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Diesel engine emissions (DEE) are classified as probably carcinogenic to humans. Since 1995 we observed an appreciable reduction of mutagenicity of DEE driven by reformulated or newly designed fuels in several studies. We compared the mutagenic effects of DEE from two different batches of rapeseed oil (RSO) with rapeseed methyl ester (RME, biodiesel), natural gas derived synthetic fuel (gas-to-liquid, GTL), and a reference diesel fuel (DF). Additionally, we determined the regulated emissions of total hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOX), and particulate matter (PM). Compared with the reference DF the two RSO qualities significantly increased the mutagenic effects of the particle extracts by factors of 9.7 up to 59. RME extracts had a moderate but significant higher mutagenic response. GTL samples did not differ significantly from DF.

The more stringent regulations for diesel engine emissions lead to the requirement that both fuels and engines must be developed jointly. In the future, so-called designer fuels will help to achieve the stringent limits. In our research, conventional diesel fuel, biodiesel, Swedish low sulfur diesel fuel MK1 and a specially designed diesel fuel were compared using a DaimlerChrysler diesel engine, running the modes of the ECE 49 test cycle. The results for regulated and non-regulated gaseous emissions, particulate matter size distributions as well as mutagenic effects of particle extracts are reported.