Biodiesel y biocombustible

Fuel 89 (2010) 3106–3113

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Fuel
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel

Potential for reducing emissions in a diesel engine by fuelling with conventional biodiesel and Fischer–Tropsch diesel
Magín Lapuerta a,*, Octavio Armas a, Juan José Hernández a, Athanasios Tsolakis b
a b

Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales,Universidad de Castilla La-Mancha, Avda. Camilo José Cela, s/n., 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

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A gas-to-liquid (GTL) fuel derived from Low Temperature Fischer–Tropsch process has been tested in an automotive diesel engine fulfilling Euro 4 emissions regulations. Both regulated andnon-regulated emissions have been compared with those of a commercial diesel fuel, a commercial biodiesel fuel and a GTL–biodiesel fuel (30% and 70% v/v, respectively) in order to check blending properties, synergistic effects and compatibility between first and second generation production technologies for biofuel consumption in current diesel engines. After presenting a detailed literaturereview, and confirming that similar efficiencies are attained with the four tested fuels under identical road-like operating conditions (this meaning fuel consumption is inversely proportional to their heating values), significant reductions in smoke opacity, particulate matter emissions and particle number concentration were observed with both GTL and biodiesel fuels, with small changes in NOx emissions.Compared with the reductions in PM emissions derived from the use of biodiesel fuels, those derived from using GTL fuels were quite similar, despite its lower soot emissions reductions. This can be explained by the lower volatile organic fraction of the PM in the case of GTL. By adequately blending both fuels, a considerable potential to optimise the engine emissions trade-off is foreseen. Ó 2010Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 19 January 2009 Received in revised form 7 May 2010 Accepted 11 May 2010 Available online 22 May 2010 Keywords: Biofuels Biodiesel Fischer–Tropsch Emissions Diesel engine

1. Introduction Biofuels have become in recent years a subject for debate in Europe. On the one side EU countries have committed to partly replace petroleumdiesel fuel consumption up to 10% in 2020 in order to the reduce greenhouse effect and the dependency on foreign oil. On the other side, many voices are questioning the sustainability of the biofuels currently produced from crops and claim that the associated agricultural development will bring considerable rise of food and water prices, unless second-generation biofuels are developed andcommercialized. In the transition from first-generation to second-generation diesel biofuels, both types of fuels will have to share the biofuels market and could even be blended in order to optimise their properties and their potential to reduce automotive engine emissions [1]. One of the most promising technologies for the production of second-generation biofuels is the Low Temperature Fischer–Tropschprocess, for which potential advantages are foreseen in lifecycle greenhouse emissions, in economic and energy assessments [2] and in societal costs [3]. Although this technology is not innovative, it needs to be integrated in the whole biomass-to-fuel production system (biomass gasification, gas cleaning, water–gas-shift reaction for an optimal
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 926295431; fax: +34926295361. E-mail address: Magin.Lapuerta@uclm.es (M. Lapuerta). 0016-2361/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2010.05.013

H2/CO adjustment, etc. [4]) and therefore high investments are needed before the cost of the final products is reduced to competitive levels [5]. In order to simulate the mentioned first-to-second generation transition scenario, a...