Achieving Biodiesel Standards Through Saturation Level Optimisation

Kemal Masera; A. K. Hossain; Gareth Griffiths

doi:10.3389/ffuel.2025.1528451

Achieving Biodiesel Standards Through Saturation Level Optimisation

Kemal Masera
, A. K. Hossain^*
, Gareth Griffiths

^*Corresponding author for this work

Aston University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Biodiesels made from waste feedstock are viable sustainable fuels for compression-ignition engine use. However, biodiesels produced from single waste sources do not always comply with the European biodiesel standard. This study investigates fuel quality and engine performance when two biodiesels with different characteristics are blended at various proportions. Waste cooking oil biodiesel was blended with sheep fat biodiesel, which has a lower unsaturated fatty acid content. The engine performance, combustion, and exhaust emission characteristics of the neat biodiesels and their blends (at 60/40, 50/50, and 30/70 ratios) were analysed. The results showed that 60/40 and 50/50 blends met the core parameters of the BS EN 14214 biodiesel standard and improved combustion and emission characteristics compared to neat biodiesels and diesel. The 50/50 blends gave up to 5% and 14% improvements in the in-cylinder pressure and maximum heat release rate, respectively, compared to the same results for neat biodiesel operation. Reduction of up to 73% in CO, 96% in smoke and 3% in CO 2 emissions was observed. However, NOx emission was 2.5% higher than diesel. The results reveal that carefully selected biodiesel–biodiesel blending could meet fuel standards, improve engine performance, and reduce exhaust emissions.

Original language	English
Number of pages	14
Journal	Frontiers in Fuels
Volume	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/ffuel.2025.1528451
Publication status	Published - 4 Mar 2025

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2025 Masera, Hossain and Griffiths. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Funding

The authors declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was partly funded by a DST-UKIERI project. The equipment support provided by the HORIBA United Kingdom company and the help of Salman Safdar are gratefully acknowledged.

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10.3389/ffuel.2025.1528451Licence: CC BY 4.0

Achieving Biodiesel Standards Through Saturation Level Optimisation
Copyright © 2025 Masera, Hossain and Griffiths. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Final published version, 4.06 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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title = "Achieving Biodiesel Standards Through Saturation Level Optimisation",

abstract = " Biodiesels made from waste feedstock are viable sustainable fuels for compression-ignition engine use. However, biodiesels produced from single waste sources do not always comply with the European biodiesel standard. This study investigates fuel quality and engine performance when two biodiesels with different characteristics are blended at various proportions. Waste cooking oil biodiesel was blended with sheep fat biodiesel, which has a lower unsaturated fatty acid content. The engine performance, combustion, and exhaust emission characteristics of the neat biodiesels and their blends (at 60/40, 50/50, and 30/70 ratios) were analysed. The results showed that 60/40 and 50/50 blends met the core parameters of the BS EN 14214 biodiesel standard and improved combustion and emission characteristics compared to neat biodiesels and diesel. The 50/50 blends gave up to 5\% and 14\% improvements in the in-cylinder pressure and maximum heat release rate, respectively, compared to the same results for neat biodiesel operation. Reduction of up to 73\% in CO, 96\% in smoke and 3\% in CO 2 emissions was observed. However, NOx emission was 2.5\% higher than diesel. The results reveal that carefully selected biodiesel–biodiesel blending could meet fuel standards, improve engine performance, and reduce exhaust emissions. ",

author = "Kemal Masera and Hossain, \{A. K.\} and Gareth Griffiths",

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N2 - Biodiesels made from waste feedstock are viable sustainable fuels for compression-ignition engine use. However, biodiesels produced from single waste sources do not always comply with the European biodiesel standard. This study investigates fuel quality and engine performance when two biodiesels with different characteristics are blended at various proportions. Waste cooking oil biodiesel was blended with sheep fat biodiesel, which has a lower unsaturated fatty acid content. The engine performance, combustion, and exhaust emission characteristics of the neat biodiesels and their blends (at 60/40, 50/50, and 30/70 ratios) were analysed. The results showed that 60/40 and 50/50 blends met the core parameters of the BS EN 14214 biodiesel standard and improved combustion and emission characteristics compared to neat biodiesels and diesel. The 50/50 blends gave up to 5% and 14% improvements in the in-cylinder pressure and maximum heat release rate, respectively, compared to the same results for neat biodiesel operation. Reduction of up to 73% in CO, 96% in smoke and 3% in CO 2 emissions was observed. However, NOx emission was 2.5% higher than diesel. The results reveal that carefully selected biodiesel–biodiesel blending could meet fuel standards, improve engine performance, and reduce exhaust emissions.

AB - Biodiesels made from waste feedstock are viable sustainable fuels for compression-ignition engine use. However, biodiesels produced from single waste sources do not always comply with the European biodiesel standard. This study investigates fuel quality and engine performance when two biodiesels with different characteristics are blended at various proportions. Waste cooking oil biodiesel was blended with sheep fat biodiesel, which has a lower unsaturated fatty acid content. The engine performance, combustion, and exhaust emission characteristics of the neat biodiesels and their blends (at 60/40, 50/50, and 30/70 ratios) were analysed. The results showed that 60/40 and 50/50 blends met the core parameters of the BS EN 14214 biodiesel standard and improved combustion and emission characteristics compared to neat biodiesels and diesel. The 50/50 blends gave up to 5% and 14% improvements in the in-cylinder pressure and maximum heat release rate, respectively, compared to the same results for neat biodiesel operation. Reduction of up to 73% in CO, 96% in smoke and 3% in CO 2 emissions was observed. However, NOx emission was 2.5% higher than diesel. The results reveal that carefully selected biodiesel–biodiesel blending could meet fuel standards, improve engine performance, and reduce exhaust emissions.

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Achieving Biodiesel Standards Through Saturation Level Optimisation

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