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In this study, experiments were performed on a 4-stroke, 6-cylinder turbocharged, direct injection (DI) diesel engine using two oxygenated fuels blended with European auto diesel fuel (DF) to investigate the engine performance and exhaust emissions with special interest in fine particles. In the investigation, 20 vol% jatropha biodiesel was added to the DF; while 6.31 vol% diethylene glycol dimethyl ether (DGM) was added to the DF to maintain same oxygen percentage (2.26 wt%) in the blended fuels. The fuel is designated as DDGM for the DF-DGM blend and DB20 for the DF-biodiesel blend. The fine particle number was determined with a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS). Carbon monoxide (CO), total unburnt hydrocarbon (THC), smoke, total particulate matter (TPM) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) were also measured.

This paper reports on experimental investigation of diesel combustion and exhaust emissions with Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) - biodiesel (BD) blended fuels. F-T fuel was used as a reference fuel for its superior properties to diesel fuel (DF). BD from non-edible jatropha oil was blended with F-T fuel. Using non-edible jatropha oil as a feed-stock, jatropha BD eliminates the food versus fuel conflict. The experimental results showed that exhaust emissions including carbon monoxide (CO), total unburnt hydrocarbon (THC), smoke, total particulate matter (TPM) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) were reduced with F-T fuel compared to DF. CO, THC, smoke and TPM emissions were reduced significantly, while NOx emissions were somewhat higher with BD blended fuels compared to F-T fuel.

The world is looking for an alternate fuel to replace the existing petroleum based products due to the depletion of natural resources and it has been projected for future unavailability and fluctuation of oil price in an international market. The EU directive targets 20% of all fuel should be from bio-fuels by 2020. There is a need to improve performance and emission levels in Compression Ignition (CI) or Spark Ignition (SI) engines to comply with stricter automotive norms and regulations due to the global warming issues. This research work is influenced by these factors and is expected to motivate the governing bodies to implement directives with higher bio fuel blends. In this context, a four stroke, single cylinder naturally aspirated (NA) direct injection (DI) diesel engine with 8 BHP @ 1500 rpm coupled with water cooled eddy current dynamometer was used for the experiments.