Distributed combustion of diesel–butanol fuel blends in a mixture temperature-controlled burner

•Diesel-n-butanol fuel blends were combustible only at ϕ ≥ 0.76.•All fuels featured ≤10 ppm NO and CO emissions in distributed combustion mode.•Distributed combustion luminosity approached flameless combustion.•N-butanol concentration had a low effect on pollutant and acoustic emissions.•Distributed combustion featured a 10 dB lower overall sound pressure level.