-
eshkumara et al. [90] found almost zero HC emission except B20
815
blend of paradise biodiesel where small amount of HC was noted
at no load and full load conditions. The higher cetane number of
paradise biodiesel and the inherent oxygen in the biodiesel
molecules were identied as the factors for better combustion and
hence less HC emission. Swaminathan and Sarangan [99] observed
a reduction in HC emission in the range of 20 to 38% with the
addition of diethylene glycol dimethyl ether as oxygenative addi-
tive to karanja biodiesel. The reduction of HC was supposed to be
mainly due to the additive which acted as a catalyst and reduced
unburned HC. Amarnath and Prabhakaran [100] observed that
with the increase in karanja biodiesel percentage in the blended
fuel from 20% to 100%, HC emission was reduced by 50%. With the
increase in compression ratio and injection pressure, the HC
emission was found to be less due to the better combustion.
Venkata Subbaiah and Raja Gopal [102] reported that HC emission
decreased with rice bran oil biodiesel compared to diesel by 54%.
Ulusoy et al. [104] and Sharma et al. [105] observed 11.1% and
10.3% reductions in HC emission with sunower oil methyl ester
and neem biodiesel respectively compared to diesel. However,
Ulusoy et al. [104] pointed out that life cycle HC emission was
larger with biodiesel by 35% than diesel and most of the HC is
produced during agricultural processes. Shirneshan [107] found
that for waste frying oil methyl esterdiesel blended fuel, HC
emission became less than that of diesel and the reduction
increased with the increase of biodiesel percentage in the blended
fuel. The lower volatility of biodiesel can be a contributor to the
difference between the HC emission of diesel and waste frying oil
methyl esterdiesel blended fuel. Ranganathan and Sampath [108]
and Rao et al. [114] observed that cotton seed oil biodiesel pro-
duced lesser amount HC emission (reduction by 33% and 36%) due
to better combustion of biodiesel and promoted the oxidation
process in the fuel rich zones utilizing the oxygen present (nearly
1011%) in the fuel itself.
Banapurmath et al. [48] observed that the HC emission was
higher for producer gasdiesel dual fuel operations compared to
producer gasHOME operations. In case of karanja biodiesel, the
HC emissions were slightly higher for biodieselmethanol blends
compared to neat biodiesel at lower load conditions as observed
by Anand et al. [42].
On the other hand, with jojoba methyl ester, it was observed by
Saleh [49] that the HC emission was higher due to the increase in
the amount of fuel per stroke which led to improper mixing of fuel.
On the basis of experimental investigations, Banapurmath et al. [76]
observed an increase in HC emission while using honge, jatropha
and sesame oil methyl esters as fuels. The increments in HC emis-
sion were reported to be 60.49%, 65.43% and 48.14% respectively.
This was attributed to heavier molecular structure and higher
viscosity of the biodiesels which led to poor atomization.
During a comparative study by Rakopoulos et al. [43] using
biodiesels prepared from different origins such as cotton seed,
sunower, rapeseed and soyabean, it was noted that there was not
such mentionable variation of unburned hydrocarbon (HC) emis-
sion with respect to neat diesel. Buyukkaya [87] observed that
reduction in unburned HC emission was negligible for all the
blends of rapeseed biodiesel with respect to mineral diesel.
The nature of HC emission from biodiesel fueled CI engines can
now be summarized by mentioning that it decreases with the
biodiesels with a few exceptions also. This fact has been illustrated
by supplementing the results from the experimental investigations
of Puhan et al. [75], Banapurmath et al. [76] and Sharon et al. [27]
in Fig. 10(a)(c) respectively.
It is quite evident from Fig. 10(a) that the HC emission of neat
mahua biodiesel is lower than that of diesel and the maximum
reduction is observed to be 35%. On the other hand, the results
with biodiesel produced from jatropha oil as plotted in Fig. 10
(b) show the reverse trend. HC emission increases with the use of
816 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821

80 100
Diesel Diesel Diesel
90 Jatropha Biodiesel 50 Used Palm Biodiesel
70 Mahua Biodiesel
80
60
40
70
50
HC (ppm)

HC (ppm)

HC (ppm)
60
40 30
50
30
40
20
20
30
10 20 10
0 10
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Brake Power (kW) Brake Power (kW) Brake Power (kW)
Fig. 10. Effect of different biodiesels on HC emission.

4.0 70 90
Diesel Diesel Diesel
3.5 Mahua Biodiesel Used Palm Biodiesel 80 Jatropha Biodiesel
60

Smoke Opacity (HSU)

Smoke Density (HSU)
Smoke Density (BSN)

70
3.0
50 60
2.5
50
2.0 40
40
1.5
30 30
1.0
20
20
0.5 10

0.0 10 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Brake Power (kW) Brake Power (kW) Brake Power (kW)
Fig. 11. Effect of different biodiesels on smoke emission.

neat jatropha biodiesel as fuel. The maximum increment is
observed to be 65.43%. The reason behind this kind of behavior
may be the improper mixing of fuel and air which leads to an
incomplete combustion resulting higher HC emission. Fig. 10(c) is
basically showing a maximum reduction of 38.09% in HC emission
with used palm biodiesel. However, a slight increase of HC emis-
sion at low load is also observed. The increased gas temperature
and higher cetane number of biodiesel are the possible factors
responsible for the decrease in HC emission.
4.5. Effect on smoke emission
Smoke is formed due to the incomplete combustion of the fuel.
As discussed earlier, biodiesel contains some amount of oxygen in
its molecule which enhances the combustion process. As a con-
sequence, the formation and the emission of smoke are likely to be
reduced when neat biodiesel or its blends with mineral diesel are
used as CI engine fuels.
Baiju et al. [39] observed that the presence of excess oxygen
content in karanja oil methyl ester led to better combustion and
resulted in less smoke formation for all load conditions of the
engine. The reduction was found to be nearly 52% compared to
diesel. They also reported that biodiesel produced using methanol
emitted less amount of smoke than biodiesel produced using
ethanol from the same karanja oil. Nabi et al. [45] reported a 14%
reduction in smoke emission using B10 blend of cotton seed bio-
diesel. Sahoo et al. [40] observed a signicant reduction of smoke
emission with jatropha, karanja and polanga based biodiesels as
fuels. Rakopoulos et al. [43] reported that smoke density was
considerably lowered with the use of biodiesels obtained from
various feedstocks compared to that noted with neat diesel fuel.
They found the maximum reduction of smoke with B20 blend of
cotton seed oil biodiesel among the tested biodiesels.
A considerable amount of reduction in smoke level was
observed by elikten et al. [46] using rapeseed and soyabean
biodiesels. It was also observed that smoke level was further
reduced with the increase in injection pressure from 250 to
350 bar. Raheman and Phadatare [41] observed an effective
reduction of smoke density when various blends of karanja oil
methyl ester and diesel were used instead of neat diesel. Buyuk-
kaya [87] recorded the smoke opacity using rapeseed biodiesel/
diesel blends and diesel and reported a maximum of 60% reduc-
tion with neat biodiesel compared to that with neat diesel. Tso-
lakis et al. [111] observed that the use of rapeseed oil methyl ester
as fuel resulted in a reduction of smoke and the reason behind that
was explained to be the oxygenated nature of the biodiesel fuel. It
was also reported by them that the smoke was slightly (10%)
increased when injection timing was retarded. However, smoke
was found to be increased when EGR technique was employed.
In case of karanja biodiesel, exhaust smoke emission was sig-
nicantly lower (96.4%) for biodieselmethanol blend compared to
neat biodiesel for all the load condition, as reported by Anand et al.
[42]. Lin et al. [44] observed that when fueled with various
vegetable oil methyl esters; the smoke emission from the engine
was reduced compared to petroleum diesel, due to the uniform
airfuel mixing and the extra oxygen content in vegetable oil
Table 5
Emissions of different biodiesel fueled engine compared to diesel at normal operating condition.

Name of researchers Biodiesel and its blends CO CO2 NOx HC Smoke

Godiganur et al. [38] Mahua oil; B20, B40, B60, B100 decrease increase increase 11.6% decrease 32%
Baiju et al. [39] Karanja oil; B20, B100 increase decrease decrease 52%
Sahoo et al. [40] Jatopha, karanja and polanga oil; B20, B50 decrease increase decrease 20.64%, 20.73% and 6.75% decrease
and B100 with neat karanja, jatropha and
polanga biodiesels
Raheman and Phadatare Karanja oil; B20, B40, B60, B80, B100 Decrease 94% and 73% for decrease 26% decrease 80% and 20% for B20 and
[41] B20 and B100 B100
Anand et al. [42] Karanji oil; B100 decrease 46.5% increase decrease
Rakopoulos et al. [43] Cottonseed oil, soybean oil, sunower oil, decrease 14% decrease decrease decrease
rapeseed oil and palm oil; B10, B20

A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821
Lin et al. [44] soybean oil, peanut oil, corn oil, sunower increase 5.5825.97% decrease 22.4733.15% decrease 5072.73%
oil, rapeseed oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil
and waste fried oil; B100
Nabi et al. [45] Cotton seed oil; B10, B20 and B30 decrease 24% for B30 increase increase 10% for B30 decrease 14% for B10
elikten et al. [46] rapeseed and soybean oil; B100 decrease 21% and 28% increase 21% and 20% decrease 122% for rapeseed
biodiesel
Fontaras et al. [47] Soybean oil; B50 and B100 increase 9% and decrease 23% for B50, decrease 20%
14% 69% for B100
Banapurmath et al. [48] Honge oil; B100 increase increase increase increase
Saleh [49] Jojoba oil; B100 decrease increase increase
Nabi et al. [50] Neem oil; B5, B10, B15 decrease 4% for B15 increase 5% for B15 decrease 4% for B15
Puhan et al. [75] Mahua oil; B100 decrease 30% increase decrease 4% decrease 35% decrease 11%
Banapurmath et al. [76] Honge, Jatropha and sesame oil; B100 increase decrease increase 60.49%, 65.43% and increase 16.18%, 26.41% and 32.07%
48.14% for neat honge, jatropha for neat honge, jatropha and sesame
and sesame biodiesel biodiesel
Behet [86] Waste anchovy sh oil; B25, B50, B75, B100 decrease 31.2% for B100 decrease 4.57% increase decrease 33.42% decrease 22.33% for B100
Buyukkaya [87] Rapeseed oil; B5, B20, B70 and B100 decrease 12%, 25%, 31% and increase 12% for B100, decrease decrease 45% for B70 and 60% for
35% for B5, B20, B70 and 9% for B70 and 6% for B100
B100 B20
Datta et al. [88] Jatropha oil; B10, B20, B40, B50, B100 decrease 24% for B100 increase 24% for B100 decrease 25% for B100
Kegl [89] Rapeseed oil; B100 decrease increase decrease 25% decrease
Sureshkumara et al. [90] Karanja oil; B20, B40, B60, B80, B100 decrease decrease decrease
Zou and Atkinson [91] Canola oil; B100 decrease 10% comparable decrease 10% decrease decrease
Randazzo and Sodr [92] Soybean oil; B3, B5, B10, B20 decrease increase increase decrease -
Lin et al. [93] Waste cooking oil; B5, B10, B20, B30 decrease 6.75%, 7.33%, 8.32%, decrease 10.5%, 19.9%, 27.7%, and
and 13.1% 36.0%
Yoon and Lee [94] Soybean oil; B100 decrease increase increase decrease decrease
Puhan et al. [95] Mahua oil; B100 decrease 79% and 67% for increase decrease 9% and 27% decrease 60% and 49% for methyl decrease 53% and 37% for methyl
methyl and ethyl ester for methyl and ethyl and ethyl ester and ethyl ester
ester
Puhan and Nagarajan [96] Mahua oil; B100 decrease increase decrease 12% decrease 63% decrease 70%
Aydin and Bayindir [97] Cotton seed oil; B5, B20, B50, B75, B100 decrease increase for B5, increase for B75 and B100, decrease
decrease for B20, B50, for B5, B20, B50
B75, B100
Gumus and Kasifoglu [98] Apricot seed kernel oil; B5, B20, B50, B100 decrease decrease increase decrease 18.66% for B100 and decrease
2.66% for B5
Swaminathan and Sarangan Karanja oil; B20 decrease 44% decrease 8% decrease decrease 38% decrease 13%
[99]
Amarnath and Prabhakaran Karanja oil; B20, B40, B60, B80 and B100 decrease 66%, increase increase 47.2% decrease 50%, increase 33%
[100]
Bayrakeken [101] Crude and rened soybean oil; B100 decrease 11.98% and 6.96% decrease 20.5% and
20.1%
Venkata Subbaiah and Raja Rice bran oil; B100 decrease 25.8% increase 20% increase 4% decrease 54% increase 27.93%
Gopal [102]

817
Aydin and Bayindir [103] Cotton seed oil; B5, B20 and B50 decrease increase
818 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821

methyl ester which resulted in a superior combustion. Signicant

decrease 22% and 27% for B50 and decrease 33.5% and 39.4% for B50
reductions of 72.73% and 59.09% were observed with palm kernel
oil methyl ester and palm oil methyl ester respectively. Nabi et al.
[50] observed that compared to conventional diesel fuel, the
smoke emission was reduced by 4% only using B15 blend of NOME.

increase signicantly
With methyl ester of paradise oil it was observed by Devan and
Mahalakshmi [116] that the smoke emission was less with bio-

decrease 34.5%
diesel. A 39.4% reduction in smoke emission for neat MEPS (B100)

and B100
and 33.5% reduction for MEPS 50 blend were recorded. The higher
decrease
decrease

decrease
Smoke

combustion temperature and the longer combustion duration with

more diffusive combustion of biodiesel were attributed to this

kind of behavior. With the addition of diethylene glycol dimethyl

ether as an additive to pongamia methyl ester (karanja biodiesel),
smoke density reduced to 55% at part load and 13% at full load
condition, as observed by Swaminathan and Sarangan [99]. Ulusoy
et al. [104] reported that the smoke emission of sunower oil
methyl ester was lower than that with diesel fuel because of
decrease 10.3%
decrease 11.1%

complete combustion with biodiesel. Ranganathan and Sampath

decrease 36%
decrease 33%

[108] noted that cotton seed oil biodiesel produced less amount of
decrease

decrease

decrease

smoke emission (34.5% reduction) than diesel. According to them,

B100

better combustion of biodiesel due to oxygen present in the fuel

HC

itself promoted the oxidation process in the fuel rich zones and
5% and 8% for

thereby smoke was reduced.

10% for B100
decrease for B20 and

On a contrary, Banapurmath et al. [76] observed more smoke

44.68%

emission with honge, jatropha and sesame oil methyl esters in

increase for B5,

B100
decrease 20%

decrease 44%
increase 11%

comparison to that with neat petro-diesel. The values of percen-

tage increase in smoke compared to neat mineral diesel were
decrease

decrease

B50 and
increase

increase
increase
increase
increase
increase
increase

reported to be 16.18%, 26.41% and 32.07% respectively. According

NOx

B50

to them, the heavier molecular structure and higher viscosity of

biodiesel caused poor atomization and that led to higher smoke

formation for biodiesel compared to diesel. Amarnath and Prab-
decrease 16%

hakaran [100] observed an increase in smoke opacity with the use

decrease
decrease

decrease
decrease
increase

of karanja biodiesel. The increase was noted to be 33% when bio-

diesel share in the blended fuel was increased from 20 to 100%.
CO2

The reason as described by them was the higher viscosity and

lower volatility of karanja biodiesel which led to a difculty while
atomizing the fuel in the combustion chamber and resulted in an
incomplete combustion. However, at higher compression ratio the
increase signicantly

combustion process was complete enough in reducing the smoke

by 45%. Higher injection pressure also improved atomization
decrease 30%

decrease 26%

decrease 29%

decrease 24%

which led to a better combustion and resulted in less amount of

decrease
decrease

decrease

decrease

decrease

decrease
increase

smoke. The reductions in smoke at the exhaust were found to be

by 57.9% and 53.8% for diesel and karanja biodiesel respectively for
CO

increase of injection pressure from 150 to 250 bar. Pugazhvadivu

Castor Bean oil; B5, B10, B25, B50 and B100

and Jeyachandran [110] observed higher smoke emission with the

Waste frying oil; B20, B40, B60, B80 and

Cotton seed oil; B25, B50, B75 and B100

waste frying oil (both non-preheated and pre-heated) compared to

Paradise oil; B20, B40, B50 and B100
Cotton seed oil; B20, B40 and B100

diesel due to poor volatility and higher viscosity of WFOs con-

stituents. However, the emission was found to be slightly lower in
Rapeseed oil; B20, B50, B100
Jojoba oil; B20, B40 and B60

case of preheated oil. Aydin and Bayindir [103] observed that the
smoke opacity was higher at higher loads and it was not much
Rapeseed oil; B20, B100
Biodiesel and its blends

Waste frying oil; B100

affected with the use of biodiesel.

Sunower oil; B100

Sunower oil; B100

Rapeseed oil; B100

Smoke emission is generally expressed in terms of Bosch smoke

number (BSN) and Hartrige smoke unit (HSU). The review of the
Neem oil; B20

experimental reports of several researchers presented in this

section clearly shows that the smoke emission is reduced with the
B100

use of biodiesel/diesel blends and neat biodiesel. However, a few

studies are also there which show a reverse trend, i.e., the increase
of smoke with the use of biodiesel. Some results of the experi-
Ranganathan and Sampath

Devan and Mahalakshmi

mental works from the literature related to smoke emission from

Pugazhvadivu and Jeya-

Aydin and lkili [112]

Huzayyin et al. [109]

diesel engines have been shown in Fig. 11(a)(c).

Name of researchers

Sharma et al. [105]

Tsolakis et al. [111]

zcanli et al. [113]

Ulusoy et al. [104]

The rst two gures are based on the works of Puhan et al. [75]
Table 5 (continued )

chandran [110]
Shirneshan [107]

Soltic et al. [115]

Rao et al. [114]

and Sharon et al. [27] and these show reduction in smoke. The
lkili [106]

maximum reduction is observed to be 11% and 19% with mahua

[108]

[116]

and used palm biodiesel respectively. The possible reason as

explained by many researchers is the better combustion due to the
presence of oxygen in the biodiesel or biodiesel blended diesel
 A. Datta, B.K. Mandal / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57 (2016) 799821
fuels. Fig. 11(c) is prepared on the basis of the experimental work
of Banapurmath et al. [76] and it shows an increase in smoke
emission with jatropha biodiesel. The maximum increase is noted
to be at medium load range and it is nearly 26%. It is due to the
higher viscosity and heavier molecular structure of biodiesel,
which results a poorer combustion and leads to an excess smoke
as explained by them.
4.6. Summary of emission analysis
At the end of this section, it can be said that the inherent
oxygen in biodiesel molecules plays a key role in the formation of
different pollutants. The availability of extra oxygen enhanced the
combustion when biodiesel or its blends with mineral diesel are
used as fuels. As a result, the emissions of CO, HC and smoke
formation are reduced signicantly, but the maximum tempera-
ture during combustion increases. The enhanced combustion with
biodiesel and its blends with diesel increases the amount of CO2
and the increased combustion temperature increases the amount
of NOx in the exhaust compared to that with neat diesel.
The emission parameters investigated by several researchers
with various types of biodiesel and dieselbiodiesel blends have
been summarized and listed in Table 5. The increase and decrease
of different pollutants in percentages have been shown with
respect to mineral diesel under normal operating conditions only.
The table shows that the maximum reductions in CO, HC and
smoke emissions are by 73%, 63% and 72.73% with neat karanja
biodiesel, neat mahua biodiesel and waste fried biodiesel respec-
tively. However, few studies show reverse trends. An increase of
HC emission by even 65.43% with neat jatropha biodiesel and
increase of smoke emission by 33% with neat karanja biodiesel are
also reported. The maximum increments in NOx and CO2 emission
are 44.68% and 20% with castor bean biodiesel and rice bran bio-
diesel respectively. In some cases, opposite trends such as 27%
reduction in NOx emission with neat mahua oil ethyl ester and 16%
reduction in CO2 emission with rapeseed biodiesel have also been
observed.
The authors feel that the condition of the engine, purity of the
fuel, proper method of biodiesel production and the experimental
uncertainties should be ensured to obtain the maximum advan-
tage of biodiesel fuel. The negative effects of biodiesel as CI engine
fuel can be nullied to some extent using different pre-treatments
of the fuel such as preheating and addition of ethanol and
methanol as supplementary fuels. Exhaust gas recirculation tech-
nique may also be employed to reduce the amount of NOx in the
exhaust.
5. Conclusion
On going through the different studies minutely, conducted by
different researchers on the various aspects of biodiesel as CI engine
fuel, the following conclusions have been drawn. Biodiesel offers wide
range of benets such as renewability, biodegradability, nontoxic
nature, reduction in import oil bills and less pollutant emissions in
general. The properties of biodiesel are dependent upon the fatty acid
structure of the raw feedstocks and to some extent on the production
process. Biodiesel is mainly produced by a chemical reaction called
transesterication using various renewable feedstocks such as vege-
table oils (both edible and non-edible), algal oils and animal fats.
Brake thermal efciency with biodiesel is found to be less than
that with diesel by around 2% on an average in most of the
investigations reported in the literature. The brake specic fuel
consumption rate on the other hand increases with biodiesel
approximately by 13%. It has been noted that the exhaust gas
temperature with biodiesel is 10% higher than that with diesel. The
819
opposite trend is also observed and reported by a few researchers
under certain engine operating conditions. The higher cetane
number and the intrinsic oxygen of biodiesel enhance the com-
bustion process which leads to reductions in HC, CO and smoke
formation by 20%, 30% and 50% respectively on an average. The
oxygen content of biodiesel is responsible for the higher NOx
emission and CO2 emission. General trends observed with bio-
diesel fuel are the increase in emissions of NOx and CO2 approxi-
mately by 12% and 14% respectively.
The blended fuels reduce the harmful pollutant emissions
except NOx and CO2 signicantly at the cost of a bit sacrice in the
energetic performances of the engine. However, the use of post
treatment technique of exhaust gas can be employed to reduce
NOx emission. Also, the life cycle CO2 emission from biodiesel fuel
is less than that of diesel as the basic feedstocks consume CO2
during its cultivation. So, in the decade of growing energy crisis
and environmental degradation, a certain percentage of biodiesel
should be blended with mineral diesel in all sectors those are
using diesel engine as their primary energy producing device.
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