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The addition of a proportion of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME) in automotive diesel fuel is becoming prevalent in different areas of the world. Indeed, in several countries it is now a legislative requirement that a proportion of diesel fuel must be derived from natural sources. This trend is increasing continuously, both in terms of geographical coverage and for the use of higher percentages of bio-derived fuel. Our work has focused mostly on Rapeseed Methyl Ester (RME). A variety of diesel fuels containing different ratios of RME has been tested to assess their propensity to form injector deposits in engines using different fuel injection systems: Swirl chamber (for indirect fuel injection) Current common rail Future common rail Results have been obtained using industry recognised tests and a new test that uses future fuel injection system design.

Future diesel engines will require new hardware to reduce emissions to the levels required by upcoming legislation. Advances in the fuel injection equipment (FIE) of the engine are a key enabler towards meeting such legislation. These modern systems produce temperatures and pressures at the injector tips that are considerably higher than those experienced today. This environment can initiate or increase the rate of deposit formation at and around the injector tip compared with current systems. Investigations have been carried out to further the understanding of this phenomenon using experimental nozzles simulating a similar deposit build-up as expected in EU 5 engines. The investigation used a protocol that has recently been released to the industry, commercial 10 ppm S fuel and a commercial diesel fuel detergent. Testing was carried out with both clean and zinc contaminated fuel. Zinc contamination with a fuel soluble salt was used to simulate severe market conditions.