Energetic and Environmental Aspects of a Diesel Engine Using Rapeseed Oil as Fuel

This paper describes the experiment that was carried out at the Thermodynamics Laboratory of the University of Liège (Belgium) to study the impact of the use of vegetable oil as a substitute for light oil on the short-term performance of Diesel engines for cars. The vegetable oil selected is derived directly from rapeseed without any refinement processes. Five tests were carried out, going from 0% rapeseed oil blended in conventional Diesel fuel (reference fuel) up to 100% rapeseed oil. For each test, the whole operating range of the engine was swept and the fuel consumption and exhaust emissions measured simultaneously. The study concludes that the engine used during the research can be run with 100% unrefined rapeseed oil. Nevertheless, using 100% oil is not considered as a valid large scale solution. However, using a smaller percentage of rapeseed oil gives promising results in terms of reduction of CO2 emission as well as reduction of the opacity of the exhaust gases.