Using B15 in vehicles on real on-road circumstances - A case study

Abstract

The transport sector is one of the largest contributors of pollutant gas emissions, being also one of the largest consumers of energy, mainly fossil origin, so it is urgent and imperative to act in this sector. The legislation on these emissions has been undergoing constant updates, increasingly incisive on this subject. The imposed reductions in pollutant gases are obvious and demanding, which also demands the use of sustainable energy sources, where biofuels appear as a viable and immediate solution. This study will provide an overview of the utilization of biodiesel in actual on-road driving conditions. The current information analyzes the evaluation of the B15 (15% biodiesel in diesel) use on automobile fleets to achieve this goal through a completely practical approach. To accomplish this goal, it was used monitoring data from car fleets that included both cars and trucks fuelled by conventional diesel and a mixture with 15% of biodiesel during comparable time periods. The 15% biodiesel addition to fuel will result in some differences in fuel consumption for all the evaluated automobile fleets, corresponding to increases or decreases of maximum of 2%, which variance is much lower that the observed between vehicles with different drivers and operation activities. Due to all the benefits a renewable fuel offers, particularly in terms of the reduction of CO2 emissions and decrease in reliance on fossil fuels, the increase in biodiesel blends can be confirmed as making a positive environmental contribution even when a small average increase in fuel consumption is verified.

Keywords

• Biodiesel
• Transport
• Renewable fuels
• Bioenergy
• CO2 emissions
• Greenhouse gases