The performance and the gaseous emissions of two small marine craft diesel engines fuelled with biodiesel A.P. Roskilly, S.K. Nanda, Y.D. Wang * , J. Chirkowski School of Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, United Kingdom Received 28 January 2007; accepted 8 July 2007 Available online 16 July 2007 Abstract An experimental investigation of the application of biodiesel (recycled cooking fat and vegetable oil) on small marine craft diesel engines was completed. The tests were performed on Perkins 404C-22 (Marinised) in Boat No. 1 (Fair Countess) and on Nanni Diesel 3.100HE in Boat No. 2 (Aimee 2). The tests were designed and carried out in accordance with the standardised test procedure described in ISO 8178-4 Test Cycle E5. The performance and gaseous emissions of the tested engines were compared and analysed. The test results show that the power output for both trial engines operating with biodiesel were comparable to that fuelled with fossil diesel, but with an increase in fuel consumptions. The NO x emissions were found to be reduced when fuelled with biodiesel. The CO emissions were found to be lower when the engines operated at higher loads using biodiesel. Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Marine; Diesel engine; Biodiesel; Experimental investigation 1. Introduction In the past few years, climate change due to global warming has been a key political and social issue in the UK and in the other developed countries. The main target is to meet the limits which have been set under the Kyoto protocol to reduce greenhouse gas levels into the atmo- sphere. This, along with rising fossil fuel prices and security of energy supplies, has been the key driver towards the use of renewable and carbon neutral energy sources. Conse- quently, there is growing interest in the transport industry in the exploitation of fuels produced from the biodegrad- able fraction of products, waste and residues from agricul- ture, forestry and related industries, as well as the biodegradable fraction of industrial and municipal waste [1]. These so-called ‘biofuels’ can take many forms depend- ing on the raw material used and production process adopted. One such variation, biodiesel, has been gradually accepted and used in the UK to fuel onshore vehicles. Bio- diesel is produced from vegetable oils (rapeseed, soybean, sunflower, etc.) or industrial waste fats/oils through a pro- cess of transesterification, whereby, the fuel viscosity is adjusted for ease of direct injection into the combustion chamber [2]. Numerous studies on the application of bio- diesel on diesel engines have been carried out and the results have shown that the performance of engines is com- parable to that of using fossil diesel fuel. The emissions from a biodiesel fuelled engine are also comparable to or better than that fuelled with fossil diesel fuel [3–14]. The results are mostly obtained from experimentation con- ducted in laboratories on the engines used on road trans- portation or diesel generators. Very few investigations have been carried out in marine engine sector, especially the practical application in small marine crafts. The objec- tive of this study was to carry out operational boat trails with the application of biodiesel to investigate the engine performances and the potential environmental benefits of using this alternative fuel. 1359-4311/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2007.07.007 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 191 2223522; fax: +44 191 2225491. E-mail addresses: y.d.wang@ncl.ac.uk, yaodongwang2000@yahoo. com (Y.D. Wang). www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Applied Thermal Engineering 28 (2008) 872–880