Detection of gaseous pollutants emitted from engine powered by biodiesel and diesel mixtures

Abstract

Nowadays air pollution has been regarded as a serious environmental problem. One of the main generators of air pollution is the transportation, since the gas combustion from various chemical species is emitted mainly in urban transportation, using mainly diesel fuel. The use of renewable fuels is an attractive alternative choice to reduce environmental impacts. Brazil stands out in the current world scene as a major of alternative energy producer. Brazilian government introduced a program that includes blends of biodiesel to diesel in order to reduce the environmental impact caused by air pollution. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the emission of gaseous pollutants using a diesel engine bench with mixtures of B5, B10, B15, B20, B25 and B50 of biodiesel in diesel. For this type of analysis, the Infrared Analyser was used to detect CO2 in the range of 1.88 to 2.76 %, electrochemical sensors were used to detect CO in the range of 1161 to 1485 ppmv and NOx in the range of 213 to 351 ppmv.