Katriina Sirviö

• Doctor of Engineering
• Senior Researcher at University of Vaasa

The Green Deal targets, along with tightening emissions legislation, foster research on alternative propulsion systems. In non-road mobile machinery (NRMM), these efforts largely rally around sustainable fuels while keeping the benefits of energy security (multi-fueling) high. In this context, the blends of Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO) and Meth...

Approximately 25% of global carbon emissions come from food production. Renewable fuels are crucial for curbing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from vehicles, non-road machines, and agricultural machinery. Tractors, key to modern farming, are central to these efforts. As agriculture strives for sustainability, alternative fuels like methanol and hyd...

Methanol and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) are complementary in the context of achieving ultra-low emission levels via low temperature combustion. HVO is a high-quality fuel fully compatible with compression ignition engines. Standalone methanol combustion is relatively straight-forward according to the Otto principle, with a spark ignited or in...

Chlorinated organic compounds, as contaminants in marine fuels, have caused severe damage, affecting both main and auxiliary engines. Contaminated fuels can cause serious damage to an engine and its components, corroding fuel pumps and blocking filters, for example. This affects the operation of the engine, and, in the most severe cases, vessel saf...

Next-generation low-temperature combustion (LTC) engines can accommodate ultra-high efficiency with near-zero NOx and PM emissions. Reaction kinetics is the governing mechanism in LTC. Onboard fuel reactivity control is, thus, becoming an interesting concept that ultimately provides pathways toward a fully fuel-flexible engine. No matter the techni...

This study evaluated the compatibility with steels for three B20 fuel samples blended from fossil diesel and used cooking oil methyl ester. One sample was untreated and its concentration of copper was analyzed as <1 ppm. Another sample was doped by adding Cu at a concentration of ≤2 ppm and the third sample by adding Cu at a concentration of ≤4 ppm...

The European diesel fuel standard, EN590, allows a 7% (V/V) biodiesel (FAME) addition to automotive diesel fuel. The allowed addition of renewable diesel (HVO) to fossil diesel is not defined, as long as the properties of the fuel blend still meet the requirements of the standard. However, it is important to analyze the biofuels’ content in diesel...

Some recent findings regarding the negative health effects of particulate matter increase the relevance of the detailed characteristics of particulate emissions from different sources and especially the nonvolatile fraction of particles. In this study, the nonvolatile fraction of ultrafine particulate emissions from a non-road diesel engine was stu...

The alcohols ethanol and 1-butanol are interesting options as blending components for renewable fuels. We studied whether it is possible to mix these alcohols with a little refined material, rapeseed oil, to obtain stable fuel samples. At room temperature, the stable samples consisted of rapeseed oil blended with butanol at 5 vol-%, 10 vol-%, 20 vo...

Several sustainable liquid fuel alternatives are needed for different compression ignition (CI) engine applications. In the present study, five different fuel blends were investigated. Rapeseed methyl ester (RME) was used as the basic renewable fuel, and it was blended with low-sulfur light fuel oil (LFO), kerosene, marine gas oil (MGO), and naphth...

Sustainable liquid fuels will be needed for decades to fulfil the world’s growing energy demands. Combustion systems must be able to operate with a variety of renewable and sustainable fuels. This study focused on how the use of various alternative fuels affects combustion, especially in-cylinder combustion. The study investigated light fuel oil (L...

Diesel engines are still the predominant power source in heavy-duty vehicle, non-road, marine and power generation applications globally. They are reliable stand-alone machines with a high brake thermal efficiency (BTE) across a wide output range. Most diesels burn fuel derived from crude oil. However, the share of renewable fuels is growing in res...

everal renewable and sustainable liquid fuel alternatives are needed for different compression-ignition (CI) engine applications to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Biodiesels, FAMEs, have been studied for long time and ap�parently, despite of the problems they may have, they are still of great interest. Other options of different alternativ...

We mainly aimed to determine how alternative liquid fuels affect the exhaust particle size distributions (PSD) emitted by a medium-speed diesel engine. The selected alternative fuels included: circulation-origin marine gas oil (MGO), the 26/74 vol. % blend of renewable naphtha and baseline low-sulfur marine light fuel oil (LFO), and kerosene. PSDs...

The main aim of this study was to find out how methyl esters with different fatty acid compositions affect the exhaust particle numbers. Along with fossil diesel fuel oil (DFO) and renewable diesel (HVO), a high-speed non-road diesel engine was fuelled by rapeseed (RME) and soybean (SME) methyl esters. Particle numbers within the size range of 5.6–...

The main objective of this study was to find out how alternative fuels affect the exhaust gas particle size distribution. The fuels are later intended for marine applications. Along with low-sulfur marine light fuel oil (LFO), a high-speed off-road diesel engine was fueled by circulation-origin marine gas oil (MGO), rapeseed methyl ester (RME), cru...

Engine-driven power plants, run by diesel fuel or gas, will be needed for peaking power to keep the electricity grids stable when the production of renewable electricity, e.g. utilizing wind or solar power, is increased. The choice of the alternative, renewable fuels for engine-driven power plants and marine applications is at the moment quite narr...

In the near future, more emphasis must be put on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in road transportation, house heating, agricultural activities, marine transport etc. This study concentrated on the use of alternative fuels in engine-driven applications of non-road machineries and decentralized energy production. Today, the engines are mainl...

In this study, the aim was to find out if mixing two common fuels together could be beneficial for both the environment and storage stability of fuel. It is obvious, that adding biodiesel to fossil fuel will decrease its sulphur content and reduce its carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon, sulphur dioxide and soot emissions. But will the high sulphur con...

Renewable fuels form an essential means to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions emitted by vehicles and non-road machines. Due to the limited production so far, different blends of renewable fuels in fossil fuels are a realistic way to implement the increasing use of renewable fuels. In addition to significant GHG emissions reduction, further bene...

The aim of this study was to investigate if a high amount of sulphur is favourable for the fuel blends’ storage stability. The parameters that correlate with the storage stability of the fuel blends were compared with two B20 fuel samples consisting of 20 vol% biodiesel and 80 vol% fossil diesel. The studied parameters were the oxidation stability...

The aim of this study was to test an antioxidant, BioSineox, for animal-based fat methyl ester, AFME, in order to determine the optimal concentration of this antioxidant for meeting the six-hour oxidation stability requirement as set in the EN 14214:2010 standard. Oxidation stability was measured using a Biodiesel Rancimat 873, which meets the requ...