Effect of Alternative Fuels on Marine Engine Performance

Marine transportation sector is highly dependent on fossil-based energy carriers. Decarbonization of shipping can be accomplished by implementing biobunkers into an existing maritime fuel supply chain. However, there are many compatibility issues when blending new biocomponents with their fossil-based counterparts. Thus, it is of high importance to predict the effect of fuel properties on marine engine performance, especially for new fuel blends. In the given work, possible future solutions concentrated on liquid fuels are taken into account. Under consideration are such fuels as biodiesel (FAME), hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), straight vegetable oil (SVO), pyrolysis oil, biocrude, and methanol. Knowledge about the behavior of new fuel in an existing engine is notably important for decision makers and fuel producers. Hence, the main goal of the present work is to create a model, which can predict the engine performance from the end-user perspective. For the purpose of modeling, only the latest research on marine fuels is taken into account. In the current approach, results from a representative measurement set-up are compared in order to create a uniform model. As a result, all the provided data are expressed in relative changes in reference to standard marine fuel-heavy fuel oil (HFO). The modeling Is performed by means of multilinear regression and accuracy of the model is relatively high, with a coefficient of determination over 0.9. The outcomes provide a prediction of final engine performance for the specified fuel blend. Knowing the final properties of fuel (such as calorific value, density, viscosity), it is attainable to estimate fuel consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and determine possible fuel compatibility issues. Moreover, the model enables estimation of carbon dioxide (CO₂) tailpipe emissions, which should be included in the whole Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) while assessing the renewability index of the fuel.