| Abstract | Renewable diesel (RD) and biodiesel (BD) are produced from renewable resources. Replacing petroleum diesel by RD and/or BD in power generation has the potential to reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) has been developing a strategy to introduce RD, BD or their blends into its small and large vessel fleet to help reduce net GHG emissions. During this process, immediate questions that need to be addressed are what the optimal RD/BD blend ought to be, how much of the RD/BD blend can be introduced, and how these blends will affect the combustion and emissions performance of the engines powering the vessels.
In this project, the National Research Council (NRC) and CCG work together to characterize and optimize the properties of RD, BD and their blends with petroleum diesel, as well as evaluate the combustion and emissions performance of the RD/BD/ULSD blends when applied to heavy-duty diesel engines.
This report summarizes the findings from the last task (Task 3) of the project, which was designed to evaluate the combustion and emissions performance of an RD/BD/ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) blend, a RD/BD blend, and a RD with a fuel additive. The findings reveal that switching from ULSD to the three investigated blends containing RD and/or BD does not have significant negative effects on combustion and emissions performance. The engine efficiency and energy consumption rate do not significantly change when switching from ULSD to either of the three investigated blends, but the fuel consumption rate varies due to the change in energy density. Emissions of engine-out carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO) and unburned hydrocarbons also change when switching from ULSD to the three investigated blends due to the changes in fuel properties, such as energy density, ratio of hydrogen to carbon, etc. Most of these variations are positive in terms of reducing emissions. |
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