This study investigates the use of ferric chloride (FeCl(3)) as a fuel borne catalyst (FBC) for waste cooking palm oil based biodiesel. The metal based additive was added to biodiesel at a dosage of 20 mu mol/L Experiments were conducted to study the effect of ferric chloride added to biodiesel on performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a direct injection diesel engine operated at a constant speed of 1500 rpm at different operating conditions. The results revealed that the FBC added biodiesel resulted in a decreased brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) of 8.6% while the brake thermal efficiency increased by 6.3%. FBC added biodiesel showed lower nitric oxide (NO) emission and slightly higher carbon dioxide (CO(2)) emission as compared to diesel. Carbon monoxide (CO), total hydrocarbon (THC) and smoke emission of FBC added biodiesel decreased by 52.6%, 26.6% and 6.9% respectively compared to biodiesel without FBC at an optimum operating condition of 280 bar injection pressure and 25.5 degrees bTDC injection timing. Higher cylinder gas pressure, heat release rate and shorter ignition delay period were observed with FBC added biodiesel at these conditions. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.