Impact of biofuel blends on the emissions of modern vehicles

Abstract

Biodiesel and bio-ethanol are expected to be the most applied biofuels in Europe in the short- to mid-term, especially in blended form with diesel and gasoline, respectively. There is a clear need to see what impact this blending will have on emissions and fuel consumption of current vehicles. Public information on this topic is mostly based on older technology. Within the Belgian research project BIOSES, emission and fuel consumption tests were performed on recent types of vehicles running on various biodiesel–diesel blends for diesel vehicles, and bio-ethanol–gasoline blends for gasoline and flex-fuel vehicles. The vehicles were tested on a proving ground with on-board emission measurement equipment, following different test cycles, including the European test cycle (NEDC) and a real-traffic-based cycle (MOL30). The paper shows an overview and discussion of the test results.