Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) is an advanced diesel combustion mode that provides near-zero oxides of nitrogen and smoke emissions and higher thermal efficiency benefits. A narrow operating load range is a significant obstacle to commercializing HCCI combustion mode for diesel engine applications. Several thermal and fuel management strategies have been investigated to address the shortcomings of HCCI, among which fuel management strategies are generally more effective. The present study intends to utilize high volatile, optimum-low reactivity gasoline-like fuels to extend the engine operating load range in HCCI mode. A production light-duty diesel engine used for agricultural water pumping applications is modified to run in external mixture preparation based HCCI mode through suitable modifications in the intake and fuel injection systems. The engine could only be operated up to 38% (2.02 bar BMEP) of rated load in diesel HCCI mode. Further, mixture preparation and ignition timing control in HCCI mode with low volatile, high reactivity diesel fuel is challenging that requires energy-intensive vaporizers and a very high proportion of diluents. To address these shortcomings, high volatile and optimum-low reactivity fuels are investigated. In the first part of the work, the test fuel blends consist of gasoline-diisopropyl ether and an ignition improver additive 2-EHN. The next phase of the experimental studies explored the potential of using gasoline-isobutanol blends with 2-EHN. Diisopropyl ether and isobutanol are low reactivity and high volatile renewable fuels that can replace crude oil-derived gasoline. In the fuel blends, the proportion of diisopropyl ether or isobutanol was increased with a corresponding decrease in gasoline proportion. The engine operating load range was increased to 58% (3.08 bar BMEP) and 70% (3.72 bar BMEP) with diisopropyl ether-gasoline and isobutanol-gasoline fuel blends, respectively. An improvement in indicated thermal efficiency is observed upon increasing the renewable fuel content in the tested fuel blends. The oxides of nitrogen and smoke emissions are significantly low in HCCI combustion mode with all the fuel blends. In contrast, the unburned hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions increased compared to diesel HCCI. In this seminar talk, I will discuss the scientific reasons behind the improved engine performance and emission metrics in HCCI operation with renewable alternative fuel blends.