Energy Conversion and Management 69 (2013) 4148

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Effects of trout-oil methyl ester on a diesel engine performance and

emission characteristics
Ekrem Buyukkaya a,, Serdar Benli b, Salih Karaaslan c, Metin Guru b
a

Sakarya University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Esentepe Campus, 54187 Sakarya, Turkey
Gazi University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Chemical Engineering, 06570 Maltepe Ankara, Turkey
c
Gazi University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 06570 Maltepe Ankara, Turkey
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 5 September 2012
Accepted 20 January 2013
Available online 28 February 2013
Keywords:
Trout oil methyl ester
Fish oil
Biodiesel
Engine performance
Emission

a b s t r a c t
In this study, trout oil methyl ester fuel (TOME) was prepared by transesterication using potassium
hydroxide as catalyst. The trout oil and its blends (B10, B20, B40 and B50) were tested in a single-cylinder
natural aspirated indirect injection diesel engine. The tests showed signicant changes in engines power
and particularly torque as well as major improvements in the engine emission for B40 and B50 in general,
except the increasing of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission due to high combustion temperature resulted by
better combustion process. The brake specic fuel consumption of B50 fuel was almost the same as that
of diesel fuel at the maximum torque and rated power conditions. Carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon emissions (HC) were reduced around on average 13% and 45%, respectively, in case of TOME compared to diesel.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The major sources of alternative energy are biorenewables, hydro, solar, wind, geothermal and other energies, each of them having their own advantages and disadvantages, including political,
economical and practical issues. They produce lower or negligible
levels of greenhouse gases and other pollutants when compared
with the fossil energy sources they replace. That is, renewable energy is a promising alternative solution because it is clean and
environmentally safe [1,2]. At the same time, biofuels can be used
to replace petrodiesel to reduce the pollutant emissions from combustion equipment [2]. There are a variety of biofuels potentially
available, but the main biofuels being considered globally are biodiesel and bio-ethanol [3]. Bio-ethanol can be obtained from a lot
of crops including wheat, corn, sugarcane and sugar beet. The
wheat and sugar beet are currently the main sources of ethanol
in Europe [4]. Biodiesel fuel can be produced from algae, straight
vegetable oils, edible and non-edible, recycled waste cooking oils
and animal fat [1,2,58].
Biodiesel is produced from vegetable oils (rapeseed, soybean,
sunower, etc.) or industrial waste fats/oils through a process of
transesterication, whereby, the fuel viscosity is adjusted for ease
of direct injection into the combustion chamber [9,10]. Biodiesel

Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 264 2955864; fax: +90 264 2955601.
E-mail addresses: ebkaya@sakarya.edu.tr (E. Buyukkaya), serdar.benli@sanayi.gov.tr (S. Benli), karaaslansalih@gazi.edu.tr (S. Karaaslan), mguru@gazi.edu.tr (M.
Guru).
0196-8904/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2013.01.017

reduced long term engine wear in diesel engines. Biodiesel is a

good lubricant (about 66% better than petrodiesel) [11]. Biodiesel
contains approximately 812% less energy than that of petroleum
diesel fuel. The heat of combustion increases with increasing chain
length and decreases with increasing unsaturation [12].
Nowadays, to produce biodiesel fuel, transesterication is the
current method which is used efciently [13]. The transesterication process involves the reaction of alcohol with the oil to release
three ester chains from the glycerin backbone of each triglyceride. The reaction requires heat and a strong base catalyst to achieve
complete conversion of the vegetable or animal fat oil into the separated esters and glycerin.
Marine shes, such as squid, danube, morina, and trout, usually
include polyunsaturated fatty acids. Lipid content of red esh marine species generally is more than that of white esh species.
Moreover, the liver of these shes generally has the highest lipid
content among the various parts of the sh body [14]. The viscera
are usually discarded during the manufacturing process of sh
products. The discarded parts of marine sh are frequently ground
into shmeal to provide food for livestock, aquaculture, or pets, because they have little economic value. However, the raw sh oil
produced from discarded parts may provide cheap, and stable
source of raw oil to extract biodiesel and thus help to reduce pollutant emissions.
Araya and Tsunematsu [15] used sunower and sh oil to their
methyl esters as biodiesel fuel in a single-cylinder natural aspirated indirect injection diesel engine and explained that the maximum power with both methyl esters was higher 3% than the

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E. Buyukkaya et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 69 (2013) 4148

Nomenclature
BSFC
BTE
CO
CO2
DI
HC
NOx

brake specic fuel consumption

brake thermal efciency
carbon monoxide
carbon dioxide
direct injection
hydrocarbons
nitrogen oxides

diesel fuel. Celik [16] analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, the

crude commercial sh oil, by gas liquid chromatography. The major fatty acids detected in this oil were as follows: 24.8% stearic,
23.6% palmitic, 9.84% myristic, and 6.56% octadecatetraenoic acids
[16]. Halifax used B20 fuel, obtained from sh oil, for a bus diesel
engine. The Alaska Biodiesel Demonstration Project demonstrated
that biodiesel could be produced from sh oil widely produced
as a byproduct of the Alaska seafood processing industry [17]. Steigers [18] showed the use of sh oil as fuel in a large stationary diesel engine. They obtained that dramatic decreases in CO,
particulate and sulfur dioxide were seen in exhaust gas emissions
as sh oil content of the fuel blend increases, with an offsetting increase in NOx. In terms of absolute magnitude, the changes in pollutant emissions were largely a wash with the tons of CO,
particulate and sulfur dioxide reduced approximately equal to
the tons of NOx increased.
Zhang and van Gerpan [19], investigated the combustion characteristics of turbocharged direct injection diesel engine using
blends of methyl, isopropyl and winterized methyl ester of soybean oil with diesel as a fuel. They found that all fuel blends except
isopropyl ester had similar combustion behavior. Ignition delay for
ester/diesel blend was shorter than diesel as a fuel. Senatore et al.
[20] found that with rapeseed oil methyl ester heat release always
takes place in advance as compared to diesel and injection also
starts earlier in case of biodiesel as a fuel and average cylinder
gas temperature was higher in case of biodiesel as a fuel. McDonald
et al. [21] investigated soybean oil methyl ester as a fuel on a caterpillar indirect injection diesel engine and found that overall combustion characteristics were quite similar as for diesel except
shorter ignition delay for soybean methyl ester.
Kumar et al. [22] found that for Jatropha oil methyl ester, ignition delay was higher as compared to ignition delay for diesel as a
fuel on a constant speed diesel engine. Selim et al. [23] tested jojoba oil methyl ester (JME) as a fuel on Ricardo compression swirl
diesel engine and found that the pressures and pressure rise rates
for JME are almost similar to that as gas oil. JME, however, exhibits
slightly lower pressure rise rate than gas oil, and JME seems to
have slightly delayed combustion. Experimental investigations
have been carried out to examine the combustion characteristics
in a direct injection transportation diesel engine running with diesel, rice bran oil methyl ester blend by Sinha and Agarwal [24]. A
Mahindra & Mahindra make four cylinder direct injection diesel
engine was instrumented for measurement of combustion pressure, rate of pressure rise and other in-cylinder parameters such
as rate of instantaneous heat release, cumulative heat release rate,
and mass fraction burned. Tests were performed at different loads
ranging from no load to 100% rated load, at constant engine speed.
A careful analysis of heat release and other combustion parameters
has been done, which gives precise information about the combustion process, when using bio diesel.
Ozsezen and Canakci [25] investigated canola and waste palm
oil methyl esters as a fuel on a direct injection diesel engine. In order to determine the performance and combustion characteristics,

TOME
B10
B20
B40
B50

trout-oil methyl ester

10% TOME and 90% diesel
20% TOME and 80% diesel
40% TOME and 60% diesel
50% TOME and 50% diesel

the experiments were conducted at constant engine speeds under

the full load condition of the engine. They explained that the brake
power reduced by 45%, while the brake specic fuel consumption
increased by 910% for biodiesel fuels. On the other hand, methyl
esters caused reductions in CO by 5967%, in unburned hydrocarbon (uHC) by 1726%, in carbon dioxide (CO2) by 58%, and smoke
opacity by 5663%. However, both methyl esters produced more
NOx emissions by 1122% compared with those of the diesel fuel
over the speed range.
Serrano et al. [26] studied about biodiesel impact on buses engines using dynamometer tests and eet consumption data. Results were revealed that the cycle imposed reects very well the
tendency of consumption, allowing to conrm the methodology
and also to check inuences on consumption, mainly associated
with possibilities to decrease CO2 emissions by using some biodiesel blends on buses.
Qi et al. [27] investigated effects of soybean crude oil addition to
diesel fuel on the performance, emissions and combustion characteristics of a naturally aspirated DI compression ignition engine.
They found that a minor increase in brake specic fuel consumption (BSFC) and decrease in brake thermal efciency (BTE) for biodiesel and its blends were observed compared with diesel fuel. The
signicant improvement in reduction of CO and smoke were found
for biodiesel and its blends at high engine loads. HC had no evident
variation for all tested fuels. NOx emissions were slightly higher for
biodiesel and its blends.
There are very few investigations on the application of biodiesel
obtained from animal fats while there are numerous studies on the
application of biodiesel obtained from vegetable oil on diesel engines. Therefore, in this study, it was used trout oil, known as animal fat. It was investigated the engine performance and emission
characteristics on an unmodied diesel engine for TOME and its
diesel blends. Because, TOME has high oil content for biodiesel production and its physical properties are similar to standard diesel
fuel. In this study, it was seen that engine performance and emission values improved in considerable proportions, only NOx emissions deteriorated. Due to the fact that there are very few
investigations in literature, we hope that the new data presented
here will help in developing or procedures for this actual problem.

2. Experimental setup and procedure

All tests were done at Gazi University Automotive Laboratory.
The trout oil and its blends were tested in a single-cylinder natural
aspirated indirect injection diesel engine. The schematic layout of
the test engine bench is given in Fig. 1. The accuracies of the measured parameters and the uncertainties in the calculated parameters are given in Table 1. The test engine specications are given
in Table 2.
The test engine was coupled to a Cussons P1860 electric
dynamometer providing a maximum engine power of 40 kW with
a 1% of uncertainty to control engine speed and load. Full load

E. Buyukkaya et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 69 (2013) 4148

43

1. diesel engine
2. electrical dynamometer
3. control panel of the bench
4. torque measurement instrument
5. fuel tank
6. fuel consumption measurement instrument

Fig. 1. Schematic layout of the test engine bench.

Table 1
The accuracies of the measurements and the uncertainties in the calculated results.
Parameters
Engine speed
Torque
Power
Temperatures
CO
HC
CO2
NOx
Smoke
Calculated results
BSFC
BTE

Measuring range

Accuracy

015%
020,000 ppm
020%
05000 ppm
0100%

1 rpm
1.1%
1%
1 C
0.001%
1 ppm
0.1%
1 ppm
0.1%
1.3%
1%

Table 2
Specication of the test engine.
Engine model
Number of cylinder
Cylinder diameter (mm)
Stroke (mm)
Swept volume (cm3)
Compression ratio
Maximum speed (rpm)
Power (kW)
Maximum torque (Nm)

Lister Petter AA1

1
69.85
57.15
219
17:1
3000
2.2
22

characteristics of the IDI diesel engine fueled with diesel fuel and
TOMEs blends and were at the engine speeds, ranging from 900
to 3000 rpm with an interval of 300 rpm. Engine speed was measured by a digital tachometer with a resolution of 1 rpm. At the
same time, blends of trout oil methyl ester and diesel fuel were
tested at different load condition when engine speed was constant
at maximum torque value. Engine load was changed from low load
to full load with an interval of 10% engine loads by using electrical
dynamometer.
Engine oil, cooling water, exhaust gas, and inlet air temperatures were measured by using K type thermocouples. To collect
the data, Elimko logger was used. The fuel consumption was measured by gravimetric method with an AVL 733 S fuel meter. CO, HC
and NOx emissions were measured by using Capelec model device
(Table 1).
The trout oil and its blends used in this study were prepared at
Gazi University Chemical Engineering Laboratory. Trout oil methyl
ester fuel (TOME) was obtained with transesterication process

which was catalyzed by sulphuric acid and potassium hydroxide

(1.0% by weight of oil). Hence, 400 g of trout oil was heated to
60 C and then, KOH and methyl alcohol was blended in the magnetic mixer until KOH was dissolved in 89.1 g methyl alcohol.
Then, biodiesel was analyzed by an established research institution
following the ASTM D6751 standard, a test specication for TOME.
Additionally, ASTM D5291 was applied to obtain the C/H/O ratios.
Diesel and TOME blends properties are shown in Table 3.
As concerned with the engine performance, a measurement
methodology was employed such that for each type of fuel utilized,
the engine speed was initially set at 900 rpm. At the full load, the
power output and torque were measured on the monitoring equipment available at the test bench. The engine speed was then increased to 1200 rpm and this procedure was repeated for other
engine speeds. The determination of the power and torque curves
was conducted following this technique by varying speed from of
300 rpm to 2700 rpm. Firstly, diesel fuel was used as fuel at the
diesel engine. Then, the mixtures of diesel and TOME having 10%,
20%, 40% and 50% volumetric proportions of biodiesel were named
as B10, B20, B40 and B50, respectively. Finally, as concerned with
the engine emission values, the whole fuels were tested at different
load conditions when engine speed was constant at maximum torque value. Each experiment was repeated three times.
3. Results and discussions
The effects of the whole fuels on engine performance (engine
power, moment, brake specic fuel consumption, brake thermal
efciency) were investigated at full load conditions. Exhaust emissions (NOx, CO, HC) were measured at different load conditions.
Both measurements were done for an unmodied diesel engine.
The transformation of trout oil by transesterication to produce
biodiesel has been studied and the results showed that the trout
oil and its blends may be considered as an excellent alternative
for fossil fuels. Fig. 2 shows the variation in engine power at full
load for different fuels. The results demonstrated that there were
very important differences in the measured engine power output
between diesel and TOMEs blends. Maximum engine power was
obtained at 2400 rpm for the whole fuels. In their studies related
to blends of vegetable oils, many researchers expressed that engine
power increased or a bit reduced or was same due to low caloric
value [2830]. In this study, the heating values of the TOME fuels
were lower approximately 1.1% for B10, 2.3% for B20, 4.6% for
B40 and 5.8% for B50 than that of diesel. Although the heating values of TOME and its blends are lower than that of the diesel fuel,
maximum increase in engine power of B10, B20, B40 and B50 fuels

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E. Buyukkaya et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 69 (2013) 4148

Table 3
Physical characteristics of diesel fuel and TOME blends.
Unit
Density (15 C)
Viscosity (40 C)
Caloric value
Flash energy
Freezing point
Cetane number
C
H
O

kg/m
mm2/s
MJ/kg
kJ/mol
C
% kg/kg
% kg/kg
% kg/kg

Method

Diesel

B10

B20

B40

B50

B100

ISO3675
ISO3675
ASTM D4809
ISO 2719

830
2.9
42.5
22

48
87
12.6

835.5
3.20
42.03
21

48.33
86.03
12.52
1.44

841
3.38
41.56
20

48.66
85.06
12.44
2.48

852
3.48
40.62
18

49.32
83.12
12.28
4.56

857.5
3.54
40.15
17

49.65
82.15
12.2
5.6

885
4.25
37.8
12
4
51.3
77.3
11.8

ISO 5165
ASTM D 5291
ASTM D 5291
ASTM D 5291

Fig. 2. The variation of the engine power with engine speed at full load.

is 1.3%, 2.7%, 4.5% and 5%, respectively. There are alot of causes for
the increase in the engine torque and power. One of them, the biodiesel includes pretty much 10% oxygen by weight. It may be used
in combustion, particularly in the fuel rich zone and is a possible
reason as to much complete combustion [3134]. Another reason,
bigger mass ow rate for the same fuel volume is pumped to the
combustion chamber due to the fact that the density of the TOME
and its blends is higher than that of diesel fuel. By the way, the
more viscous mixture means the less internal leakage during the
fuel pump. Also, this results in an increase in the power and torque.
The variation of the engine torque with engine speed at full load
for different fuels is showed in Fig. 3. While the maximum torque
of engine, used the diesel fuel was provided 6.7 Nm at 1800 rpm,
the maximum torque levels of engine, used B50, B40, B20 and
B10 were obtained 7.25, 7, 6.75, 6.75 Nm at 1500 rpm, respectively.
Moreover, because of the complete combustion, engine torque for
B50 is higher 5% than that of the diesel fuel, and approximately

Fig. 3. The variation of the engine torque with engine speed at full load.

same at 1800 rpm engine speed for B40. The possible reasons for
torque increase of blends might be effects of more complete combustion thanks to oxygen enrichment and more efcient lubricity
of biodiesel contained in blends that probably leads to lower
mechanical power losses [31]. At the same time, the higher viscosity of blends may affect the engine power output and engine torque especially in full-load conditions. It improves the mixture
momentum and penetration depth in-cylinder. In other words, it
prevents sufcient breaking of the biodiesel during fuel injection.
In the literature, different reasons, related to viscosity, have been
explained to express the power and torque recovery according to
that achieved with diesel fuel at full load [33,35].
In their studies related to blends of vegetable oils, many
researchers expressed that engine power and torque increased or
a bit reduced or was same due to low caloric value [2830]. For
example, Gumus and Kasifoglu [33] used apricot seed oil with
methanol and its blends in a compression ignition diesel engine
at full load condition. They explained that higher power and torque
were obtained from engine used with biodiesel. They stated that
this increase was due to the high oxygen percentage and the high
density of biodiesel blend. etinkaya et al. [36] used pure waste oil
and its blends with biodiesel. It was observed that the engine torque with biodiesel was lower about 5% than that of diesel fuel. It
was stated that this reduction was due to the low thermal value
of biodiesel.
Tat [37] used pure soybean oil and its blends in a turbocharged
diesel engine at 1400 rpm and full load conditions. He explained
that the mass of fuel was higher about 3.2% in the case of biodiesel.
The higher viscosity reducing the back ow across the piston clearance of the injection pump was used to responsible for this reduction. Over and above, the difference in fuel distribution was
decreased because the injection temperature was increased, in
accordance with the corresponding decrease in viscosity. Conversely, when injection temperatures for diesel and biodiesel were
adjusted to give close viscosities, then the diesel fuel delivery by
volume was slightly higher as a consequence of its lower density
enhancing the ow rate through orices. Usta [28] explained the
increased injected volume in the case of biodiesel by means of an
increase in the viscosity.
The brake specic fuel consumptions (BSFCs) with respect to
engine speed at full load condition is presented in Fig. 4. Generally,
in literature, it was expressed that the biodiesel fuels had higher
BSFC as to diesel fuel, primarily owing to their lower heating values. Similar results were obtained in this study. For whole fuels,
the minimum BSFC was found at 1800 rpm. The BSFCs of engine
which was used the standard diesel, B10, B20, B40 and B50 fuels
were 275.71, 276.88, 278.42, 278.57 and 280.05 g/kW h, respectively. Average BSFC values of the B10, B20, B40 and B50 fuels were
observed to be higher by 0.45%, 1.04%, 1.1% and 1.47% than that of
the diesel fuel, respectively. The higher fuel consumption of
TOMEs blends might be primarily related to lower heating value
of the B100 (Table 3). Heating values of TOMEs blends are lower

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E. Buyukkaya et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 69 (2013) 4148

Diesel
B40

B10
B50

B20

BSFC (g/kWh)

310

290

270

250
900

1200

1500

1800

2100

2400

2700

Engine speed (rpm)

Fig. 4. The variation of the BSFC with engine speed at full load.

approximately 1.1% for B10, 2.3% for B20, 4.6% for B40 and 5.8% for
B50 than that of diesel, the differences between the BSFC values of
diesel fuel and TOMEs blends became less, particularly at middle
and high speeds due to short combustion period in spite of increased fuel amount. Main reason may based on higher oxygen
by weight. Oxygen might be used during combustion in the fuel
rich zone and combustion chamber temperatures increases by excess oxygen and fast burning TOME fuel molecules.
A large majority of authors reported that they found increases
in biodiesel fuel consumption in proportion to the biodiesel content in the blends and to the loss of heating value [3841]. Labeckas and Slavinskas [42] claimed that the higher fuel consumption
of the blends could be related to the lower, on average by 12.5%
of net heating value of rapeseed oil methyl. Another reason for
the increase in BSFC with biodiesel may be a change in the combustion timing caused by the biodiesels higher cetane number as
well as injection timing changes.
The comparison of brake thermal efciency (BTE) with engine
speed for different fuels is presented in Fig. 5. The thermal efciency is inversely proportional to its BSFC and the heating value
of the fuel. The BTE values of the biodiesel were slightly higher
than that of the diesel fuel due to the lower heating value of the
blend though the BSFC values of the blends at low loads were very
slightly higher than that of the diesel fuel. However, the differences
were small for particularly B10 and B20 at all loads [3134]. At the
same time, in all cases, the brake thermal efciency increased
towards from low speeds to middle speeds. This was due to reduction in heat loss and increase in power with increase in speed. The

maximum thermal efciency for B50 was higher 4.05% than that of
diesel at 1800 rpm. While the brake thermal efciency of B10 obtained was closer to BTE of diesel fuel at low speeds, it was higher
for other blends because the oxygen content of the biodiesels improves burning characteristics. At the same time, fuels with a higher cetane number have a superior compression ignition quality in
diesel engines [43,44]. In this study, the cetane numbers of the diesel fuel, B10, B20, B40 and B50 are 48, 48.33, 48.66, 49.32 and
49.65, respectively. Thus, the diesel fuel with lower cetane number
appeared to have the lowest BTE among the others. BTE of the engine is improved with increasing concentration of the biodiesel in
the blend. The possible reason may be complete combustion, and
additional lubricity of biodiesel. At the high speeds, the BTE decreased for all fuels due to insufcient air causing incomplete combustion of the fuel. A lot of authors explained that engine was not
any variation in thermal efciency when using different types of
biodiesel fuels, but some authors observed improvement or decrease [45]. Usta et al. [32] explained that biodiesel blends produced a slightly higher torque and power at both full load and
partial loads although the heating value of the biodiesel is lower
than that of the diesel fuel. It was found that 17.5% biodiesel addition gave the maximum power and thermal efciency. Labeckas
and Slavinskas [42] tested a 4750 cc engine under different steady
modes using 5%, 10%, 20%, 35% blends and pure rapeseed-oil biodiesel. They obtained higher BTEs with 5% and 10% blends compared to the others. On the other hand, Ramadhas et al. [40]
obtained higher BTEs with 10% and 20% blends. This improved

6
Diesel
B20
B40

B50
3
2
1
0
10

20

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

Fig. 6. Variation of the CO emissions with engine load for different fuels.

0.6

0.32
0.31

Equivalence ratio

0.5

0.3
0.29
0.28
0.27
0.26
900

30

Load (%)

0.33

Brake thermal efficiency (%)

B10

CO (%)

330

Diesel

B10

B20

B40

Diesel

B10

B20

B40

B50

0.4

0.3

B50
1200

1500

1800

2100

2400

2700

Engine speed (rpm)

Fig. 5. The variation of the brake thermal efciency with engine speed at full load.

0.2
10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

Load (%)
Fig. 7. Variation of the equivalence ratio with engine load for different fuels.

E. Buyukkaya et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 69 (2013) 4148

600

Diesel
500

B10
B20

HC (ppm)

400

B40
B50

300
200
100
0
10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

Load (%)
Fig. 8. Variation of the HC emissions with engine load for different fuels.

300

250

NOx (ppm)

efciency was explained by authors with increased lubricity of

these blends as compared to diesel fuel.
Figs. 6 and 7 show the variation of CO emissions and equivalence ratio with load for different fuels, respectively. Fig. 6 shows
that the CO emissions increase with increase in engine load since
the airfuel ratio decreases with increase in load such as all typical
internal combustion engines. The engine emits less CO using
TOMEs blends with diesel as compared to that of diesel fuel under
all loading conditions. With increasing biodiesel percentage, CO
emission level decreases for the reason that a mount of oxygen
content in biodiesel helps for the complete combustion [46]. That
is, the amount of the CO produced during combustion of TOME
may be converted into CO2 by taking up the additional oxygen
molecule present in the biodiesel chain and thus reduced CO formation [47,48]. At the same time, this result may be due to the increase in temperature. As it is well known, CO formation is
signicantly affected by in-cylinder temperature. Thus, the highest
exhaust temperature was obtained for B50 and reduction in CO
emissions was the lowest among other fuel blends. This reduction
was 9% for low load and 17.2% for full load. As found by Canakci,
[49] and Nabi et al. [50], biodiesel and its blends with diesel fuel
have lower CO emissions. They found 18.4% and 4% reductions in
CO emissions, respectively, when the engine was fueled with
B100. This may be due to oxygen content of biodiesel and its
blends. In addition, it is likely that this is due to since the biodiesel
has C/H ratio that is less than for diesel fuel.
It is seen in Fig. 8 that there is an important decrease in the HC
emission with blends of TOME compared to diesel fuel. The increased gas temperature and the higher cetane number as reasons
for this decrease may be explained. Because higher temperature of
the burned gases may be precluded condensation of the heaviest
hydrocarbons in the sampling line, recommending proper conditions for HC emission analysis [42,51]. The higher cetane number
of biodiesel causes a decrease in HC emissions due to the reduction
in combustion delay [52]. Another reason may be explained with
the oxygen content in biodiesel improve the quality of combustion.
On the other hand, the blended fuels have higher oxygen content
than the diesel fuel, which could improve the combustion and lead
to lower HC emission [46]. It was observed that TOME blends reduced the HC emissions approximately 45%, depending on the engine load. For the blended fuels, it was seen that the HC emissions
were same at particularly low load conditions.
The NOx and exhaust gas temperature are represented in Figs. 9
and 10, respectively. NOx emissions show a different trend according to a direct injection or an indirect injection engine with engine
load increasing. That is, while NOx emissions increase with load for
direct injection engine, they are maximum at loads slightly less

200

150

100

50
10

20

30

40

50

Diesel

B10

B20

B40

60

70

80

90

100

110

Load (%)
Fig. 9. Variation of the NOx emissions with engine load for different fuels.

600

Exhaust gas temperature (oC)

46

550
500
450
Diesel

400

B10

350

B20
B40

300
250
10

B50

30

50

70

90

110

Load (%)
Fig. 10. Variation of the exhaust gas temperature with engine load for different
fuels.

than full for indirect injection engine [53,54]. In this study, it was
used indirect injection engine and NOx emissions increased until
60% loads for the whole test fuels, and then decreased. NOx is
formed by chain reactions involving nitrogen and oxygen in the
air. These reactions are dependent upon especially temperature
arising from high activation energy needed for the reactions involved. Since diesel engines always operate with excess air, NOx
emissions are mainly a function of gas temperature and residence
time [55]. McCormick et al. expressed that NOx emissions increased with increasing fuel density or decreasing fuel cetane
number [56]. At the same time, it is known that NOx formation is
dependent upon volumetric efciency [53]. In many studies, it
was seen that the NOx emission varied linearly with engine load,
but in this study, it increased until 60% loads and then decreased
with increase of engine load for diesel fuel and biodiesel blends.
NOx emissions from biodiesel blended fuels reported in the literature vary relative to baseline diesel NOx, with no NOx change or a
NOx decrease found by some to an increase in NOx found by others
[57]. Although the exhaust gas temperatures increased, the NOx
emissions were observed to decrease in particularly high engine
loads. This is primarily due to the increase in volumetric efciency
[55].
The NOx emission of engine with biodiesel fuel was higher than
that of the diesel fuel. Fish oil content of the fuel blend increased,
NOx emissions, on ppm basis, increased on the order of 1030%
across the tested load range. This could be attributed to the

E. Buyukkaya et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 69 (2013) 4148

25
Diesel

Smoke opacity (%)

B10
B20

20

B40
B50
15

10

5
10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

Load (%)
Fig. 11. Variation of the smoke opacity with engine load for different fuels.

increased gas temperatures and the fact that biodiesel had some
oxygen content in it which facilitated NOx formation. It has been
also reported by Zheng et al. that the biodiesel fuel with a cetane
number similar to the diesel fuel produced higher NOx emissions
than the diesel fuel. However, the biodiesel fuels with a higher cetane number had comparable NOx emissions with the diesel fuel. A
higher cetane number would result in a shortened ignition delay
period thereby allowing less time for the air/fuel mixing before
the premixed burning phase. Consequently, a weaker mixture
would be generated and burnt during the premixed phase resulting
in relatively reduced NOx formation [58].
On the other word, biodiesels contain higher oxygen component compared to diesel fuel. So it is evident that there is higher
oxygen content to react with the nitrogen component in the surrounding air, resulting in a larger amount of NOx formation [59].
While the engine load increases, the equivalence ratio increases
resulting in an increase in the average gas temperature in the combustion chamber and hence NOx formation, which is sensitive to
temperature increase (Fig. 7).
Fig. 11 shows the variation of smoke opacity with load for different fuels. Smoke opacity increases slightly with increasing load
for the whole fuels due to the engine characteristic for which
incomplete fuel combustion is taking place. The unburnt hydrocarbon emissions are also similar characterization of the breakdown
of good ow mixing and combustion in the engine [33]. Smoke
opacity for biodiesel blend is appeared to be generally lower than
that of the diesel fuel. This is due to higher thermal efciency of the
engine with biodiesel (Fig. 5). That is, lesser amount of unburnt
hydrocarbons present in the engine exhaust emission. Therefore,
lower smoke opacity values are achieved with biodiesel blends as
compared to that of the diesel. The average smoke for B10, B20,
B40 and B50 were less than that of diesel fuel by 6.2%, 17.3%,
29% and 60.5%, respectively. B50 blends had smoke opacity of
17% as compared to 24% in the case of diesel. The reason of smoke
reduction when using biodiesel is explained by oxygen content in
the fuel that contributes to complete fuel oxidation even in locally
rich zones. Because smoke formation usually happens in the rich
zone at high temperature, especially within the core region of fuel
spray, and is reasoned by high temperature separation [33,60]. For
the reason that biodiesel contains a mounts of oxygen, locally over
rich region reduces and formation of important smoke is limited by
the positive effect of oxygen content in biodiesel [33].

4. Conclusion
Based on the results of this study, the following specic conclusions were draw;

47

 The tests with TOME fuel indicated considerable improvement

in performance. Biodiesel blends produced a slightly higher torque and power at both full load and partial loads although the
heating value of the biodiesel is lower than that of the diesel
fuel. Maximum engine power was obtained at 2400 rpm for
all fuels. While maximum engine torque was obtained at
1500 rpm for TOME fuels, it was obtained for diesel fuel at
1800 rpm. At the same time, it was seen that engine torque
was almost horizontal from low engine speeds to 1800 rpm
for particularly B40 and B50 fuels. For the whole fuels, the minimum BSFC was found between 1500 and 1800 rpm and particularly, the BSFC of B10 fuel was almost the same as that of
diesel fuel at high speeds.
 CO, HC and soot emissions in exhaust effectively were found to
be lower on the whole fuel blends as compared to diesel, but
NOx emissions were seen to be higher. Particularly in the CO
and HC emissions, it was found that TOME blends did not cause
signicant changes at low loads. This may be due to the overall
leaner mixture.
 The trout oil and its blends may be considered as diesel fuel
substitutes due to potential benets of the use of animal biodiesel fuel which has high cetane number and caloric value
according to vegetable biodiesel fuel in internal combustion
engines. But animal fats with high melting points freeze in cold
weather conditions. Therefore, it can be used as engine fuel that
animal fats having high viscosity are mixed in certain proportions with vegetable oils and diesel fuel. This biodiesel mixture
can be a good way to improve certain properties of diesel without loss of efciency or increase in consumption.

Acknowledgements
This study has been nancially supported by BAPK Project of
Sakarya University, and experimental studies were did at Gazi University. Both universitys support is gratefully acknowledged.
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