Biofuels Evaluation, Final Report of Test Programme to Evaluate Emissions Performance of Vegetable Oil Fuel on Two Light Duty Diesel Vehicles

The recent interest in the use of non-transesterified vegetable oils as a diesel substitute has highlighted the need for the Department for Transport (DfT) to further the understanding of the emissions effects of such fuels, in order to enable informed policy decisions for the future. This programme undertook testing of two vehicles, representative of the current UK fleet mix, over the current European legislative drive cycle with the aim of identifying emissions effects of pure vegetable oil (VVO100) compared to a baseline UK marketplace Ultra Low Sulphur (ULSD) diesel fuel. A splash blend of 5% rapeseed methyl ester in ULSD (RME5) was also evaluated. This work was undertaken for the Department for Transport (DfT) under the terms of the Framework Agreement for provision of Scientific & Technical Support (S0217/VC).