Effect of Fuel and Driving Conditions on Pollutant Emissions from a Diesel Vehicle – A Simulation Study

Abstract

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Pollutant emissions from vehicles depend on both fuel and driving conditions. This work investigates the impact of using a 20% (V/V) biodiesel blend (B20) on the CO₂, NOx, and particle number emissions of a light-duty diesel vehicle, using GT-Suite® software. Combustion parameters and emissions were experimentally measured in a Cummins ISF 2.8 L diesel engine and used as inputs for the model. Vehicle simulations using ULSD and B20 were performed for the standard WLTC driving cycle as well as driving cycles representative of Andean cities, that include steep road slopes and heavy traffic. Additionally, simulations considered three gear-shifting strategies, one based on dynamic gear selection and two on imposed-speed thresholds for each gear shift.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">Results show that using B20 decreases the particle number emissions in 39 – 79% for the tested driving cycles and gear-shifting strategies. Meanwhile, fuel change showed no significant effect on CO₂, and NOx emissions were slightly increased between 3 and 11% in the studied cases. Higher emission factors for all pollutants were found with the Andean driving cycles when compared to WLTC, increasing up to 204% in the scenario that included road slope. Regarding the gear-shifting strategies, imposed-speed strategy NEDC led to the lowest fuel consumption and PN emissions, and NBR led to the lowest NOx emissions, while the dynamic strategy led to the highest NOx emissions, with a fuel consumption very similar to NBR strategy.</div></div>