Description
At present little is known about the potential health effects of the new alternative fuel types. The proposed project aims to clarify how use of 1st and 2nd generation biodiesel fuels affect the health hazard of diesel exhaust emission and how well emission cleansing by diesel particle filter (DPF)-technology is able to reduce the potential effects of the emissions. The scientific outcome of the project is to gain increased knowledge on the impact of biofuels on the toxicity of engine emissions. The results may contribute to more targeted strategies to improve outdoor air quality and to develop more efficient emission cleansing technologies. The project will provide information that may guide health and environmental authorities to introduce the most environmental friendly biofuels. Bilateral knowledge transfer will be facilitated through researcher exchange visits between the partner institutes, PhD students and postdocs. The experience of the Norwegian partner will help to transfer know-how to the Polish partners. The partnership will enable the extension of existing collaboration and endow future application for the projects on international level.
Summary of project results
The proposal filled the knowledge gaps in relation to the health risk of diesel engine emissions and the usefulness of the next 2nd generation biodiesel. Characterization of potential hazards to human health of 2nd generation biofuels is necessary to assess related risks at the earliest possible stage and to take any corresponding legal decisions. The project’s objective was fully achieved. The main outcome from the project is knowledge that might be further used by industry and stockholders. The added value of the project is strengthening of bilateral cooperation between four institutions. The main objective of the FuelHealth project was to clarify how use of 1st and 2nd generation biodiesel fuels affects the toxicity of diesel engine emissions compared to conventional fossil diesel fuel. Our results revealed that exposure of rats to diesel exhaust emissions from the combustion of each type of biodiesel fuel induced mainly pro-inflammatory and cytotoxic effects in vivo. Overall, the magnitude of these changes was dependent on the studied end-point, biofuel and DPF technology. In vitro results underscored that the toxicity of DEPs depends both on the biodiesel blend percentage and on the biodiesel feedstock. This is most likely due to differences in the physicochemical properties of the three types of DEP tested. These findings indicate that particulate emissions of each type of biodiesel fuel induce pro-inflammatory, cytotoxic and genotoxic effects. Overall, it seems that increasing biodiesel blend-concentrations from the current 7% to 20% FAME, or substituting 1st generation FAME biodiesel with 2nd generation HVO biodiesel (at least below 20% blends), affects the in vitro toxicity of the emitted DEPs to some extent, but the biological significance of this may be moderate. It is anticipated that the present in vivo and in vitro toxicity results will contribute to increased knowledge on the potential health impact of increasing the biodiesel concentration, and replacing the current 1st generation FAME-biodiesel with 2nd generation HVO-biodiesel in commercial diesel fuels. A better understanding of the toxicity induced by diesel engine emissions from the combustion of various biodiesel fuels also will help to understand their contribution to the pathogenesis of disorders associated with their exposure.
Summary of bilateral results
This project was a bilateral initiative of partners representing different scientific disciplines and gathers the critical mass of resources necessary to address issues, which may have a huge impact on the future. Its realization proved that cooperation between scientists of different specialties from different countries might be very fruitful and give a powerful outcome. To meet the objectives of the proposed project, a cooperative multidisciplinary approach was required involving molecular biologists, chemists, toxicologists, risk assessors and public health specialists. Therefore, the consortium including 1 Norwegian and 3 Polish partners has been carefully constituted to cover different scientific areas. Within the project it is foreseen that the competencies of the partners will interact synergistically due to the complementary skills afforded by each institute. Already existed collaborations between scientists (e.g. NIPH and WULS) was intensified, but what is more important, a new collaboration was initiated (e.g. JKU and PIMOT), including joint publications and scientific visits. During project duration 8 meetings has been organized to facilitate project management and monitor project progress. 1 visits of young scientists from WULS took place in NIHP and 1 visits of young scientists from NIPH took place in WULS. Moreover, taking benefit from the partners' scientific collaboration, the project influence was extended beyond bilateral relations and international collaboration was initiated. In addition to scientists exchange Partners exchanges also the samples of biological material. Providing the different competencies of partners this was necessary for project completion and worked very well. For example, samples of organs of animals treated with diesel exhaust emissions from experiments conducted in WULS (Poland) were also analyzed in UJK (Poland) and NIPH (Norway). So intense cooperation would be not possible without bilateral funds. A new equipment, constructed in the frame of the FuelHealth project in WULS to perform experiments will be used in quire new collaborative project NIPH-WULS (supported by the Norwegian Research Council in 2017 (€1.5 million)