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The third generation of biodiesels, derived from microalgae, is one of the most interesting options for the replacement of fossil fuels. While the use of first generation biodiesels on different types of compression ignition engines is well documented in the open literature, much less information is available on algal fuels. As a matter of fact, the influence on combustion and pollutant emissions is not definitively assessed, depending on the combination of the specific features of both fuel and engine. The aim of this paper is to analyze the combustion process in a small industrial engine fueled by an algal Biodiesel, blended with standard Diesel fuel. The blend composition is the one typically used in most applications, i.e. 20% of biodiesel and 80% of Diesel (B20).

Biodiesel from Algae appears as an almost ideal solution to address the problem of decreasing availability of conventional fossil fuels, as well as to reduce the impact in terms of CO2 of internal combustion engines. In comparison to other biodiesels, algae do not compete for the land use with food cultures, and they have an excellent oil yield. Despite the significant amount of technical reports about the production process of algal biodiesel, detailed information about the application to current production engines is almost completely missing. The present paper describes the experimental campaign carried out on a current production 4-cylinder, 4-stroke naturally aspirated Diesel engine, running on standard Diesel oil and on a blend made up of 20% of oil manufactured by transesterification of Microalgae (B20). Performance and emission parameters have been measured over the whole engine operating range.