Energy 46 (2012) 596e605

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Experimental investigation of performance and emission characteristics of DI

diesel engine fueled with polymer waste dissolved in biodiesel-blended
diesel fuel
Pouya Mohammadi a, b, Ali M. Nikbakht a, b, *, Meisam Tabatabaei b, **, Khalil Farhadi b, c, Arash Mohebbi a,
Mehdi Khatami far b, d
a

Dept. of Mechanical Engineering in Farm Machinery, Urmia University, P.O. Box 165, Urmia, Iran
Biofuel Research Team (BRT), Microbial Biotechnology and Biosafety Department, Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (ABRII), P.O. Box: 31535-1897, Karaj, Iran
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
d
Iran Renewable Energy Organization (SUNA), 1468611387, Tehran, Iran
b
c

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 11 October 2011
Received in revised form
7 June 2012
Accepted 24 July 2012
Available online 18 August 2012

Energy recovery has been found to be a promising approach for disposal of polymer waste such as
expanded polystyrene (EPS) which entraps large volume of air. Biodiesel known as an advantageous
alternative fuel possesses bio-solvent attributes and is feasible to be used for energy recovery from EPS.
In this study, maximum EPS dissolution value in biodiesel was calculated and a homogenous fuel
composition was achieved. At the second phase, several biodiesel-diesel blends (B5) containing various
percentages of EPS were tested in a DI diesel engine. Statistical analyses showed that addition of a limited
amount of EPS led to a signicant emission reduction, NOx in particular, while engine performance
criteria remained stable. It was found that B5 blend containing 50 g EPS/L biodiesel was found highly
advantageous on both level of performance and emissions. Despite a 3.6% reduction in brake power,
a signicant decrease in brake specic fuel consumption (8.5%) and increase in brake thermal efciency
(9.8%) were observed at maximum rated power and speed operation condition of the engine when the
new fuel was injected. Furthermore, sustainable reductions of CO, CO2, NOx, and soot as the major
exhaust emissions were achieved.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Biodiesel
Diesel engine
Performance characteristics
Emissions
Waste expanded polystyrene (EPS)
Energy recovery

1. Introduction
The growing demand for fuel, ever-increasing prices of energy
carriers and the dwindling resources have turned into a major crisis
for science and technology [1]. Diesel fuel is regarded as a highly
critical fuel in many countries due to its wide applications in heavyduty transport vehicles, rail transportation systems, agricultural
machineries and construction equipments [2,3]. On the other hand,

Abbreviations: bmep, brake mean effective pressure; bsfc, brake specic fuel
consumption; bte, brake thermal efciency; bfce, brake fuel conversion efciency;
CDA, combinatorial data analysis; CI, correct injection; CO, carbon monoxide; CO2,
carbon dioxide; EPS, expanded polystyrene; NOx, nitrogen oxides; PM, particulate
matter.
* Corresponding author. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering in Farm Machinery,
Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, P.O. Box 165, Urmia, Iran. Tel.: 98 912 638
9682; fax: 98 441 277 9558.
** Corresponding author. Tel.: 98 913 286 5342.
E-mail
addresses:
a.nikbakht@urmia.ac.ir,
alinikbakht87@yahoo.com
(A.M. Nikbakht), meisam_tab@yahoo.com (M. Tabatabaei).
0360-5442/$ e see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2012.07.049

diesel fuel is a big environmental pollutant as it contains different

hydrocarbons, sulfur, and crude oil residues [2].
Nowadays, most developed countries have moved toward mass
production and commercialization of bio-energy as the most
sustainable approach to overcome the above-mentioned challenges
[1]. Among different types of bio-energy, biodiesel has attracted
a great deal of attention as the ultimate choice in order to partially
or completely replace petro-diesel and consequently reduce
combustion emissions [3,4]. Biodiesel is produced through the
transesterication reaction of renewable and often domestic sources such as vegetables oil (fresh or waste) or animal fats with an
alcohol (methanol or ethanol) in presence of a catalyst [4e6,31].
Using biodiesel has been proven to result in decreased engine
emissions such as particulate matter (PM), CO and SOx [2,7].
However, the major drawback associated with the application of
biodiesel fuel blends is increased NOx emission in comparison with
petro-diesel [2,8]. Also, biodiesel has other disadvantages including
lower caloric value and power output which should be improved
[8]. Physicochemical properties of biodiesel produced from

P. Mohammadi et al. / Energy 46 (2012) 596e605

Nomenclature
Pb

QLHV
QHV

Brake Power
(actual air/fuel)/(stoichiometric air/fuel)
low heating value
gross heating value

different oil sources such as oxygen content, cetane number, ash

point, viscosity, density and heat value can potentially improve or
deteriorate the composition process and consequently affect the
engine performance and emission characteristics [3].
In recent years, world population growth together with human
need for more comfortable life style has led to increased polymer
consumption [9]. Despite the progresses made in the recycling
industry, a great deal of plastic wastes generated annually are
commonly disposed of in municipal landll sites or incinerated.
Only a small portion however, is recovered through energy
recovery procedures as well as mechanical and chemical recycling
[9]. Among various polymers produced, expanded polystyrene
(EPS) is a stable low density foam [10] currently used in isolation
[11e13], protection [11], packaging [12e14], serving food products
[11], construction material [14], home appliances [14], light weight
concrete [15] and etc. EPS is a non-economic polymer to be recycled
as it contains nearly 98% air in volume [14]. Thus, EPS wastes
usually end up in landlls or are incinerated [13,16]. Heat value of
EPS degradation is about 800 J/g (191.08 cal/g) [17] while its ash
point and auto-ignition temperature are 350  C and 490  C,
respectively [18]. The considerable volume of air that exists within
the cellular and spongy structure of EPS provides an excellent
condition for a rapid ame spread [18]. The mentioned characteristics of EPS make it an ideal choice to be used as a fuel additive.
Zhang et al. (2009), in a physicochemical study demonstrated
the dissolution of PS and low density polyethylene (LDPE) to be
possible in biodiesel. They investigated the properties of the
polymer-biodiesel solution through molecular dynamics simulations and kinetic study. The results obtained through their experimental and modeling studies highlighted the possibility of using
the dissolved polymer in biodiesel as a fuel [19]. In 2010, Kuzhiyil
and Kong investigated energy recovery from polystyrene made
peanuts through the dissolution in biodiesel. They tested several
blends of PS in biodiesel as well as pure biodiesel (B100) while
assessing the inuence of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and
injection timing on engine power and emissions (CO, NOx and soot)
at maximum speed and full load operation condition. They found
out that PS inclusion of less than 5% led to the increased engine
power whilst higher values for emissions corresponding to PS
concentration were also observed [20].
In the present study, a diesel fuel composed of EPS wastes and
biodiesel was tested to investigate the inuence of different EPS
contents in diesel-biodiesel fuel blend (B5) on engine performance
and emissions.

597

including methanol, ethanol, THF and acetone (Merck, Germany)

were tested in order to prevent such phenomenon.
2.1. Fuel samples preparation
Three levels of EPS content i.e. 25, 50 and 75 g were dissolved in
1 L of biodiesel at 60  C over a duration of 40, 50, and 60 min,
respectively. The best stabilizing solvent was then added into the
biodiesel-polymer solutions at the optimal rate. The stabilized
samples were nally mixed with diesel fuel to produce B5 blends.
Physical properties of diesel and B5 fuel are detailed in Table 1.
2.1.1. Engine tests
The resultant B5 blends (EPS-biodiesel-diesel) as well as two
control samples (diesel and conventional B5) were tested in an MT
4.244 DI diesel engine (Motorsazan, Tabriz). The engine specications are detailed in Table 2. The engine was coupled to an Eddy
current dynamometer (400 Hp) manufactured by Pmid company
model E400 to exert various loads on engine. All the engine
experiments were performed with three replicates. Speed, torque,
fuel and air consumed as well as l (lambda) were measured in each
test. Engine performance parameters such as brake power (Pb),
brake mean effective pressure (bmep), brake specic fuel
consumption (bsfc), brake thermal efciency (bte) and brake fuel
conversion efciency (bfce) were calculated as described and
formulated in the literature [4,21,22]. Moreover, engine emissions
were measured using an AVL Dicom4000-class1 exhaust gas
analyzer. CO and CO2 were measured using a non-dispersive
infrared detector (NDIR) and a chemical luminescence detector
(CLD) was used for NOx measurements. Soot was determined using
an AVL 415S smoke meter. A schematic diagram of the experimental
set-up is depicted in Fig. 1.
2.1.2. Statistical analysis
A completely randomized factorial design was implemented
with three factors namely EPS concentration (0, 25, 50, 75 g/L
biodiesel), speed (1400 and 2000 rpm), and torque (30, 160, 250,
and 330 Nm). Combinatorial Data Analysis (CDA) was performed
using Duncans multiple range test and ANOVA (Analysis of variance) analysis [23] to assess both the effect of EPS content and
speed at maximum torque and the effect of EPS content and torque
at maximum speed on the engine performance and emission
parameters (dependent variables). The means of the signicantly
different main effects were compared at p < 0.05. All experiments
were carried out in triplicate and the data were analyzed using the
statistical software package SPSS 13 (SPSS, Inc.).
3. Results and discussion
In order to remarkably stabilize biodiesel-polymer solution,
a few percent of acetone (5% by volume) into B5 blends (EPS-biodiesel) was found to be efcient. Due to high volatility of acetone,
the solution was conned for 24 h till a well-stabled and homogeneous solution was achieved. The test results of the engine fueled

2. Materials and methods

Biodiesel was produced from waste cooking oil through the
transesterication reaction using methanol and alkaline potassium
hydroxide (KOH) as the catalyst. After glycerin separation, biodiesel
produced was washed and puried. EPS waste (with the density of
17 kg/m3) was obtained from insulation materials used in electronic
devices and structure protections. EPS was dissolved in biodiesel by
heating. However, the solution gradually tarnished after reaching
the ambient temperature and the dissolved polymer precipitated
after hours of storage. A number of chemicals and solvents

Table 1
Physical properties of the diesel and B5 fuel that prepared for examinations.
Properties

Unit

Diesel

B5 fuel

Standard

Flash point
Kinematic
viscosity @ 40  C
Cetane Number
Cloud point
Gross heating Value
Low heating value

( C)
(mm2/s)

56
2.9259

62
3.3458

ASTM D93
ASTM D445

e
( C)
(MJ/kg)
(kJ/kg)

45
6
137.64
42,403

47
4
137.11
42,224.25

ASTM
ASTM
ASTM
ASTM

D 613
D2500
D240
D240

598

P. Mohammadi et al. / Energy 46 (2012) 596e605

biodiesel was blended. As also highlighted in their manuscript, the

main reason for power loss is attributed to the reduced heating value
of biodiesel compared to that of diesel fuel. On the contrary, in a single
study Usta [24] reported that the power and the efciency increased
slightly with the addition of a special biodiesel due to its slightly
higher density, viscosity, thermal efciency and also oxygen content.
As a strategy to overcome the biodiesel-associated energy reduction
of fuel blends, Kuzhiyil et al. [20] added a limited amount of PS to
biodiesel and achieved an increased engine power. They also found
out that the power decreased at higher polystyrene concentrations
(5% w/w). This was in line with our ndings as presented in Fig. 2.

Table 2
The specications of the engine used.
MT 4.244 engine manufactured by Iran Tractor Motorsazan Co.
Bore
Stroke
No. of cylinders
Cubic capacity
Max. power
Max. torque
Combustion system
Induction system
Compression ratio

100 mm
127 mm
4-in line
3.99 L
82 bhp @ 2000 rpm
360 Nm @ 1300 rpm
Direct injection
Turbocharged
17.5:1

3.1.2. Brake mean effective pressure

Fig. 3a demonstrates the bmep changes at full load vs. EPS
content at the speeds of 1400 and 2000 rpm. At full load and at the
maximum speed, bmep decreased by 2.07, 2.95, 5.60 and 5.89%
corresponding to increasing EPS concentration. On the other hand,
at the speed of 1400 rpm, the decreasing trend observed for bmep
was identical to that of Pb. Fig. 3b additionally presents bmep vs. EPS
content and torque at the speed of 2000 rpm bmep is a constant
coefcient of torque per swept volume. Therefore, when torque
uctuates, bmep changes proportionately (Fig. 3b). On the other
hand, Pb is also a function of torque at a constant speed. Therefore,
changing bmep is similar to Pb at a same speed, as shown in Fig. 3.

by the samples blended with diesel fuel (5% w/w) as well as two
control levels (diesel and conventional B5) were analyzed statistically to assess the effect of speed and EPS content at maximum
torque together with the impact of torque and EPS content at
maximum speed on engine performance and emissions. To obtain
a clear understanding of the conducted experiments, CDA was
performed in order to eliminate the inuence of speed-EPS and
torque-EPS interactions. The rst set of statistical analyses was
performed in order to investigate the effect of EPS content on
engine performance and emissions at each speed level. The second
set round was conducted to assess the inuence of speed on engine
performance and emissions at each level of EPS content. The same
procedure was applied to study the torque-EPS interactions.
Accuracy of all the measurements along with uncertainty of the
computed parameters has been presented in Table 4.

3.1.3. Brake specic fuel consumption

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed signicant differences
among the means of bsfc values at the 0.05 level with respect to
speed. As shown in Fig. 4a, at 2000 rpm, bsfc decreased by 1.3, 7.4,
8.5 and 9.1% with the EPS contents of 25, 50 and 75 g/L biodiesel,
respectively. The Duncans results presented in Table 5 shows that
no signicant difference in bsfc was observed at the EPS levels of 50
and 75 g/L biodiesel. Yet, bsfc increased by 1.9% at 1400 rpm using
B5 compared to that of the diesel fuel. EPS contents up to 50 g/L
biodiesel could signicantly reduce the bsfc value at full load
engine operation condition as illustrated in Fig. 4a. The effect of
torque on bsfc is shown in Fig. 4b. The bsfc dramatically decreased
with increasing torque. This can be regarded promising as engines
are usually operated at higher loads.
At the rst look, it can be claimed that bsfc reduction when 25 g
EPS/L biodiesel was used could be due to the Pb enhancement but
when investigated in detail, the bsfc reduction observed for the EPS
content of 50 g/L biodiesel implied that fuel consumption was
highly correlated with the chemical structure of polystyrenes.
Increasing the relative air-fuel ratio i.e. higher available O2, will be
the major consequence of EPS adding. Therefore, combustion
would be enhanced. Karabektas [25] assessed the effects of
turbocharger on the biodiesel fueled diesel engine characteristics.
He found out that the biodiesel yielded slightly lower brake power
and torque but resulted in higher fuel consumption values. Lujan
et al. [26] indicated that bsfc increased when biodiesel was blended

3.1. Engine performance

3.1.1. Brake power
Since power is dened as the product of speed and torque, it will
increase with either speed or torque. As shown in Fig.2a, at full load
and the maximum speed of 2000 rpm, Pb declined by 0.36, 1.26, 3.95
and 4.26% for the EPS contents of 0, 25, 50 and 75 g/L biodiesel,
respectively. At the same load but the speed of 1400 rpm, Pb value
uctuated and peaked at the EPS content of 25 g/L biodiesel. In
practice, reduction of fuel consumption as a result of increase in EPS
content may be highly correlated with the decrease in bsfc and
increase in lambda. The poor ratio of fuel to air was more visible at
higher speeds due to high volumetric efciency [1]. Pb increased with
torque values as can be observed in Fig. 2b. At the EPS contents of 25 g/
L biodiesel, Pb increased by 2.24, 2.18 and 1.95% at the torque values of
30, 160 and 250 N m, respectively (Fig. 2b). This could be ascribed to
the caloric value of EPS added to that of the fuel, since the fuel
physicochemical properties (i.e. viscosity for fuel containing 25 g EPS/
L biodiesel) remained constant, leading to an increased engine power.
In a review study, Xue et al. [1] indicated that the use of biodiesel
leads to reduced engine power. However, they also mentioned that
this reduction was not sensible for drivers when a small portion of

Table 3
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for evaluation of effects of EPS concentration level and speed of engine on the performance and emission criteria.
Performance

Max. torque

Rated power and speed

EPS
Speed
EPS  Speed
EPS
Torque
EPS Toque

Emissions

Pb

bmep

bsfc

bte

bfce

CO

CO2

NOx

soot

O2

2.2*
1.3*
3.8*
1.2*
1.3*
2.9*

1.05*
1.2**
1.35*
1.25*
2.2**
1.21*

7.2*
2.9*
54.2*
3.2*
6.5*
563*

0*
0*
0*
0**
0*
0*

1.7*
1.2*
11.5*
1.2*
2.2*
20.6*

0*
0*
0*
0**
0**
0**

0**
0.02**
0.05ns
0*
0.01*
0.03*

0.45*
0.88*
1.3**
0.32*
0.44*
1.6*

273.3*
25.3*
962.2*
406*
202*
296.2*

0.85*
0.06*
16.3*
0.04*
0.03*
14.6*

0.23*
0.56*
0.95*
0.31*
0.32*
0.83*

*Signicant effect at the statistical level of p < 0.05.

**Signicant effect at the statistical level of p < 0.01.
ns: not signicant.

P. Mohammadi et al. / Energy 46 (2012) 596e605

599

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental set-up.

in fuel due to its lower heating value. This was in a good agreement
with the vast investigations reviewed by Xue et al. [1]. Additionally,
other justications including high density and high viscosity of
biodiesel also explain this increase.
3.1.4. Lambda (l)
From Fig. 5a, it could be concluded that adding higher amounts
of EPS caused leaner fuel mixtures at the maximum load. Moreover,
as depicted in Fig. 5a, increasing torque resulted in richer fuel
mixtures. The Duncans test at each speed of full load segregated
lambda to 3 groups inuenced by EPS content i.e. adding EPS had
a meaningful effect on the air/fuel ratio.
3.1.5. Brake thermal efciency
In B5-EPS free fuel, bte remained almost constant at all speed
levels. By adding 25, 50 and 75 g EPS/L biodiesel, bte was enhanced
by 8.4, 9.8 and 10.4%, respectively at the speed of 2000 rpm and full
load operation condition (Fig. 6a). At the same load and the speed of
1400 rpm, the bte value reached its maximum value for EPS 50 g/L
biodiesel by 18.2% increase (Fig. 6a). Under full load conditions,
increasing EPS contents in fuel resulted in higher bte, while there
was a plummeting trend in bte at the lower torques regarding EPS
levels. In the other word, as shown in Fig. 6b, the maximum bte
obtained at maximum load and torque together with maximum
EPS content. This can be explained by the fact that alterations in EPS
contents had negligible effects on QLHV value and hence, bte uctuations are strongly related to power (Pb) and consumed fuel.
Karabektas [25] stated that bte value for biodiesel was slightly
higher than that of diesel fuel in both naturally-aspirated and
turbocharged conditions. The same result was obtained in this
study as simply observed in Fig. 6.
3.1.6. Brake fuel conversion efciency
Since bfce is dened as the ratio of engine brake power to the
heat release rate of the fuel, and that the alteration of QHVvalue is
negligible, the trend of bfce is similar to that of bte (Fig. 7). As
illustrated in Fig. 7a, at 2000 rpm, bfce was enhanced by 1.8, 8.4, 9.7
and 10.4% while it changed by 0.26, 14.10, 19.58 and 16.41% at
1400 rpm corresponding to the EPS contents of 0, 25, 50 and 75 g/L
biodiesel, respectively. The increase of bfce is almost reported in
literature by using 1% additive (4-nonyl phenoxy acetic acid) to the
biodiesel-blended diesel fuel [27]. They justied the enhancement
of bfce by improving fuel ignition and combustion quality as the
effect of fuel additive in B20 blend.

3.2. Engine exhausted emissions

3.2.1. Carbon monoxide
CO will be emitted as poisonous emission from combustion of
fuels containing hydrocarbon and as a result of incomplete
combustion [7]. In general, at high air-fuel equivalence ratios, lean
fuel in special, due to low temperature of combustion chamber, CO
does not oxide to CO2. In other case, at high loads and low air-fuel
equivalence ratio (i.e. rich fuel), there doesnt exist sufcient O2 to
burn carbon to CO2. Thus, two mentioned reasons (low temperature of combustion chamber and low amount of O2) contribute the
reduced formation of CO2. Consequently, engine fueled with biodiesel and operated at high loads, CO would be diminished due to
the improvement of combustion and oxygenate attribute of biodiesel particularly in the rich zone of combustion chamber [28].
Exhausted CO from the diesel engine fueled with EPS was lower
than that of the EPS free fuel (control). The lowest level of EPS had
no meaningful effect on the CO emission but 50 and 75 g of EPS/L
biodiesel in fuel caused 50% CO decrease at the speed of 2000 rpm
(Fig. 8a) and 37.1 and 28.6% at the speed of 1400 rpm, respectively
(Fig. 8b). Though conventionally CO increases with torque, it was
found that the CO value remained constant even at high torque
levels. This can be directly justied by the presence of EPS in the
fuel (Fig. 9a).
It has been frequently reported in the literature that CO emission from biodiesel combustion is commonly lower than that of
diesel combustion [1,6,24e26]. Xue et al. [1] attributed reduction to

Table 4
The accuracy of the measuring instrumentsand uncertainty of the computed
parameters.
Measuring instruments

Accuracy

Dynamometer

Pmid company (model E400)

Fuel ow meter
Air ow meter
CO
CO2
NOx
soot
O2
Computed parameters
Pb
bmep
bsfc, bte, bfce

Pmid company
ABB Sensyow P (Germany)
AVL Digas4000
AVL Digas4000 Light
AVL DiCom4000
AVL 415S smoke meter
AVL DiCom4000

Power, 1 Hp; Torque,

1 Nm; Speed, 1 rpm
0.01 kg/h
0.3 kg/h
0.01%
0.01%
1 ppm
1 mg/m3
0.01%
Uncertainty (%)
1%
0.5%
1.4%

e
e
e

600

P. Mohammadi et al. / Energy 46 (2012) 596e605

80
75

80

diesel
25 g EPS/L biodiesel
50 g EPS/L biodiesel
75 g EPS/L biodiesel

70

70

60

65

eefe
50

60

Pb (kW)

Pb (kW)

ggh

55
50

40

bbcb

30

45

20

40

2000 rpm

35

1400 rpm

aaaa

10
0

30
diesel

B5

30

25 g
50 g
75 g
EPS/ L EPS/ L EPS/ L
biodiesel biodiesel biodiesel

160
250
Torque (N.m)

330

Fig. 2. Pb vs.: a) speed at full load and b) torque at the maximum speed of 2000 rpm in different EPS content.

the higher oxygen content and lower C/H ratio of biodiesel

compared to diesel fuel. Furthermore, engine load has been proven
to have a signicant impact on CO emissions. Xue et al. also
revealed that CO emission was reduced by speeding the biodiesel
fueled engine [1]. Kuzhiyil et al. [20] concluded that increasing
polystyrene concentration led to higher CO emissions due to
possibly poor fuel spray atomization. Conversely, in this study CO
emission was signicantly decreased with EPS blending. Since EPS
reduced kinematic viscosity of B5 (3.3458 mm2/s) to 3.2689 mm2/s
and 2.9952 mm2/s corresponding to 25 and 50 g EPS/L biodiesel
and blended (5%) diesel fuel, enhanced fuel spray atomization can
be highly expected. As the kinematic viscosity of biodiesel is relatively high, the presence of EPS can solve the viscosity issue of
blended diesel fuels. The decrease of CO here can be justied by
positive inuence of EPS on uniform composition of air-fuel
mixture in combustion chamber and improved combustion due

to high air content as well as high heating value of EPS. However,

EPS content of 75 g/L biodiesel would result in the increased
viscosity of the fuel (3.3226 mm2/s), as the compromising effect of
acetone, that might be the main factor for increased CO compared
to 50 g/L biodiesel.
3.2.2. Carbon dioxide
Unlike an increase observed in CO2 emission at the speed of
1400 rpm, when the B5-EPS free fuel was applied, CO2 reductions of
0.99, 3.96 and 4.95% were observed when 25, 50 and 75 g EPS/L
biodiesel were blended in fuel, respectively. Furthermore, this
reduction was measured at 0, 1.6 and 0.88% at the speed of 2000 rpm
as clearly seen in Fig. 8. Xue et al. argued that the lower C/H ratio of
biodiesel causes reduced CO2 emission during the combustion of B5
fuel at maximum speed. Similarly in this study, the larger reduction
of exhausted CO2 that occurred when the fuels composed of EPS

19

20
18

17

16

16

14

15

2000 rpm

14

1400 rpm

13

bmep(kPa)

bmep (kPa)

18

diesel
hi
25 g EPS/L biodiesel gg
50 g EPS/L biodiesel
75 g EPS/L biodiesel
ef
cd

12
bb c c

10
8
6

12

11

aaaa

10
diesel

B5

25 g
50 g
75 g
EPS/ L EPS/ L EPS/ L
biodiesel biodiesel biodiesel

30

160
250
Torque (N.m)

Fig. 3. bmep vs.: a) speed at full load and b) torque at the maximum speed of 2000 rpm in different EPS content.

330

P. Mohammadi et al. / Energy 46 (2012) 596e605

600

290
500

250

bsfc(g/kW.h)

bsfc(g/kW.h)

270

230
210

601

ih j
g

diesel
25 g EPS/L biodiesel
50 g EPS/L biodiesel
75 g EPS/L biodiesel

400
300
dc c

f
bbb

a ab

200

190
2000 rpm
170

100

1400 rpm
0

150
diesel

B5

30

25 g
50 g
75 g
EPS/ L EPS/ L EPS/ L
biodiesel biodiesel biodiesel

160
250
Torque (N.m)

330

Fig. 4. bsfc vs.: a) speed at full load and b) torque at the maximum speed of 2000 rpm in different EPS content.

were combusted could be ascribed to the lower C/H ratio of EPS and
acetone. As clearly stated in the literature, in the case of biodiesel,
the higher CO2 emission is of less concern considering the whole life
cycle of CO2 i.e. globally, biodiesel will cause 50e80% reduction in
CO2 emissions compared to petroleum diesel [29].
3.2.3. Nitrogen oxides
Three major agents involved in NOx formation are reported [30]
including thermal, fuel type and prompt. Additionally, thermal
effects overweigh in this phenomenon by facilitating the reaction of
N2 withO2 at the raised temperatures. Besides, factors such as O2
concentration in combustion chamber, density and ignition delay
as well as equivalence ratio have impact on temperature effect in
NOx formation [30]. Since biodiesel is an oxygenating fuel, it raises
the oxygen content of the fuel providing a suitable condition for
NOx formation [1,6,24]. As generally presented in the literature
[1,25,32], adding biodiesel to diesel fuel and its combustion leads to
increased exhaust NOx emission due to advanced injection [28],
higher O2 level and cetane number of biodiesel [1]. However, there
have been few reports which claimed that NOx emissions reduced
signicantly up to 32% for biodiesel produced from waste olive oil
compared to diesel fuel [33]. The results obtained in this study
revealed a reducing effect of EPS addition on NOx emission at full
load and maximum speed (Fig. 8). Adding EPS content of 25 g/L
biodiesel at the lowest engine speed yielded the minimum amount
of NOx emission. As already discussed, the reduction of NOx in this
research is mainly traced back to reduced mean temperature of
combustion chamber. On the other hand, EPS having an aromatic
molecular structure decreases the cetane number of the blended
fuel resulting in increased ignition delay period. Late combustion
process, in turn, is occurred in the expansion stroke. Subsequently,
the temperature of burned gases will be diminished. Additionally,
50 and 75 g of EPS/L biodiesel at the highest engine speed
decreased the NOx emission by 9.5 and 12.45% at full load,
respectively. Statistical assessment of data proved a signicant
effect of EPS on NOx as detailed in Table 3. Fig. 9b presents the
inuence of EPS addition on NOx emission under varying torque
values. Due to the higher latent heat of evaporation of acetone and
EPS, the combustion temperature was reduced [1]. As expected,
NOx increased with engine torque that is mainly and directly
assigned to decease in l [28]. It can be observed that at the full load

of the engine (highest torque), a sharp decrease of NOx occurred

compared to idle engine operation. This is highly promising especially for the engines working at their maximum load. Also it is
obvious that the increasing trend of NOx emission with torque is
related to the rising temperature of combustion chamber at
a loaded engine. In a similar research, Kuzhiyil et al. [20] reported
that NOx emissions were reduced slightly by increasing polystyrene
concentrations. In the previous experimental studies, some additives, such as metal-based additives, alcohol (methanol and
ethanol), cetane number improver and emulsiers were included
into biodiesel to improve NOx emissions. Using Mg and Mo as
combustion catalysts into fuel containing biodiesel is reported to
reduce NOx emission. However, as a disadvantage, Mg was efcient
at low engine speeds while the application of Mo was observed to
be desirable at high speeds. Furthermore, ethanol can also play
a role in the reduction of NOx emissions as it is already found that
the addition of 5% ethanol to biodiesel suppressed the increase
(2.6%) in NOx compared to B100 (12% increase) [1].
3.2.4. Soot (smoke)
The primary soot formation and soot oxidation are two
processes contributed for soot exhausted from the engine exhaust
manifold. Both depend on the molecular rate of collisions and the
concentration of fuel fragments; with the deference that in soot
oxidation process, molecules must contain carbon and oxygen,
simultaneously. Hence, concentration of fuel at the moment of
ignition and concentration of available oxygen during combustion

Table 5
Cost of raw materials and the computed cost for production fuel containing EPS.
Material

Unit

Raw materials
Biodiesel
1L
EPS
1 kg
Acetone
1 L (50G)
Controls
Diesel
1L
B5
1L
Product (B5 EPS Acetone)
Raw material cost
1L
Final cost
1L

Price (US$)

References

1.15
Free (wastes)
1.32 (194 EURO)

[32]
e
SigmaeAldrich

1.09
1.09

[32]
[32]

1.10
1.15

Computed
Computed

602

P. Mohammadi et al. / Energy 46 (2012) 596e605

1.7

6
5

1.5
1.4
1.3
1.2

2000 rpm

relative air-fuel ratio ( )

relative air-fuel ratio ( )

1.6

1400 rpm

1.1

diesel
25 g EPS/L biodiesel
50 g EPS/L biodiesel
75 g EPS/L biodiesel

kl lm

4
3

j j ih
gg f e

dcba

1
diesel

B5

25 g
50 g
75 g
EPS/ L EPS/ L EPS/ L
biodiesel biodiesel biodiesel

0
30

160
250
Torque (N.m)

330

Fig. 5. Lambda vs.: a) speed at full load and b) torque at the maximum speed of 2000 rpm in different EPS content.

are effective basically on rate of both soot formation and soot

oxidation, respectively. Addition of biodiesel into diesel fuel
decreases soot due to reduction of carbon (fewer CeC bonds) and
raised O2 content in the blended fuels [28].
Emitted smoke or soot pollutant from the B5-EPS blended
fueled engine was statistically dependent on the EPS levels at both
engine speeds of 1400 and 2000 rpm (Fig. 8). Higher oxygen
content of biodiesel and relative air to fuel ratio provide better
combustion resulting in lower amounts of soot [1]. This was clearly
observed in this study as depicted in Fig. 8. Generally, there was
a decreasing trend for soot emission when EPS was added
compared to EPS free diesel. However, EPS blending increased the
amount of soot for engine speed of 2000 rpm (Fig. 8a). This was
attributed to the fact that polystyrene inclusion contributed to soot
formation due to possible poor spray atomization at high speeds

[20]. Based on the same reason for NOx decrease at the speed of
2000 rpm, which would result in the delayed combustion and
hence reduced temperature, the slight increase of soot here can be
well justied. In the other words, decreased soot oxidation, as
another agent in soot formation, takes place. Fig. 9c presents the
results of engine loading on soot formation. As reported by Tan et al.
(2012), biodiesel has a decreasing effect on the soot emission at
both low and high engine speeds [28]. It can be seen that for all
torque values, soot emission increased with EPS addition while the
soot emission values obtained were still signicantly lower than
that of petro-diesel operated engine at full load (maximum torque).
As already discussed, the emitted soot concentration is closely
correlated to fuel-air equivalence ratio and temperature of fuel
mixture in the combustion chamber [7,28]. The reduction impact of
fuels containing EPS on soot emission can be justied by acetone

50

diesel
25 g EPS/L biodiesel
50 g EPS/L biodiesel
75 g EPS/L biodiesel

45
45

40

40

35

30

bte (%)

bte (%)

35

25
20
2000 rpm

15

1400 rpm

10

kk j

iii

ggh

30
25
20

bcda

15
10

0
diesel

B5

25 g
50 g
75 g
EPS/ L EPS/ L EPS/ L
biodiesel biodiesel biodiesel

0
30

160
250
Torque (N.m)

Fig. 6. bte vs.: a) speed at full load and b) torque at the maximum speed of 2000 rpm in different EPS content.

330

P. Mohammadi et al. / Energy 46 (2012) 596e605

603

0.038

diesel
25 g EPS/L biodiesel
50 g EPS/L biodiesel
75 g EPS/L biodiesel
eee
ddd
c
b

0.036
0.04

0.034

0.035

0.032

0.03
0.025
0.028

bfce

bfce

0.03

fff

0.026
0.024

0.02
aaaa

2000 rpm

0.015

1400 rpm

0.01

0.022

0.005

0.02
diesel

B5

25 g
50 g
75 g
EPS/ L EPS/ L EPS/ L
biodiesel biodiesel biodiesel

250
160
Torque (N.m)

30

330

Fig. 7. bfce vs.: a) speed at full load and b) torque at the maximum speed of 2000 rpm in different EPS content.

3.2.5. Oxygen
The O2 emitted through combustion increased by 15.4% for 50 g
EPS and decreased by 3.8% when 75 g EPS/L biodiesel was tested at
lower engine speeds (Fig. 8b). At higher engine speeds, as illustrated in
Fig. 7a, O2 increased steadily at 12.3% corresponding to EPS content.
Normally, O2 percentage plummets with increasing the torque value
[2]. The results obtained proved that the presence of EPS moderates
the rate of this reduction. Fig. 9d illustrates the inuence of EPS
content and torque at maximum speed. At 250 and 330 Nm, O2

5
4.5

CO, CO2, O2 (%)

10

4
3.5

3
6

2.5
2

CO
CO2
O2
NOx
smoke

2
0

0.02
diesel

1
0.02

0.02
B5

1.5

0.01

0.01

75 g
50 g
25 g
EPS/ L EPS/ L EPS/ L
biodiesel biodiesel biodiesel

Fuels

3.3. Economic justication

The overall costs of biodiesel production are categorized to three
sections: the plant, raw material and taxation costs [34]. In this
research, the production costs including raw material and plant
were analyzed while tax costs were considered negligible since the
tax has been almost considered in raw material. For a plant of 1500
tons production per year, the cost of facilities was estimated for
a semi-batch process, with feedstock and product reservoir, piping,
cooling and transferring equipment about 5 cents per liter biodiesel. Moreover the cost of raw materials for production of the
new fuel is detailed in Table 5. Finally, each liter of new blended fuel

CO, CO2, O2 (%)

12

NOx (1000 ppm) & soot (10 mg/m3)

increased by 3.06, 4.08 and 5.10% and 5.56, 8.33, 12.50% with
increasing the EPS content (25, 50 and 75 g/L biodiesel), respectively.

12

10

2.5

1.5

0.5
0

CO
CO2
O2
NOx
smoke

0.35 0.35
0

diesel

B5

1
0.5

0.35 0.22 0.25

25 g
50 g
75 g
EPS/ L EPS/ L EPS/ L
biodiesel biodiesel biodiesel

Fuels

Fig. 8. Emissions vs. EPS content at full load and the engine speed of: a) 2000 rpm, b) 1400 rpm.

NOx (1000 ppm)& soot (100 mg/m3)

presence in the fuels. Acetone inclusion in fuel leads to lower soot

emission due to reduction of viscosity, fuel consumption, and
burning temperature as well as making homogenous concentration
of air-fuel mixture in overall combustion chamber due to the
oxygenated solvent.

604

P. Mohammadi et al. / Energy 46 (2012) 596e605

0.025

diesel
25 g EPS/L biodiesel
50 g EPS/L biodiesel
75 g EPS/L biodiesel

CO (%)

0.02
0.015

bbbb

b b

2500

diesel
25 g EPS/L biodiesel
50 g EPS/L biodiesel
75 g EPS/L biodiesel i
f gh

cc

2000

bbbb

bb

0.01

NOx (ppm)

1500
1000

0.005

c dd

500
30

160
250
Torque (N.m)

diesel
25 g EPS/L biodiesel
50 g EPS/L biodiesel
75 g EPS/L biodiesel h
g
f
ee
ede
c

18

160
250
Torque (N.m)

iiii

16

14
i

hghg

12
O2 (%)

soot (mg/m3)

30

d
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

330

lm

aaab

a a

jk

330

diesel
25 g EPS/L biodiesel
50 g EPS/L biodiesel
75 g EPS/L biodiesel
f eed

10

cbb

6
aba

4
2
0

30

160
250
Torque (N.m)

330

30

160
250
Torque (N.m)

330

Fig. 9. Emissions vs. torque and EPS content at the maximum speed of 2000 rpm, a) CO, b) NOx, c) soot and d) O2.

is estimated to be 1.15 US$. Meanwhile, improvement of combustion performance and fuel consumption as the consequence of
using the additive may be further effective in the promotion of
economy justifying the production of polymer blended fuel.

4. Conclusions
The B5 blend containing different percentages of EPS was
produced. Performance and emissions of diesel engine fueled by
the new fuel were evaluated. The results obtained revealed that
adding EPS to diesel-biodiesel fuel can decrease all emissions and
improve engine performance. At the full load of engine operation
condition, for the highest speed (2000 rpm), by increasing EPS
content, lambda, soot and O2 increased, while NOx and CO2
decreased signicantly. Also a meaningful increase of bfce and bte
and a signicant reduction of bsfc for EPS percentages of lower than
50 g/L biodiesel were observed. For those blends, bmep, Pb and CO
were almost constant. At the low speed of 1400 rpm, by increasing
the EPS concentration on the fuel, NOx and O2 were enhanced while
soot, CO and CO2 decreased signicantly. The maximum values of
bfce, bte and Lambda and minimum values of bsfc were obtained
when the EPS content was 50 g/L biodiesel. The results of the
second set of experiments conducted to assess the inuence of
speed on engine performance and emissions, illustrated that at all
levels of EPS, the inuence of speed on engine parameters was
considerable. Using the EPS content of 25 g/L biodiesel, bfce and bte
values remained approximately constant with increasing the speed

while bsfc values decreased and as a consequence, Pb increased.

Using high EPS contents resulted in the increase of Pb, bte, bfce,
bmep, O2 and lambda and the decrease of bsfc, CO, CO2, NOx and
soot. Taking into considerations the results of the engine tests, it
can be concluded that the inclusion of 50 g EPS in 1 L biodiesel
could be a promising strategy in order to achieve emission reduction from diesel engines while improving the engine performance.
Moreover, it provides a recycling approach for plastic wastes
resulting in an environmentally friendly and secure way of energy
generation from them.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Mr. Mehdi Hosseini, Mr. Hassan
Ghorbani and Mr. Meisam Hasheminejad for their technical assistance. Also especial thanks are owed to Majid Niknam for his
remarks on English structure of the manuscript.

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