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Biodiesel is a renewable fuel which can be used as a direct replacement for fossil Diesel fuel as a calorific source in Diesel Engines. It consists of fatty acid mono-alkyl esters, which are produced by the trans-esterification reaction of plant oils with monohydric alcohols. The Plant oils and alcohols can both be derived from biomass, giving this fuel the potential for a sustainable carbon dioxide neutral life-cycle, which is an important quality with regard to avoiding the net emission of anthropogenic greenhouse gases. Depending on its fatty ester composition, Biodiesel can have varying physical and chemical properties which influence its combustion behaviour in a Diesel engine. It has been observed by many researchers that Biodiesel can sometimes lead to an increase in emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) compared to fossil Diesel fuel, while emitting a lower amount of particulate mass.

The main focus nowadays for the development of future vehicle powertrain systems is the improvement in fuel efficiency alongside the reduction of pollutant emissions and greenhouse gasses, most notably carbon dioxide. The automotive community is already engaged in seeking solutions to these issues, however, the ideal solution, namely zero emission vehicle is still regarded as being a long way from fruition for the mass market. In the meantime steps are being taken, in terms of engineering development, towards improved fuel efficiency and sustainability of relatively conventionally powered vehicles. One approach to the decarbonization of road vehicles is to supplement existing fossil fuels with sustainable biofuels.

A fast response sensor for measuring carbon dioxide concentration has been developed for laboratory research and tested on a spark ignition engine. The sensor uses the well known infra-red absorption technique with a miniaturized detection system and short capillary sampling tubes, giving a time constant of approximately 5 milliseconds; this is sufficiently fast to observe changes in CO2 levels on a cycle-by-cycle basis under normal operating conditions. The sensor is easily located in the exhaust system and operates continuously. The sensor was tested on a standard production four cylinder spark-ignition engine to observe changes in CO2 concentration in exhaust gas under steady state and transient operating conditions. The processed sensor signal was compared to a standard air-to-fuel ratio (AFR) sensor in the exhaust stream and the results are presented here. The high frequency response CO2 measurements give new insights into both engine and catalyst transient operation.

Engine downsizing is a key approach employed by many vehicle manufacturers to help meet fleet average CO2 emissions targets. With gasoline engines in particular reducing engine swept volume while increasing specific output via technologies such as turbocharging, direct injection (DI) and variable valve timing can significantly reduce frictional and pumping losses in engine operating areas commonly encountered in legislative drive cycles. These engines have increased susceptibility to abnormal combustion phenomena such as knock due to the high brake mean effective pressures which they generate. This ultimately limits fuel efficiency benefits by demanding use of a lower geometric compression ratio and sub-optimal late combustion phasing at the higher specific loads experienced by these engines.