Study on the Cumulative Effects of Using a High-Efficiency Turbocharger and Biodiesel B20 Fuelling on Performance and Emissions of a Large Marine Diesel Engine

The marine sector represents probably the most powerful segment of international transport. Most ships use diesel engines for propulsion. Pollutant emission regulations with their continuous decline of acceptable limits put huge pressure on engine manufacturers. The use of low-quality fuels makes the marine sector a significant contributor to global pollution. The present study shows how turbocharger operating parameters and replacing diesel fuel with biodiesel B20 (20% oil and 80% diesel volumetric fractions) affect the performance, efficiency and pollutant emissions of a four-stroke diesel engine ALCO V16 251F for marine application. A combustion model developed with the AVL BOOST software was used to perform calculations using diesel fuel and biodiesel B20 for different turbocharger characteristics and injection timings. The model was calibrated against experimental data measured on a tested engine at the application site using diesel fuel and operating in a stationary condition of full load at 600, 700 and 800 rpm engine speeds. The results show that the cumulative effects of using an improved turbocharger associated with B20 fuelling under optimized injection timings could provide reductions of 45% for soot and 5% for NOx, while maintaining the same engine performance obtained with diesel fuel operation.