Abstract
In the last years, the awareness of energetic and environmental problems encouraged many researchers to investigate the possibility of using alternative fuels instead of petrol and its derivatives. Among them, biodiesel, produced from different vegetable oils (soybean, rapeseed and sunflower for example), seems very interesting for several reasons: it can replace diesel oil in internal combustion engines without major adjustments; only a small decrease in performances is reported; almost zero emissions of sulfates; a small net contribution Of CO2 when the whole life-cycle is considered (including cultivation, production of oil and conversion to biodiesel); emission of pollutants comparable with that of diesel oil. For these reasons, several campaigns have been planned in many countries to introduce and promote the use of biodiesel.
In this paper fuel consumption and exhaust emissions measurements from a single cylinder, stationary diesel engine are described. The engine was fueled with pure marine diesel fuel and blends containing two types of biodiesel, at proportions up to 50 percent. The two types of biodiesel appeared to have equal performance, and irrespective of the raw material used for their production, their addition to the marine diesel fuel improved the particulate matter, unburned hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide emissions.