D Environmental degradation and depleting oil reserves are matters of great concern round the globe. Developing countries like India depend heavily on. oil import. Diesel being the main transport fuel in India, finding a suitable alternative to diesel is an urgent need. Jatropha based bio-diesel (JBD) is a non-edible, renewable fuel suitable for diesel engines and is receiving increasing attention in India because of its potential to generate large-scale employment and relatively low environmental degradation. Diesel engines running on JBD are found to emit higher oxides of nitrogen, NO,. HOT EGR, a low cost technique of exhaust gas recirculation, is effectively used in this work to overcome this environmental penalty. Practical problems faced while using a COOLED EGR system are avoided with HOT EGR. Results indicated higher nitric oxide (NO) emissions when a single cylinder diesel engine was fuelled with JBD, without EGR. NO emissions were reduced when the engine was operated under HOT EGR levels of 5-25%. However, EGR level was optimized as 15% based on adequate reduction in NO emissions, minimum possible smoke, CO, HC emissions and reasonable brake thermal efficiency. Smoke emissions of JBD in the higher load region were lower than diesel, irrespective of the EGR levels. However, smoke emission was higher in the lower load region. CO and HC emissions were found to be lower for JBD irrespective of EGR levels. Combustion parameters were found to be comparable for both fuels. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.