APPLIED

ENERGY

Applied Energy 83 (2006) 594605

www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Performance and exhaust emissions

of a biodiesel engine
Mustafa Canakci
a

a,*

, Ahmet Erdil b, Erol Arcaklioglu

Kocaeli University, Technical Education Faculty, 41380 Kocaeli, Turkey

b
Kocaeli University, Engineering Faculty, 41040 Kocaeli, Turkey
c
Kirikkale University, Engineering Faculty, 71450 Kirikkale, Turkey
Accepted 12 May 2005
Available online 8 August 2005

Abstract
In this study, the applicabilities of Articial Neural Networks (ANNs) have been investigated
for the performance and exhaust-emission values of a diesel engine fueled with biodiesels from different feedstocks and petroleum diesel fuels. The engine performance and emissions characteristics
of two dierent petroleum diesel-fuels (No. 1 and No. 2), biodiesels (from soybean oil and yellow
grease), and their 20% blends with No. 2 diesel fuel were used as experimental results. The fuels were
tested at full load (100%) at 1400-rpm engine speed, where the engine torque was 257.6 Nm. To
train the network, the average molecular weight, net heat of combustion, specic gravity, kinematic
viscosity, C/H ratio and cetane number of each fuel are used as the input layer, while outputs are the
brake specic fuel-consumption, exhaust temperature, and exhaust emissions. The back-propagation learning algorithm with three dierent variants, single layer, and logistic sigmoid transfer function were used in the network. By using weights in the network, formulations have been given for
each output. The network has yielded R2 values of 0.99 and the mean % errors are smaller than 4.2
for the training data, while the R2 values are about 0.99 and the mean % errors are smaller than 5.5
for the test data. The performance and exhaust emissions from a diesel engine, using biodiesel
blends with No. 2 diesel fuel up to 20%, have been predicted using the ANN model.
 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Articial neural-network; Biodiesel; Engine performance; Exhaust emissions

Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 262 339 4031; fax: +90 262 305 8010.
E-mail addresses: mustafacanakci@hotmail.com, canakci@kou.edu.tr (M. Canakci).

0306-2619/$ - see front matter  2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2005.05.003

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595

Nomenclature
ANN
BSFC
BSO
BYG
CN
KV
LM
NH
R
RMS
R2
SCG
SG
SN
Texh
W

articial neural-network
brake specic fuel-consumption (g/kWh)
biodiesel soybean-oil
biodiesel yellow-grease
cetane number
kinematic viscosity (mm2/s)
LevenbergMarquardt
net heat of combustion (kJ/kg)
C/H ratio
root-mean-squared
fraction of variance
scaled conjugate gradient
specic gravity
smoke number
exhaust-manifold temperature (C)
average molecular-weight (kg/kmol)

1. Introduction
Global air-pollution is a serious problem. Much of this pollution is caused by the
use of fossil fuels for transportation. Therefore, engine manufacturers have designed
alternatively fueled engines and fuel systems, which provide sucient power while
staying within regulatory emission-limits. At the same time, a great deal of research
and development on internal-combustion engines has taken place not only in the design area but also in nding an appropriate fuel. Many researchers have concluded
that biodiesel holds promise as an alternative fuel for diesel engines, since its properties are very close to those of No. 2 diesel fuel [13]. Therefore, biodiesel can be
used in diesel engines with few or no modications. Diesel-fuel blends with biodiesel
have superior lubricity, which reduces wear and tear on the diesel engine and makes
the engine components last longer. Biodiesel mixes well with diesel fuel and stays
blended.
Biodiesel has a higher cetane number than petroleum diesel fuel, no aromatics,
and contains 1011% oxygen by weight. These characteristics of biodiesel
reduce the emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), and particulate matter (PM) in the exhaust gas compared with diesel fuel [4]. However,
NOx emissions of biodiesel increase because of combustion and some fuel characteristics [1]. When a higher percentage of biodiesel is used in the diesel engine
during cold weather, it thickens more than diesel fuel and special systems may
be required. Equipment made before 1993 may have rubber seals in the fuel

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M. Canakci et al. / Applied Energy 83 (2006) 594605

systems that could fail if 100% biodiesel is used. Therefore, it is recommended

that a blend of 20% biodiesel with diesel fuel may be used without changing
any parts. The Engine Manufacturers Association (EMA) reported that biodiesel
blends, up to a maximum of 5%, should not cause engine and fuel-system
problems.
The fuel properties of biodiesel such as cetane number, heat of combustion, specic gravity, and kinematic viscosity inuence the combustion and so the engine performance and emission characteristics because it has dierent physical and chemical
properties than petroleum-based diesel fuel. Therefore, the EMA recommends that
engine manufacturers should be consulted if higher percentage blends are desired.
If this fuel is to be used in diesel engines without any modication, more research
is required about the properties of biodiesel and its eects on the engines performance and emissions.
To investigate experimentally the performance and emissions of an engine is
complex, time consuming and costly, especially for studies which use many dierent blends. Therefore, a mathematical model is used to predict the performance
and emissions of the engines. But, the resulting accuracies may not always be satisfactory. One alternative to the mathematical model is the experiment-based approach, such as articial neural-networks (ANNs). Neural networks are nonlinear computer algorithms, which can model the behavior of complicated nonlinear processes. They do not need an explicit formulation of the physical relationships of concerned problems. In the literature, several studies have used
ANNs in dierent engineering areas [57]. ANNs have also been found in analyzing and predicting the performance and exhaust emissions from diesel engines
[5,810].
In this study, the applicability of an ANN for determining the performance
and exhaust emissions of a diesel engine fueled with biodiesel blends was investigated. Then, after showing the applicability of ANNs, the performance and exhaust emissions from a diesel engine using biodiesel blends with No. 2 dieselfuel up to 20% namely 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, and 15% have been predicted.
All the experiments have been performed at full load (100%) at 1400-rpm engine
speed, for which the engine torque was 257.6 Nm. Two dierent petroleum dieselfuels (No. 1 and No. 2), biodiesels from soybean-oil (BSO) and yellow-grease
(BYG), and their 20% blends with No. 2 diesel-fuel were used without any modication to the diesel engine.

2. Experimental work
In this study, experiments were performed on a John Deere 4276T, four-cylinder,
four-stroke, turbocharged direct-injection (DI) diesel-engine. The basic specications
of the engine are shown in Table 1. A 112 kW General Electric (Schenectady, NY)
model TLC 2544 direct-current dynamometer, assembled on the engine, was used.
An electronic scale and a stopwatch were used to measure the fuel ow rate, and
the intake airow rate was measured using a laminar-ow element. The fuels were

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597

Table 1
Specications of test engine
Make and model

John Deere 4276T

Motor type
Number of cylinders
Compression ratio
Bore and stroke
Connecting-rod length
Maximum engine power
Maximum torque
Type of injection pump
Fuel-injector holes
Fuel-injector opening pressure

Four-stroke, turbocharged diesel engine

Four-cylinder,
16.8:1
106.5 mm/127.0 mm
202.9 mm
57.1 kW@2100 rpm
305.0 Nm@1300 rpm
Distributor-type
4 0.305 mm diameter
207 bar

Table 2
List of emission analyzers used in the tests
Analyzer

Model and Type

Smoke meter
NO/NOx analyzer
HC analyzer
CO2 analyzer
CO analyzer
O2 monitor

Robert Bosch GMBH-ETD02050

Beckman Industrial Corp. 955
J.U.M. Engineering, VE7
Rosemount Analytical, Inc., 880A
Rosemount Analytical, Inc., 880A
Rosemount Analytical, Inc., 755R

tested at full load (100%) at 1400-rpm engine speed, where the engine torque was
257.7 Nm. The fueling rate of the engine was adjusted to maintain this torque level
for all fuels.
The tests were performed under steady-state conditions. The fuels were tested in
random order and each test was repeated 3 times. The results of the three repetitions
were averaged to decrease the uncertainty. No. 1 diesel fuel, No. 2 diesel fuel, BSO,
BYG, and 20% biodiesel blends with No. 2 diesel fuel were used. The instruments
used to measure the engines exhaust-emissions are given in Table 2. Calibration
of each analyzer was done before each test. Using the appropriate calibration curve,
the measurement error for each analyzer was reduced to less than 2%, as recommended in the exhaust analyzer bench-manual. The test results obtained in the experimental study have been used to train and test the ANN.

3. Articial neural-networks and the network model employed

ANNs are computational models composed of neurons and are used to solve
complex functions. A neural-network system has three layers, namely the input
layer, the hidden layer and the output layer. The input layer consists of all the input
factors: information from the input layer is then processed in the course of one hidden layer, and a following output vector is computed in the output layer. Generally
the hidden and the output layers have an activation function.

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An important stage when accommodating a neural network is the training step, in

which an input is introduced to the network together with the desired outputs, the
weights and bias values are initially chosen randomly and the weights are adjusted,
so that the network attempts to produce the desired output. The weights, after training, contain meaningful information, whereas before training, they are random and
have no meaning. When a satisfactory level of performance is reached, the training
stops, and the network uses these weights to make decisions.
Many alternative training processes such as back-propagation, are available. The
goal of any training algorithm is to minimize the global error level, such as the mean
% error, Root-Mean-Square (RMS) error, and absolute fraction of variance (R2)
[11]. An important characteristic of this function is its dierentiability throughout
its domain. The errors for hidden layers are determined by propagating back the error determined for the output layer.
For ANNs, two data sets are needed: one for training the network and the second
for testing it. The usual approach is to prepare a single data-set, and dierentiate it
by a random selection. In this study, the experimental results mentioned above were
used to train and test an articial neural-network. Average molecular weight (W, kg/
kmol), net heat of combustion (NH, kJ/kg), specic gravity (SG), kinematic viscosity
(KV, mm2/s), C/H ratio (R) and cetane number (CN), which represent the fuel properties, were used as the input layer, while brake specic fuel-consumption (BSFC, g/
kWh), exhaust manifold temperature (Texh), smoke number (SN), and emissions (O2,
CO, CO2, HC and NOx) were used as the output layer. Since the purpose was to
determine the performance and emission values for the dierent biodiesel blends,
the output layer contains the SN and Texh.
In this study, the learning algorithm called the back-propagation was applied for
the single hidden layer. Scaled Conjugate Gradient (SCG) and LevenbergMarquardt (LM) algorithms have been used for the variants. Normalized both for inputs
and outputs are realized between the values of zero and unity. Neurons in the input
layer have no transfer function. A logistic sigmoid (logsig) transfer-function has been
used.
The ANN was trained and tested by means of the MATLAB software on a
PC. In order to identify the output precisely for the training stage, an increased
number of neurons in the hidden layer was tried. First, the network was trained
successfully, and then the test data was used to test the network. By means of the
results deduced by the network, a comparison was carried out using statistical
methods. Errors at the learning and testing stages are described as the RMS,
R2, and maximum and mean error percentage values, dened as follows,
respectively:

X
2 1=2
RMS 1=p j tj  oj 
;
P
2

R 1

j t j

 oj 2

2
j oj

!
;

M. Canakci et al. / Applied Energy 83 (2006) 594605

Mean% Error

599



1 X t j  oj

100
;
j
p
tj

where t is the target value, o is the output value, and p is the pattern [6].
Experimental results for dierent fuels and biodiesel blends are used as the training and test data for the ANN. The experimentally-tested fuels are No. 2 Diesel,
BSO, BYG, No. 1 Diesel, 20% BSO and 20% BYG with No. 2 diesel-fuel. Dierent
networks were used in the ANN study. The dierence was only in the selection of the
test fuel. In other words, No. 2 Diesel, No. 1 Diesel, 20% BSO and 20% BYG fuels
were used as test data in dierent networks. However, ve fuels were used in the
learning layer and one fuel was also used in the test for all the networks. The
RMS, R2 and the mean error percentage values were used for comparison.

4. Evaluation of the results

In the training, we used an increased number of neurons (from 7 to 9) in the hidden
layer to dene the output accurately for the SCG and LM algorithms. The best algorithm was the SCG with 7 neurons for 20% BSO. After this point, all explanations,
tables and gures will be given for this algorithm. In Table 3, the statistical values
of the outputs for this algorithm have been shown for both the training and testing
data. All the outputs were obtained in one network. Each of the error values of the
outputs is given in the table. Higher mean-errors for the test data are obtained in
the cases of SN and CO. We believe that the complexity of the burning process
and the measurement errors in the experimental study caused these higher mean errors. Other mean-errors for test data are smaller than 1.2%, R2 values are very close
to unity, and the RMS values are very small for all the performance values.
Fig. 1 compares the actual and predicted BSFC, SN, CO, CO2, HC, Texh, O2 and
NOx values, respectively. For the gure given below, ve fuels (No. 2 Diesel, 100%
BSO, 100% BYG, 20% BYG and No. 1 Diesel, respectively), are the training patterns, while one fuel (20% BSO) is the test pattern. As shown in the gure, the actual
and predicted values are very close to each other.

Table 3
Statistical values of predictions
Outputs

RMS
(training)

R2
(training)

Mean % error
(training)

RMS
(test)

R2
(test)

Mean % error
(test)

BSFC
SN
CO
CO2
HC
Texh
O2
NOx

0.004264
0.029216
0.008778
0.006779
0.003551
0.003558
0.005497
0.010851

0.999954
0.996702
0.999635
0.999913
0.9999
0.999976
0.999935
0.999659

0.573866
4.132617
1.505732
0.780031
0.808099
0.320963
0.662413
1.589002

0.000674
0.032582
0.016838
0.004808
0.005782
0.000993
0.006556
0.000657

0.999999
0.997051
0.998927
0.999964
0.999859
0.999998
0.999925
0.999999

0.100623
5.430333
3.27612
0.59898
1.185666
0.123447
0.866655
0.103291

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M. Canakci et al. / Applied Energy 83 (2006) 594605

Actual

Predicted

Actual

SN

BSFC (g/kWh)

1.2

250

225

0.8
0.4

200

0
1

3
Actual

Predicted

3
Actual

Predicted

850

CO2 (g/kWh)

0.6
CO (g/kWh)

Predicted

1.6

275

0.5

0.4

800

750
700

3
Actual

Predicted

3
Actual

Predicted

810

T ( oC )

HC (g/kWh)

0.5

0.35

0.2

795

780

3
Actual

Predicted

3
Actual

Predicted

570
NOx (g/kWh)

O2 (g/kWh)

21

560

550

18

15

Fig. 1. Comparisons of ANN-predicted results and experimental results.

The formulations of the outputs are given by Eqs. (4)(11).

BSFC

1
;
1 e2.9038 F14.6293 F20.7157 F32.3663 F40.3416 F51.5021 F61.42 F70.2832
4

M. Canakci et al. / Applied Energy 83 (2006) 594605

601

SN

1
;
1 e3.6081F10.2425F21.9101F311.1771F48.7307F53.9425F64.9152F75.0621

CO

1
;
1 e1.6786F11.1652F23.352F32.3968F41.9249F53.2227F61.1016F71.0821

CO2
HC
T

1
1

e3.3975F10.1471F21.4536F30.8451F44.8292F50.022F63.5789F72.9965
1

e2.4194F14.6647F22.7628F38.2077F40.8052F51.039F65.2902F71.8493

7
8

1
;
1 e2.7774F14.0336F21.5327F30.7189F44.0896F52.4595F61.5176F72.4029

1
;
1 e3.1106F12.1033F23.6928F30.1042F43.184F51.4274F61.116F74.2499

10

O2

NOx

1
1

e1.6005F11.1653F27.3322F31.042F40.1532F50.5913F61.6203F70.5812

11

where Fi = (i = 1,2,3, . . ., 7) can be calculated using Eq. (12).

Fi

1
;
1 eEi

12

where Ei is given with equation as seen in Table 4.

Using these formulae, the emissions and performance of the diesel engine may be
calculated within the error ranges given in the tables. The advantage of using these
formulations is that they only consist of only four mathematical operations, which
thus require less computational time.
The equation in Table 4 is dependent on W, NH, SG, KV, R and CN, which are
the inputs of the network. Coecients in Eqs. (4)(11) are the weights, which lie between the hidden and output layers. When using the equations in Table 3, W, NH,
KV, R and CN values are normalized by dividing them by 500, 60, 7,10 and 75,
respectively, to obtain the emissions and performance values in Eqs. (4)(11). BSFC,
Table 4
The weights between the input layer and the hidden layer
i

Ei = C1*W + C2*NH + C3*SG + C4*KV + C5*R + C6*CN + C7

C1

C2

C3

C4

C5

C6

C7

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

0.6693
2.8581
2.6895
2.8897
5.9609
8.2284
2.7972

0.5495
3.5098
2.1628
2.6564
2.9266
1.9820
5.2028

0.7362
1.6790
2.5692
1.0565
5.7404
6.7795
3.7080

2.2348
0.1170
7.0595
1.9906
0.6876
3.3239
5.4424

3.3178
5.8240
0.7040
2.3271
6.0617
2.4814
2.2330

5.8244
2.9026
0.0845
1.8872
1.9154
2.5003
3.1103

9.4929
3.0292
2.1046
0.1816
3.4363
1.9834
5.8612

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M. Canakci et al. / Applied Energy 83 (2006) 594605

SN, CO, CO2, HC, Texh, O2 and NOx values need to be multiplied by 350, 1.5, 1,
1000, 1, 1000, 750 and 30, respectively.
The causes of the air pollution from diesel engines have been identied as smoke
and NOx in the exhaust emissions. Most products occur as a consequence of combustion processes inside the engine, and these unwanted emissions are exhausted into
the atmosphere. The amounts of emission products vary for dierent engines and depend on the operating conditions and fuel properties. As stated above, dierent fuels
are used in the test data. The network using 20% BSO test data results in the best
results. The network results have shown that the model can be used for predicting
the engine performance and emissions. Therefore, all output values are predicted
by using weight values for 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, 15% BSO and BYG. Fig. 2 shows
the predicted values of BSFC, SN, CO, CO2, unburnt HC, Texh, O2 and NOx for
these compositions.
Fuel properties, such as specic gravity, viscosity and heating value inuence the
BSFC of a diesel engine. Therefore, the biodiesel blends eects on the BSFC were
calculated for both biodiesels. As seen in the gure, the predicted values for the
BSFC increase with the increasing amount of biodiesel in the blend. The increase
in BSFC for biodiesel is understandable, since both the BSO and BYG have lower
heating values than for No. 2 diesel fuel. The BSFC for the BYG is slightly higher
than that for the BSO due to the lower heating-value of the BYG. This result can
be clearly seen at higher ratios. The lower heating value requires that a larger
amount of fuel is injected into the combustion chamber to produce the same power.
In the literature, higher values of the BSFC were noted for biodiesel fuels [1,12,13].
The smoke level of the biodiesel blends, as seen in the gure, starts to decrease
even at 1% blends for both biodiesels. For all the predicted results, almost no dierence has been observed in the SNs between the two biodiesel blends. The researchers
have observed that the smoke levels of the biodiesels and their blends were signicantly lower than that for the diesel fuel.
Carbon monoxide (CO) in diesel engines is formed during the intermediate combustion stages. For fuel-rich mixtures in the spark-ignition engines, CO concentrations in the exhaust increase steadily. Diesel engines, however, always operate well
on the lean side of stoichiometric. Therefore CO emissions from the diesel engines
are usually low and most engine manufacturers meet CO regulations easily [14].
The CO emissions have decreased with increasing amounts of biodiesel in the blend.
The reduction of CO emissions is signicant when the blend percentage is 15 or higher. The gure shows that both biodiesels have similar CO reductions with increasing
amounts of biodiesel in the blends. In the literature, researchers [12,15] have concluded that biodiesel and blend lowered the CO emissions have benets. As seen
in the Figure, the CO2 emissions for the biodiesels were increasing with the increasing ratio of biodiesels in the blend. When compared with each other, the CO2 for the
BYG is slightly higher than that for the BSO due to the better combustion achieved.
This result can be clearly obtained at higher blend-ratios since the BYG has a higher
cetane number than that for the BSO. Higher cetane numbers indicate better combustion. However, the increases of the CO2 emissions are found not to be so
signicant.

M. Canakci et al. / Applied Energy 83 (2006) 594605

603

1.10

234

1.08
1.06
1.04

230

1.02
SN

BSFC (g/kWh)

232

228

1.00
0.98

226

0.96
0.94

224

0.92
0.90

222

1% 2% 5% 10% 15% 1% 2%
BSO

1% 2% 5% 10% 15% 1% 2% 5% 10% 15%

BSO
BYG
808

564.5

807

564.0
563.5
O 2 (g/kWh)

Texh ( o C)

806
805
804
803

563.0
562.5
562.0

802
801

561.5
1%

2% 5% 10% 15% 1%
BSO

2% 5% 10% 15%
BYG

1% 2% 5% 10% 15% 1% 2% 5% 10% 15%

BSO
BYG

0.544

812
810

0.542

808
806
CO 2 (g/kWh)

0.540
CO (g/kWh)

5% 10% 15%
BYG

0.538
0.536
0.534

804
802
800
798
796
794

0.532

792

0.530

790

1% 2% 5% 10% 15% 1% 2% 5% 10% 15%

BSO
BYG

1% 2% 5% 10% 15% 1% 2% 5% 10% 15%

BSO
BYG

19.4

0.510

19.2

0.505

NO x (g/kWh)

HC (g/kWh)

19.0
0.500
0.495
0.490

18.8
18.6
18.4

0.485

18.2
18.0

0.480
1% 2% 5% 10% 15% 1% 2% 5% 10% 15%
BSO
BYG

1% 2% 5% 10% 15% 1% 2% 5% 10% 15%

BSO
BYG

Fig. 2. ANN-predicted results for the biodiesel blends.

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M. Canakci et al. / Applied Energy 83 (2006) 594605

The unburnt HC is another emission product that is produced by diesel engines.

The amount of HC in the exhaust depends on the engines operating-conditions, the
fuel-spray characteristics, and the interaction of the fuel spray with the air in the
combustion chamber. The predicted unburnt HC amounts are also shown in
Fig. 2. For both biodiesel blends, the HC amount in the exhaust has decreased with
increasing biodiesel in the blend. This reduction for BYG can be clearly seen after
the blend percentage 5 and higher, while the reduction in HC amount starts at lower
percentage blends with BSO. Researchers [1517] also found a HC reduction when
biodiesels were used in the diesel engine.
Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are another important emission product. While nitric
oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are usually grouped together as NOx emissions, NO is the predominant oxide of nitrogen produced inside the engine cylinder.
The sources of nitrogen oxides depend on the operating conditions and the type of
fuel [14,18]. The predicted NOx results are shown in Fig. 2. As seen in the gure, for
both biodiesels, the NOx emissions are increasing with an increasing amount of biodiesel in the blends. The researchers [15,19,20] also mentioned that the NOx emission
increased for the biodiesel fuels. The NOx increase in the emissions may be related to
the oxygen content of the biodiesel, since the fuel oxygen may provide additional
oxygen for the NOx formation. However, at the O2 in the exhaust decreases with
the increasing amount of biodiesel in the blends: even the O2 availability was in good
agreement for the blends. Another indicator for the NOx formation is the exhaustgas temperature, which increases with the increasing ratio of biodiesel in the blends.
However, the inuence of the fuels properties on the engines injection-timing, which
is not fully understood, may also play a role in the higher NOx emissions. Therefore,
more research is required about the properties of biodiesels and their eects on the
combustion process in order to give better explanations about the NOx increase.

5. Conclusions
The applicability of ANNs has been investigated for the performance and exhaust
emission values of a diesel engine fueled with biodiesels and petroleum diesel fuels.
To train the network, the fuel properties of each fuel are used as the input layer,
while the outputs are BSFC, Texh, and exhaust emissions. By using the back-propagation learning algorithm with three dierent variants, single layer, and logistic sigmoid transfer function, the weights of the network, formulations have been given for
each output. The network has yielded R2 values of 0.99 and the mean % errors are
smaller than 4.2 for the training data, while the R2 values are about 0.99 and the
mean % errors are smaller than 5.5 for the test data.
The results may easily be considered to be within the acceptable limits. The relationship between fuel properties and engine performance-emissions can be determined for dierent biodiesel blends by using the network. Therefore, the usage of
ANNs may be highly recommended to predict the engines performance and emissions instead of having to undertake complex and time-consuming experimental
studies.

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605

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