| Abstract | Renewable diesel (RD) and biodiesel (BD) are produced from renewable resources. Replacing petroleum diesel by RD and/or BD in power generation has the potential to reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) has been developing a strategy to introduce RD, BD or their blends into its small and large vessel fleet to help reduce GHG emissions. During this process, immediate questions that need to be addressed are what the optimal RD/BD blend ought to be, how much of the RD/BD blend can be introduced, and how these blends will affect the combustion and emissions performance of the engines powering the vessels.
In this project, the National Research Council (NRC) and CCG work together to characterize and optimize the properties of RD, BD and their blends with petroleum diesel, as well as evaluate the combustion and emissions performance of the RD/BD/ULSD blends when applied to heavy-duty diesel engines.
This interim report summarizes the findings from the phase 1 of the project, which was designed to evaluate the combustion and emissions performance of an ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD), a RD/BD/ULSD blend at the ratio of 50/20/30 (volume based), and two blends of the ULSD with additives. The findings reveal that the introduction of two additives to the ULSD has negligible impact on life-cycle GHG emissions. However, the RD/BD/ULSD blend reduces life-cycle GHG emissions by 26~57% compared to the ULSD-only, depending on the feedstocks that are used to produce the RD and BD. The RD/BD/ULSD blend also reduces nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM), and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions compared to ULSD-only. |
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