This study is to investigate the emission reduction characteristics of bioethanol blended diesel fuel at early injection condition including spray, atomization and evaporation characteristics. The spray atomization and evaporation characteristics were investigated using spray visualization system and KIVA-3V code, respectively. In this work, the effect of ethanol blending on the spray behavior is more evident at early injection condition. In the calculation results, the droplet size of bioethanol blended fuel was smaller than that of diesel, and bioethanol blended diesel droplets firstly evaporated by its volatility and superior atomization characteristics. In early injection condition, the bioethanol blending caused an increase in indicated mean effective pressure with an extension of the ignition delay. The cooling effect of the bioethanol fuel reduced NOx. The HC emission increased and the CO emission decreased because of the ethanol blending. The geometry mean diameter and total number density increased as a result of ethanol blending, the particle number in the nuclei mode decreased, and the particle number in the accumulation mode increased in early injection condition. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.