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Certain diesel fuel specification properties are considered to be environmental parameters according to the European Fuels Quality Directive (FQD, 2009/EC/30) and previous regulations. These limits included in the EN 590 specification were derived from the European Programme on Emissions, Fuels and Engine Technologies (EPEFE) which was carried out in the 1990’s on diesel vehicles meeting Euro 2 emissions standards. These limits could potentially constrain FAME blending levels higher than 7% v/v. In addition, no significant work has been conducted since to investigate whether relaxing these limits would give rise to performance or emissions debits or fuel consumption benefits in more modern vehicles. The objective of this test programme was to evaluate the impact of specific diesel properties on emissions and fuel consumption in Euro 4, Euro 5 and Euro 6 light-duty diesel vehicle technologies.

Injector fouling is an important contributory factor to particulate matter (PM) emissions in Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engines. Several publications have emerged in recent years which acknowledge the benefits of injector cleanliness, but others claim that high levels of Deposit Control Additive (DCA) could have detrimental effects that outweigh the benefits of the augmented cleaning potential. The paper is divided into two parts: The first part contains a critical review of the literature linking injector cleanliness and particulate matter emissions, and studies assessing the impact of higher treat rates of additives. The second part of the paper describes new evidence of the beneficial effects of DCAs, in the form of several separate (previously unpublished) studies, using both engines and vehicles. In this newly reported work, various DCA treat rates were employed, and some of the fuels had measured UWG levels well in excess of 50 mg/100 mL.