Applied Thermal Engineering 29 (2009) 2484–2490

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Applied Thermal Engineering

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

Experimental investigation on the performance and emissions of a diesel

engine fuelled with ethanol–diesel blends
Jincheng Huang a, Yaodong Wang a,b,*, Shuangding Li a, Anthony P. Roskilly b, Hongdong Yu a, Huifen Li a
a
Mechanical Engineering College, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China
b
The Sir Joseph Swan Institute for Energy Research, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, United Kingdom

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: An experimental investigation on the application of the blends of ethanol with diesel to a diesel engine
Received 6 January 2008 was carried out. First, the solubility of ethanol and diesel was conducted with and without the additive of
Accepted 17 December 2008 normal butanol (n-butanol). Furthermore, experimental tests were carried out to study the performance
Available online 25 December 2008
and emissions of the engine fuelled with the blends compared with those fuelled by diesel. The test
results show that it is feasible and applicable for the blends with n-butanol to replace pure diesel as
Keywords: the fuel for diesel engine; the thermal efficiencies of the engine fuelled by the blends were comparable
Ethanol
with that fuelled by diesel, with some increase of fuel consumptions, which is due to the lower heating
Diesel fuel
Blends
value of ethanol. The characteristics of the emissions were also studied. Fuelled by the blends, it is found
Diesel engine that the smoke emissions from the engine fuelled by the blends were all lower than that fuelled by diesel;
Performance the carbon monoxide (CO) were reduced when the engine ran at and above its half loads, but were
Emissions increased at low loads and low speed; the hydrocarbon (HC) emissions were all higher except for the
top loads at high speed; the nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions were different for different speeds, loads
and blends.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction These characters of ethanol make it difficult to mix with diesel.

The environmental concern of the global warming and climate
change has greatly increased the interests of the application study
of renewable fuels to internal combustion engines. The sharply ris-
ing petroleum price on the markets worldwide has also boosted
the studies and applications of renewable fuels in the area. Previ-
ous research and studies on different kinds of renewable fuels such
as raw vegetable oil, waste cooking oil, biodiesel, methanol and
ethanol. The first three are able to be applied to diesel engines
[1–8] and the last two are mostly applied to petrol engines [9–
12]. Ethanol is regarded as a kind of renewable fuel because it
can be made from many kinds of raw materials such as corn, maize,
sugar beets, sugar cane, cassava, etc. [13,14]. It is has been success-
fully used to mix with petrol as part of the alternative to reduce the
consumption of fossil fuel in Brazil since 1975 [15–17]. But ethanol
has not been commercially used to replace part of the diesel fuel to
diesel engines. Some investigation of the potential application of
ethanol to fuel diesel engine have been done but the barriers for
the application have not been overcome yet, due to the special
properties of the ethanol [18–20], as can be seen in Table 1. Com-
pared to diesel, ethanol has lower density and lower viscosity.
* Corresponding author. Address: Mechanical Engineering College, Guangxi
University, Nanning 530004, China.
E-mail address: y.d.wang@ncl.ac.uk (Y. Wang).
Therefore, further studies are necessary to find the way to make
ethanol be mixable with diesel and then applicable to diesel
engines.
The objective of this study is to carry out an experimental study
to investigate the solubility of diesel with ethanol, the blends the
two mixed with the additive of normal butanol (n-butanol); and
the performance and emissions from diesel engine when fuelled
by the blends compared with that fuelled by pure diesel.
2. The experimental study
The experimental study was carried out in two stages: the first
stage was to test the blends of ethanol and diesel with and without
the additive of n-butanol. And then the fuels are used to run a die-
sel engine to test its characteristics of the performance and
emissions.
2.1. Tests of the solubility of the blends of diesel with ethanol
Diesel, ethanol were used as the materials to form the blends
with and without the additive of n-butanol. The properties of die-
sel, ethanol and n-butanol are shown in Table 1. The purity of the
ethanol used is of 99.7%. A series of tests was performed to observe
the solubility of the two fuels in different mixing ratios. Diesel and

1359-4311/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2008.12.016
 J. Huang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 29 (2009) 2484–2490 2485

Table 1
Properties of diesel, ethanol and n-butanol.

Formula Mole Density at Oxygen Carbon Hydrogen Viscosity at Cetane Lower heat
weight 20 °C content (wt%) content (wt%) content (wt%) 20 °C (106 v/m2/s) number value (MJ/kg)
Diesel C12H23 (C10H20  C15H28) 190–220 0.840 0 86 14 3.35 4050 42.5
Ethanol C2H5OH 46.07 0.789 34.8 52.2 13 1.2 89 26.4
n-Butanol C4H10O 74.12 0.810 21.58 64.82 13.60 3.0 17 33.2

ethanol were mixed into a homogeneous blend in a container by butanol were all lasted longer before the stratification happened.
stirring it. The blends were kept in a glass container for observing The blend of Z5E10D85 was of the best stability with very little
the solubility and the physical stability. The volume percentages and almost unseen stratification.
tested were 10%, 20%, 25% and 30% of ethanol with 90%, 80%, 75%
and 70% of diesel, respectively, which were named as E10D90, 2.2. Experimental test rig set-up and test plan
E20D80, E25D75 and E30D70.
Table 2 and Fig. 1 show the test results of the solubility and the 2.2.1. The engine
physical stability of the blends. From the figure and the table it can The engine used in the experiments is a S195 diesel engine
be seen that that all of the blends were stratified into two layers for made by Nanji Machinery Ltd. It is a single-cylinder, four-stroke,
the blend of ethanol with diesel after some times. E10D90 lasted water-cooled, direct injection (DI) compression-ignition engine,
72 h when it became separated; E20D80 maintained 24 h before compression ratio 1:20, having a swept volume of 815 cm3, rated
separating; E25D75 and E30D70 were separated after 2 h or power 8.82 kW at rated speed 2000 r/min. Dimensions of the en-
5 min after mixing. The results show that the blends of ethanol
with diesel were not stable and were all separated.
In order to solve the problem of phase separation, n-butanol
was selected as an additive for further tests. The same processes
for the mixing were performed with the blends of ethanol, diesel
and n-butanol, the volume percentages were 10%, 20%, 25% and
30% of ethanol with 85%, 75%, 70% and 65% of diesel, respectively,
and with a fixed percentage of 5% of n-butanol as a solvent, which
were named as Z5E10D85, Z5E20D75, Z5E25D70 and Z5E30D65.
Table 2 and Fig. 2 show the test fuels and the test results of the
solubility and the physical stability of the blends. Fig. 2a shows the
status when ethanol and diesel were added into the containers. It
showed that the liquids in the containers were stratified into two
layers. Fig. 2b shows the states when the blends were formed after
the n-butanol were added in and stirred. The photos showed that
ethanol and diesel were mixed well with the aid of n-butanol.
Fig. 2c shows the states of the blends after being mixed for some
days. It showed that the blends of the last three were separated
after 11–14 days. The results show that all of the blends with n-

Table 2
Stratification of ethanol–diesel fuel blends without and with 5% solvent.

Fuel blend E10D90 E20D80 E25D75 E30D70

Time for stratification 72 (h) 24 (h) 2 (h) 5 (min)
Fuel blend Z5E10D85 Z5E20D75 Z5E25D70 Z5E30D65
Time for stratification – 14 (days) 14 (days) 11 (days)

Fig. 2. (a) Stratification of ethanol–diesel blends before adding solvent and stirring.
(b) Ethanol–diesel blends with 5% solvent (after stirring and mixed). (c) Ethanol–
Fig. 1. Stratification of ethanol–diesel after mixed. diesel blends with 5% solvent (phase separation after mixed 11–14 days).
2486 J. Huang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 29 (2009) 2484–2490
gine are: the bore D = 95 mm and the stroke H = 115 mm. The data
of the fuel inject system of the engine are: the fuel injection pres-
sure is 16 MPa, the fuel-delivery angle is 18° before the top dead
centre, the fuel nozzle diameter is 0.3 mm and the fuel nozzle hole
number is 4.
2.2.2. The instruments
The main instruments used in the tests are:
 A hydro-dynamometer was used for measuring the torque of
engine output; the model is D110, made by Jiangsu Qice Dyna-
mometer Co. Ltd.
 Exhaust gas analyser was used for measuring the emissions of
CO, CO2, HC, NOx, O2 from the engine; the model is AVL DiGas
4000 light, made by Austria AVL Company.
 A smokemeter, model FTY-100, made by Foshan Analytical
Instrument Co. Ltd., is used for measuring the smoke emission
from engine.
 A fuel Consumption meter, model FC2210, made by Changsha
Pulian Power Testing Instrument Co., Ltd., is used for measuring
the specific fuel consumptions of the engine.
2.2.3. The test rig
The schematic diagram of the experimental test rig and the
completed test rig is shown in Fig. 3a and b, respectively.
a Fuel tank
Tachometer Smokemeter
Exhaust Water temperature
temperature meter meter
Fig. 3. (a) The Schematic diagram of test rig. (b) The completed test rig.
2.2.4. Experimental plan
A test plan was designed to carry out the engine tests on the
original diesel fuel and the blends of Z5E10D85, Z5E20D75,
Z5E25D70 and Z5E30D65. For comparison, the experimental plan
for the engine tests were designed to run at two typical speeds of
1500 (maximum-torque speed) and 2000 r/min (rated power
speed) at different loads to test the engine load characteristics.
There were no changes for the engine running parameters. The
whole experimental plan was realized in two stages: (i) running
engine with diesel; and (ii) running engine with the blends. Each
test was repeated three times to make sure the data were reli-
able. The relative standard deviations of the repeated test results
are: <3.1% for fuel consumption (BSFC), <3.2% for thermal effi-
ciency (get), <24% for CO, <29% for HC, <9% for NOx and <30%
for smoke.
3. Test results and discussion
As stated above, the experimental tests were carried out on the
diesel engine using diesel and the blended fuels on two specified
speeds. The relevant parameters such as engine speeds, torques,
and fuel consumptions of engine were recorded and the specific
fuel consumption and thermal efficiency were calculated. The en-
gine emissions of CO, unburned HC, NOx and smoke were analysed
using the exhaust gas analysers and recorded. The results are
shown as follows.
Fuel Consumption
meter
Exhaust gas analyser
195
Hydro- Diesel
dynamo- engine
meter
 J. Huang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 29 (2009) 2484–2490 2487

3.1. Engine performance
Fig. 4 shows the test results of the brake specific fuel consump-
tions (BSFCs) with the engine power outputs, when the engine
fuelled by different fuel blends and diesel. From the results, it
can be seen that the engine power could be maintained at the same
level when fuelled by different fuel blends with some extent in-
creases of fuel consumption; the more ethanol was added in, the
more fuel consumption was found, compared with those fuelled
by pure diesel. When the engine ran at 2000 r/min on different en-
gine loads, for the blend of Z5E10D85, the BSFCs were increased
from 5.2% to 11.4%; for the blend of Z5E20D75, the BSFCs were in-
creased from 5.7% to 16.8%; for the blend of Z5E25D70, the BSFCs
were increased from 8.5% to 20.2%; for the blend of Z5E30D65,
the BSFCs were increased from 11.1% to 31.5%. These increases of
fuel consumption are due to the lower heating value of ethanol
than that of pure diesel. The results show the trend of the increase
of fuel consumption with the increase percentage of ethanol in the
blends. Similar results and trend can be seen when the engine ran
at 1500 r/min on different engine loads. The trend of these fuel
consumption results coincides with the previous work reported
by Agarwal [21].
Fig. 5 shows the results of the thermal efficiencies of engine
with the engine power on two tested speeds when fuelled by dif-
ferent fuel blends and the pure diesel. The test results show that
there are some differences for the brake thermal efficiencies for
different blends compared with those of diesel. When the engine
ran at the speed of 2000 r/min, for the blend of Z5E10D85, the ther-
mal efficiency were decreased by 1.6–5.1%; for the blend of
Z5E20D75, the thermal efficiencies were reduced by 0.5–5.8% at
the engine low loads from 1.5 to 4.5 kW, but at the high loads from
6.0 to 10 kW the thermal efficiencies were increased by 1.5–4.1%,
respectively; similar trends can be found for the blends of
Z5E25D70, the decreases were from 1.1% to 6.6% and the increases
were from 0.4% to 3.5%; and for Z5E30D65, the decreases were
from 0.2% to 12.8% at the low loads of the engine (from 1.5 to
6 kW), the increases were from 1.3% to 3.2% at the high loads of
the engine (from 7.5 to 10.0 kW). These results show the differ-
ences of the thermal efficiencies between the blends and diesel
were relatively small; they were comparable with each other, with
some extent increases or decreases at different loads.
When the engine ran at 1500 r/min, as shown in Fig. 5a, a sim-
ilar trend can be seen as those of 2000 r/min; the maximal differ-
ence was 6.1% when the engines worked at the range between
half and full load. The results are also comparable to those reported
by Agarwal [21].
3.2. The carbon monoxide (CO) emissions from the engine
Fig. 6 shows the CO emissions from the engine at the speeds of
1500 and 2000 r/min when fuelled by different fuels. When the en-
gine ran at 2000 r/min and at lower loads, the CO emissions from
the engine fuelled by the blends were higher than those fuelled
by pure diesel. The higher percentages of the ethanol were, the
more CO emissions happened. But at the engine higher loads –
which were above half of the engine load, the CO emissions be-
came lower than that fuelled by diesel for all the blend fuels. At
the highest engine loads tested, the reductions of CO emissions
from the blend fuels were from 31.7% (for the blend of
Z5E10D85) to 43.9% (for the blend of Z5E30D65). The reductions

a 560 n=1500r/min b 600

D100 550 n=2000r/min
520 Z5E10D85 D100
BSFC/(g/Kwh)
BSFC/(g/Kwh)

480 Z5E20D75 500 Z5E10D85

Z5E25D70 Z5E20D75
440 Z5E30D65 450 Z5E25D70
Z5E30D65
400 400
360 350
320
300
280
250
240
200
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 2 4 6 8 10
Pe/(Kw) Pe/(Kw)
n=1500r/min n=2000r/min

Fig. 4. Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) of the engine.

a 0.40
b 0.40
0.36 0.36
0.32
0.32
n=2000r/min
n=1500r/min 0.28 D100
η et
η et

D100
0.28 Z5E10D85
Z5E10D85 0.24 Z5E20D75
Z5E20D75
Z5E25D70
0.24 Z5E25D70 0.20
Z5E30D65
Z5E30D65
0.16
0.20
0.12
0.16
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 2 4 6 8 10
Pe/(kW) Pe/(kW)
n=1500r/min n=2000r/min

Fig. 5. Brake thermal efficiency (get) of the engine.

2488 J. Huang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 29 (2009) 2484–2490

a b 0.45 n=2000r/m in
0.30 D100 0.40 D100
Z5E10D85 Z5E10D85
0.35
0.25 Z5E20D75 Z5E20D75
Z5E25D70 0.30 Z5E25D70

CO/(%)
CO/(%)
0.20 Z5E30D65 Z5E30D65
0.25
0.15 0.20
0.15
0.10 0.10
0.05 0.05
0.00
0.00 0 2 4 6 8 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Pe/(Kw)
Pe/(Kw)
n=2000r/min
n=1500r/min

Fig. 6. CO emission.

of CO emissions at full loads are due to the more complete combus-
tion [22,23].
A similar trend and results can been seen when the engine ran
on the speed of 1500 r/min. This phenomenon or trend is due to
that ethanol contains oxygen element in it. When the engine above
its half load, the temperatures in the cylinder were high, which
made the chemical reaction of fuel with oxygen be easier and the
combustion became more complete.
3.3. The unburned hydrocarbon (HC) emissions from the engine
The test results for the unburned HC from the engine are
shown in Fig. 7. The results showed that the HC emissions from
the engine for the blend fuels were all higher when the engine
ran on the speed of 1500 r/min, as shown in Fig. 7a; and the
HC emissions became less as the loads increased. A similar trend
can be seen for the engine ran on 2000 r/min, except at the point
of top power output, as shown in Fig. 7b. At this point, the HC
emissions for all blends were lower than that fuelled by diesel,
i.e. from 4.2% for the blend of Z5E30D65, to 33.3% for the blend
of Z5E20D75. This is due to the high temperature in the engine
cylinder to make the fuel be easier to react with oxygen when
the engine ran on the top load and high speed. Similar trends
at full load can be found in the results from the other researchers
[22,24].
3.4. The nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from the engine
The test results for the NOx emissions from the engine are
shown in Fig. 8. When the engine ran at the speed of 1500 r/min
and above half of the engine load (3.375 kW); the NOx emissions
from the engine were higher than those of diesel when fuelled
by Z5E10D85, from 1.1% to 8.4%; when the engine loads were
1.125 and 2.250, the NOx emissions were reduced by 15.8% and
0.8%, respectively.
The NOx emissions from the engine were all lower than those of
diesel when fuelled by the other blends: the reductions were be-
tween 6.4% and 34.4% for the blend of Z5E20D75; the reductions
were between 0.0% and 44.7% for the blend of Z5E25D70; the
reductions were between 3.6% and 75.6% for the blend of
Z5E30D65.
When the engine ran at 2000 r/min, the NOx emissions from the
engine were reduced by 5.4–17.5% for different engine loads, when
fuelled by Z5E10D85; the NOx emissions from the engine were re-
duced by 0.8–13.9% for different engine loads, when fuelled by
Z5E20D75.
When fuelled by Z5E25D70, the NOx emissions from the engine
were not stable, at different engine loads, the increases and de-
creases are between 0.9% and 5.2% in absolute value, except at
the point of the lowest load – the reduction was 29.1%. Similar
trend can be seen for that fuelled by Z5E30D65, the NOx emissions
from the engine were not stable for different engine loads, the in-
creases and decreases are between 2.8% and 8.1%, except for the
two lowest loads – the reductions were 31.7% and 59.0%,
respectively.
From the results, it can be seen that the NOx emissions from the
engine were reduced at the low speed when fuelled by blended
fuels; but at the high speed, there is not a stable trend for the
NOx emissions. From the results, it can be seen that the NOx emis-
sions from the blends and diesel were almost in the same level.
The trends of NOx emissions from different blends may be ex-
plained as following. Generally speaking, there are three primary
sources of NOx in combustion processes: thermal NOx, fuel NOx
and prompt NOx. Thermal NOx formation, which is highly temper-
ature dependent, is recognized as the most relevant source from
engine combustion.

a 100 n=1500r/min b 90 n=2000r/m in

90 D100 80
D100
Z5E10D85 Z5E10D85
80 Z5E20D75
HC/(ppm)

HC/(ppm)

Z5E20D75 70
Z5E25D70 Z5E25D70
70
Z5E30D65 60 Z5E30D65
60
50
50
40 40
30 30
20 20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 2 4 6 8 10
Pe/(Kw) Pe/(Kw)
n=1500r/min n=2000 r/min
Fig. 7. HC emission.
 J. Huang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 29 (2009) 2484–2490 2489

a n=1500r/min b
1400 D100 1400 n=2000r/min
Z5E10D85 D100
1200 1200 Z5E10D85
Z5E20D75

NOx/(ppm)

NOx/(ppm)
Z5E25D70 Z5E20D75
1000 1000 Z5E25D70
Z5E30D65
Z5E30D65
800 800
600 600
400 400
200 200

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 2 4 6 8 10
Pe/(Kw) Pe/(Kw)
n=1500r/min n=2000 r/min

Fig. 8. NOx emissions.

a 1.0 b 2.0
n=1500r/min 1.8 n=2000r/m in
0.8 D100 1.6 D100
Z5E10D85 Z5E10D85
Z5E20D75 1.4 Z5E20D75
k /(1/m)

0.6

k /(1/m)
Z5E25D70 1.2 Z5E25D70
Z5E30D65 Z5E30D65
1.0
0.4 0.8
0.6
0.2 0.4
0.2
0.0
0.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 2 4 6 8 10
Pe/(Kw) Pe/(Kw)
n=1500r/min n=2000 r/min

Fig. 9. Smoke emissions.

Thermal NOx refers to NOx formed through high temperature
oxidation of nitrogen (N2) in combustion chamber. The formation
rate of NOx is primarily a function of combustion (flame) tempera-
ture, the residence time of nitrogen at that temperature, and the
contents of oxygen in the reaction regions in the combustion
chamber. At high combustion (flame) temperatures, nitrogen (N2)
and oxygen (O2) in the combustion chamber disassociate into their
atomic states and participate in a series of reactions. The three
principal reactions producing thermal NOx are described in Zeldo-
vich Mechanism:
N2 þ O ! NO þ N
N þ O2 ! NO þ O
N þ OH ! NO þ H
The main NOx emission trends can be seen from Fig. 8. NOx
emissions increased with the engine load for all fuel blends at both
engine speeds. This is due to more fuel was injected and com-
busted in the cylinder when engine load increased, which caused
higher gas temperature and resulted in more NOx formation in
the engine cylinder and then higher NOx emission from the engine.
This also proves that one the most important factors for the emis-
sions of NOx is the combustion temperature in the engine cylinder.
Although the main trends of the NOx emissions were similar
with each other for different fuel blends, they were different more
or less at different loads when looked into the details. From Fig. 8,
it can be seen that the NOx emissions were reduced at the low
loads when fuelled by blended fuels; this is possibly due to two
reasons: one is that the evaporation of ethanol in the blends, after
being injected into the combustion chamber, caused the lower gas
temperature in the cylinder (ethanol has higher latent heat of
vaporization 840 kJ/kg, compared with that of 270 kJ/kg for diesel),
and the temperature in the cylinder was also lower after com-
busted; this caused less NOx formation and it had an obvious effect
when less fuel was injected into the engine cylinder at the low en-
gine loads; another is that the lower calorific value of ethanol, n-
butanol and its blends, which caused lower combustion
temperature.
With the increasing of engine load, due to more fuel injections
and then higher combustion temperature, the effect of evaporation
of ethanol may not be a dominating factor; the contents of oxygen
in the reaction regions had an increased effect on the NOx forma-
tion. So the NOx emissions for blends were not so stable (a little
more or a little less for different blends), compared with that from
the pure diesel.
3.5. The smoke emissions from the engine
Fig. 9 shows the test results of smoke emissions from the engine
when fuelled by different fuels. The results show that the smokes
from the engine were all lowered down at the two tested speeds
using blends. When the engine was run at the speed of 2000 r/
min, the reduction rates were from 16.7% to 65.3% for the blend
of Z5E10D85; from 45.2% to 82.9% for the blend of Z5E20D75; from
45.2% to 86.5% for the blend of Z5E25D70; and from 33.3% to 87.5%
for the blend of Z5E30D65. A similar trend can be found in Fig. 9a,
which shows the smoke emissions when the engine ran at the
speed of 1500 r/min. From the figures, it can be seen that the more
ethanol added in, the more reduction of smoke emissions were.
This result is similar as those from other researchers [24–26].
4. Conclusions
An experimental investigation was conducted on the solubility
and physical properties of the blends of ethanol with diesel and the
effects of the application of these blends on the engine perfor-
mance parameters and emissions. The tested blends were from
2490 J. Huang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 29 (2009) 2484–2490
10% to 30% of ethanol by volume; and also with 5% of the additive
of normal butanol. The engine was operated with each blend at dif-
ferent loads on which the engine speed ran at the speeds of 1500
and 2000 r/min, respectively. From the test results, the following
conclusions can be drawn:
 Ethanol cannot be blended with diesel without the assistance of
additive such as normal butanol. With the blends tested, the
blends of 10%, 20%, 25% and 30% ethanol (by volume) with diesel
were all separated into two layers; when 5% butanol were added
into the above blends, they were all lasted longer and no less than
11 days without the phase separation problem. Further investiga-
tions are recommended to find out the optimized percentage of the
additive to the blends to solve the problem of the stability. For
example, 8% or 10% solvent addition may be used for further tests.
 The study showed that the n-butanol is a good additive for mixing
diesel with ethanol, although the price of n-butanol was higher
than that of diesel when the tests were carrying on. From long term
point of view, fossil fuels including diesel will be less and less due
to the limited sources; more and more biofuels will be used grad-
ually as the alternatives to replace the fossil fuels. It might not be
economical to use n-butanol today but it would be in the future.
 The fuel consumptions of the engine fuelled by the blends were
higher compared with those fuelled by pure diesel. The more
ethanol was added in, the higher fuel consumptions were. The
differences were from 5.2% to 31.5% for different blends at dif-
ferent loads and speeds.
 The thermal efficiencies of the engine fuelled by the blends were
comparable with those fuelled by pure diesel, with some extent
increases or decreases at different loads and speeds.
 The carbon monoxide (CO) emissions from the engine fuelled by
the blends were divided into two parts: when the engine ran
above half loads, the CO emissions from the engine fuelled by
the blends were lower than those fuelled by diesel; when the
engine ran under half loads, the CO emissions of blends were
higher than those of diesel.
 The unburned Hydrocarbon (HC) emissions from the engine
fuelled by the blends were all higher when the engine ran at
the speed of 1500 r/min; but the HC emissions became less as
the loads increased. Similar results can be seen for 2000 r/min,
except for the point of top power output, which shows lower
HC emissions from the blends.
 The nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from the engine were
reduced at the low speed of the engine fuelled by the blends;
the NOx emissions were decreased for the blends of Z5E20D75,
Z5E25D70 and Z5E30D65 at 1500 r/min. But at the high speed
of 2000 r/min, the NOx emissions were increased or decreased
some extent, there was not a stable trend for the NOx emissions.
 The smoke emissions from the engine fuelled by the blends were
all lower than that fuelled by diesel, the reductions are from
16.7% to 87.5%.
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