Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde are toxic carcinogens so their reductions in diesel-engine emissions are desirable. This study investigated emissions of carbonyl compounds (CBCs) from an HDDE (heavy-duty diesel engine) at US transient cycle test, using five test fuels premium diesel fuel (D100), P100 (100% palm-biodiesel), P20 (20% palm-biodiesel + 80% premium diesel fuel), PF80P20 (80% paraffinic fuel + 20% palm-biodiesel), and PF95P05 (95% paraffinic fuel + 5% palm-biodiesel). Experimental results indicate that formaldehyde was the major carbonyl in the exhaust, accounting for 70.1-76.2% of total CBC concentrations for all test fuels In comparison with D100 (172 mg BHP-1 h(-1)), the reductions of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde emission factor for P100, P20, PF80P20, and PF95P05 were (-16.8%, -61.8%). (-10.0%, -39.0%).(21.3%, 1.10%). and (31.1%,19.5%), respectively. Using P100 and P20 instead of D100 in the HDDE increased CBC concentrations by 14.5% and 3.28%, respectively, but using PF80P20 and PF95P05 significantly reduced CBC concentrations by 30.3% and 23.7%, respectively. Using P100 and P20 instead of D100 (2867 ton yr(-1)) in the HDDE increased CBC emissions by 240 and 224 ton yr(-1), respectively, but using PF80P20, and PF95P05 instead of D100 in the HDDE decreased CBC emissions by 711 and 899 ton yr(-1), respectively. The above results indicate that the wide usage of paraffinic-palmbiodiesel blends as alternative fuels could protect the environment. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.