Emissions from a HGV Using Used Cooking Oil as a Fuel under Real World Driving Conditions

Abstract

To maximize CO2 reduction, refined straight used cooking oils were used as a fuel in Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) in this research. The fuel is called C2G Ultra Biofuel (C2G: Convert to Green Ltd) and is a fully renewable fuel made as a diesel replacement from processed used cooking oil, used directly in diesel engines specifically modified for this purpose. This is part of a large demonstration project involving ten 44-tonne trucks using C2G Ultra Biofuel as a fuel to partially replace standard diesel fuels. A dual fuel tank containing both diesel and C2G Ultra Biofuel and an on-board fuel blending system-Bioltec system was installed on each vehicle, which is able to heat the C2G Ultra Biofuel and automatically determine the required blending ratio of diesel and C2G Ultra Biofuel according to fuel temperature and engine load. The engine was started with diesel and then switched to C2G Ultra Biofuel under appropriate conditions. Exhaust emissions were measured using PEMS (Portable Emission Measurement Systems) on one of the trucks under real world driving conditions. Comparisons of emissions between neat diesel mode and blended fuel mode were made. The results show that C2G Ultra Biofuel can reduce particulate matter (PM) and CO emissions significantly compared to the use of pure diesel.