Emission Measurement of Buses Fueled with Biodiesel Blends during On-Road Testing

Abstract

Increasing the biodiesel content of diesel fuels is encouraged because of its reduced carbon footprint. Pure rapeseed methyl ester (RME)and used cooking oil methyl ester (UCOME) are characterised by well-to-tank greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions of 54% and 88% compared to pure B0 petrodiesel, respectively. Captive fleets such as public transport buses could benefit from these GHG reductions by increasing the biodiesel content of their fuel because they have a consequent yearly fuel consumption. The aim of this paper is to compare on-road tailpipe emissions of a diesel bus when increasing the biodiesel concentration in the fuel. The tests were carried out on a standard city bus belonging to the Euro V EEV emission standard that was equipped with a portable emission measurement system measuring NO, NO2, PN, CO and CO2 at the tailpipe. The bus followed the SORT which is representative of urban bus driving. The heavy urban on-road measurements indicated increased NOx emissions (24–26%), decreased PN emissions (43–45%) and slightly decreasing CO emissions for B30 RME and UCOME compared to B7. A measurement uncertainty analysis showed that the CO emissions were less reliable. Similar conclusions were drawn for the easy urban on-road bus emission measurements with smaller differences between B7 and B30 RME and UCOME.

Solid Particle Number (SPN) Portable Emission Measurement Systems (PEMS) for Heavy-Duty Applications

“…Thus, until recently, researchers have been using different techniques to measure on-board the vehicle not only for heavy-duty vehicles (e.g., [35][36][37][38]) but also for light-duty ones (e.g., [39,40]). While research studies with SPN PEMS exist (e.g., [41,42]), the assessment of PEMS is limited. One of the few studies with heavy-duty engines and with three PEMS manufacturers found differences to the 10 nm reference instruments of 50% [22].…”

Predicting octane numbers relying on principal component analysis and artificial neural network

“…According to the dierent scenarios, one important aspect to achieve sustainable development is the usage of alternative fuels. They could be energy carriers and electrofuels, 1,2 biofuels such as biodiesel, 3 fuels derived from wastes such as automotive shredder residues 4,5 and other types of molecules such as alcohols. 6 The number of sources of alcohol molecules increases with the development of fermentation and gasication.…”