The intent of this study is to improve the engine attributes of a mono-cylinder diesel powertrain by adopting emulsion fuel with nanoparticle additive. TiO 2 , a photocatalytic, self-cleaning agent, was preferred and adopted with emulsion fuels. The current work explores the impacts of titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) nanoparticles along with the water-in-diesel (DWS) emulsion fuel on the engine attributes, emission and combustion of a single cylinder diesel engine. Initially, TiO 2 was synthesized using sol–gel mechanizing technique and the size of the nanoparticles was obtained between 55 ± 5 nm. Emulsion fuel (DWS – prepared with 10% water + 89.8% Diesel + 0.2% Surfactant) was integrated with TiO 2 in the levels of 30 ppm, 60 ppm, and 90 ppm to form homogenous fuels and designated as DWT 1 , DWT 2 , and DWT 3 using mechanical agitator. The functional categories of the test fuels were interpreted using FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy). Similarly, fuel properties were evaluated as per the ASTM standards. Further, the prepared fuels were evaluated with mono-cylinder diesel powertrain and its significance along with observations was discussed at low, part and full load conditions. The outcomes were equated with emulsion fuel (DWS) and diesel fuel. The results indicated that at full loads, brake thermal efficiency (BTE) for DWT 3 fuel had gone up by 5.65% on a par with diesel and 2.76% on a par with DWS fuel. Carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbon (HC), and Smoke emission got decreased by 30%, 28.68%, and 32.98% respectively for DWT 3 fuel on a par with diesel fuel. However, Oxides of nitrogen (NO x ) emission for DWT 3 fuel were recorded with an increase of up to 16.26% and 39.68% when compared to diesel and DWS fuel. Also, the performance and emission attributes of DWT 1 and DWT 2 fuels was stay close to diesel fuel. On the whole, it was recognized that, TiO 2 fused emulsion fuel (DWT) could be a promising alternative fuel for diesel engine without the need of hardware changes in the near future.