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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Fuels
Sec. Biofuels
Volume 3 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ffuel.2025.1528451

Achieving Biodiesel Standards Through Saturation Level Optimisation

Provisionally accepted
Kemal Masera Kemal Masera Abul Kalam Hossain Abul Kalam Hossain *Gareth Griffiths Gareth Griffiths
  • Aston University, Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Biodiesels made from waste feedstock are viable sustainable fuels for compression ignition engine use. However, biodiesel produced from single waste source do not always comply with the European biodiesel standard. This study investigated the fuel quality and engine performance when two biodiesels with different characteristics were 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 BS EN 14214 biodiesel standard and improved the combustion and emission characteristics as compared to their 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, when compared to the same results for neat biodiesel operation. Reduction of up to 73% in CO, 96% in smoke and 3% in CO2 emissions were observed. However, NOx emission was 2.5% higher than diesel. The results revealed that carefully selected biodiesel-biodiesel blending could meet fuel standards, improve engine performance and reduce exhaust emissions.

    Keywords: Biodiesel, Biodiesel standards, combustion, Emissions, Iodine value, Saturation level

    Received: 14 Nov 2024; Accepted: 14 Jan 2025.

    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) or licensor 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.

    * Correspondence: Abul Kalam Hossain, Aston University, Birmingham, B4 7ET, West Midlands, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.