Simulation of an Urban Bus Fuelled with Several Biodiesel Blends - Advantages and Disadvantages on the Efficiency and Emissions

Nowadays, most anthropogenic emissions occur in urban regions, with significant local impacts on air quality and public health. Decision makers and governments have been introducing policies in the energy and transport sectors aiming to improve the efficiency of energy use, meeting climate change commitments, fostering fossil energy independency and promoting the use of biofuels in the transport sector. This study aims to investigate the main advantages and disadvantages of introducing biodiesel into the Portuguese passenger road transport system. Biodiesel-diesel blends with a minimum of 7.5% and a maximum of 100% of biodiesel content (B7.5-B100) will be studied. An urban passenger bus is modelled in the vehicle simulation software AVL CRUISE in different driving conditions. The use of biodiesel blends are compared with the use of pure diesel concerning the engine efficiency and emissions. The trend is that the use of biodiesel has some advantages, from which the most agreed are the reduction of the pollutant emissions of HC, CO, and PM; however, with the main disadvantage of increasing the fuel consumption and NOx