The paper presents characterisations of nanoparticle number in exhaust gases from biodiesel blends (B30, 30% of RME by volume with ultra low sulphur diesel fuel, ULSD) combustion in a V6 diesel engine equipped with a common rail fuel injection system. The engine was operated on three steady-state test points extracted from the New European Driving Cycle without engine hardware or the engine management system (EMS) modification. A fast differential mobility spectrometer was used to determine particle number size distribution based on electrical mobility equivalent diameter. The distribution was dependent on the engine operating condition and the rate of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). The particle size in the nucleation mode from B30 combustion with and without EGR is smaller than that of ULSD while giving higher number concentration for all engine operating conditions tested. However, in the accumulation mode with and without EGR, the smaller sizes and the lower total numbers from B30 combustion were observed. For both fuels, EGR shows insignificant changes to the primary particle size but noticeable increase in particle size and number in the accumulation mode. In overall, compared to the ULSD case, the B30 combustion reduced particle size and lowered total particle number in exhaust gas emitted from the engine with EGR.