Biodiesel is a renewable and environmentally friendly alternative fuel derived from natural fats or vegetable oils and it is considered as an attractive alternative to replace diesel fuels. To optimize the application of biodiesel on vehicle diesel engines, the power and fuel economies performances of a diesel fueled with soybean biodiesel were investigated under different engine loads and speeds. Experimental results show that, compared with diesel fuel, with increase in the biodiesel in the blends, the brake power and torque and the brake specific energy consumption increase, the smoke density under free acceleration decreases except B10, the NO X emissions increase. The trade-off relationship is clear between the NO X and smoke density when the diesel engine fueled with different biodiesel percentage in the blends. From the trade-off relationship between NO X and smoke density, the optimum blend ratio is B20 in the experimental study.

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