Effects of methanol-containing additive on emission characteristics from a heavy-duty diesel engine.

This study was aimed to investigate the effect of methanol-containing additive (MCA) on the regulated emissions of hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM), as well as the unregulated carbon dioxide (CO2) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from a diesel engine. The engine was tested on a series of diesel fuels blended with five additive levels (0, 5, 8, 10 and 15% of MCA by volume). Emissions tests were performed under both cold- and hot-start transient heavy-duty federal test procedure (HD-FTP) cycles and two selected steady-state modes. Results show that MCA addition slightly decreases PM emissions but generally increases both THC and CO emissions. Decrease in NOx emissions was found common in all MCA blends. As for unregulated emissions, CO2 emissions did not change significantly for all MCA blends, while vapor-phase and particle-associated PAHs emissions in high load and transient cycle tests were relatively low compared to the base diesel when either 5 or 8% MCA was used. This may be attributed to the lower PAHs levels in MCA blends. Finally, the particle-associated PAHs emissions also showed trends quite similar to that of the PM emissions in this study.     

Emissions characteristics of a diesel engine operating on biodiesel and biodiesel blended with ethanol and methanol

Euro V diesel fuel, pure biodiesel and biodiesel blended with 5%, 10% and 15% of ethanol or methanol were tested on a 4-cylinder naturally-aspirated direct-injection diesel engine. Experiments were conducted under five engine loads at a steady speed of 1800 r/min. The study aims to investigate the effects of the blended fuels on reducing NO_x and particulate. On the whole, compared with Euro V diesel fuel, the blended fuels could lead to reduction of both NO_x and PM of a diesel engine, with the biodiesel-methanol blends being more effective than the biodiesel-ethanol blends. The effectiveness of NO_x and particulate reductions is more effective with increase of alcohol in the blends. With high percentage of alcohol in the blends, the HC, CO emissions could increase and the brake thermal efficiency might be slightly reduced but the use of 5% blends could reduce the HC and CO emissions as well. With the diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), the HC, CO and particulate emissions can be further reduced.     

Experimental investigation on regulated and unregulated emissions of a diesel engine fueled with ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel blended with biodiesel from waste cooking oil

Experiments were conducted on a 4-cylinder direct-injection diesel engine using ultra-low sulfur diesel, bi oesel and their blends, to investigate the regulated and unregulated emissions of the engine under five engine loads at an engine speed of 1800 rev/min. Blended fuels containing 19.6%, 39.4%, 59.4% and 79.6% by volume of biodiesel, corresponding to 2%, 4%, 6% and 8% by mass of oxygen in the blended fuel, were used. Biodiesel used in this study was converted from waste cooking oil.The following results are obtained with an increase of biodiesel in the fuel. The brake specific fuel consumption and the brake thermal efficiency increase. The HC and CO emissions decrease while NO_x and NO₂ emissions increase. The smoke opacity and particulate mass concentrations reduce significantly at high engine load. In addition, for submicron particles, the geometry mean diameter of the particles becomes smaller while the total number concentration increases. For the unregulated gaseous emissions, generally, the emissions of formaldehyde, 1,3-butadiene, toluene, xylene decrease, however, acetaldehyde and benzene emissions increase.The results indicate that the combination of ultra-low sulfur diesel and biodiesel from waste cooking oil gives similar results to those in the literature using higher sulfur diesel fuels and biodiesel from other sources.     

Emission reduction from diesel engine using fumigation methanol and diesel oxidation catalyst

This study is aimed to investigate the combined application of fumigation methanol and a diesel oxidation catalyst for reducing emissions of an in-use diesel engine. Experiments were performed on a 4-cylinder naturally-aspirated direct-injection diesel engine operating at a constant speed of 1800 rev/min for five engine loads.The experimental results show that at low engine loads, the brake thermal efficiency decreases with increase in fumigation methanol; but at high loads, it slightly increases with increase in fumigation methanol. The fumigation method results in a significant increase in hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) emissions, but decrease in nitrogen oxides (NO_x), smoke opacity and the particulate mass concentration. For the submicron particles, the total number of particles decreases. In all cases, there is little change in geometrical mean diameter of the particles. After catalytic conversion, the HC, CO, NO₂, particulate mass and particulate number concentrations were significantly reduced at medium to high engine loads; while the geometrical mean diameter of the particles becomes larger. Thus, the combined use of fumigation methanol and diesel oxidation catalyst leads to a reduction of HC, CO, NO_x, particulate mass and particulate number concentrations at medium to high engine loads.     

Effect of intake air oxygen enrichment for improving engine performance and emissions control in diesel engine

Stringent emission regulations and health awareness about air pollution have led researchers to find alternative means of minimising emissions in diesel engines. In this article, the influence of oxygen enrichment is discussed to determine the effect on diesel engine performance, emission characteristics and combustion characteristics. Normal diesel and oxygen-enriched diesel are used in this experiment. The increase in oxygen concentration led to complete combustion, producing higher thermal efficiency and low harmful emissions. From the results, it is noted that oxygen-enriched diesel fuel showed reduction of CO, HC and smoke emissions, while NOx emission increased.

Abbreviations/Nomenclature DI: direct injection; NOx: oxides of nitrogen; O₂: oxygen; HC: hydrocarbon; PM: particulate matters; CO: carbon monoxide; CO₂: carbon dioxide     

Emission reduction potential of using gas-to-liquid and dimethyl ether fuels on a turbocharged diesel engine

A study of engine performance characteristics and both of regulated (CO, HC, NO_x, and smoke) and unregulated (ultrafine particle number, mass concentrations and size distribution) emissions for a turbocharged diesel engine fueled with conventional diesel, gas-to-liquid (GTL) and dimethyl ether (DME) fuels respectively at different engine loads and speeds have been carried out. The results indicated that fuel components significantly affected the engine performance and regulated/unregulated emissions. GTL exhibited almost the same power and torque output as diesel, while improved fuel economy. GTL significantly reduced regulated emissions with average reductions of 21.2% in CO, 15.7% in HC, 15.6% in NO_x and 22.1% in smoke in comparison to diesel, as well as average reductions in unregulated emissions of total ultrafine particle number (N_tot) and mass (M_tot) emissions by 85.3% and 43.9%. DME can significantly increase torque and power, compared with the original diesel engine, as well as significantly reduced regulated emissions of 40.1% in HC, 48.2% in NO_x and smoke free throughout all the engine conditions. However, N_tot for DME is close to that for diesel. The reason is that the accumulation mode particle number emissions for DME are very low due to the characteristics of oxygen content and no C-C bond, which promotes the processes of nucleation and condensation of the semi-volatile compounds in the exhaust gas, as a result, a lot of nucleation mode particles produce.     

Experimental study on particulate and NOx emissions of a diesel engine fueled with ultra low sulfur diesel, RME-diesel blends and PME-diesel blends

Ultra low sulfur diesel and two different kinds of biodiesel fuels blended with baseline diesel fuel in 5% and 20% v/v were tested in a Cummins 4BTA direct injection diesel engine, with a turbocharger and an intercooler. Experiments were conducted under five engine loads at two steady speeds (1500 rpm and 2500 rpm). The study aims at investigating the engine performance, NO_x emission, smoke opacity, PM composition, PM size distribution and comparing the impacts of low sulfur content of biodiesel with ULSD on the particulate emission. The results indicate that, compared to base diesel fuel, the increase of biodiesel in blends could cause certain increase in both brake specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency. Compared with baseline diesel fuel, the biodiesel blends bring about more NO_x emissions. With the proportion of biodiesel increase in blends, the smoke opacity decreases, while total particle number concentration increases. Meanwhile the ULSD gives lower NO_x emissions, smoke opacity and total number concentration than those of baseline diesel fuel. In addition, the percentages of SOF and sulfate in particulates increase with biodiesel in blends, while the dry soot friction decreases obviously. Compared with baseline diesel fuel, the biodiesel blends increase the total nucleation number concentration, while ULSD reduces the total nucleation number concentration effectively, although they all have lower sulfur content. It means that, for ULSD, the lower sulfur content is the dominant factor for suppressing nucleation particles formation, while for biodiesel blends, lower volatile, lower aromatic content and higher oxygen content of biodiesel are key factors for improving the nucleation particles formation. The results demonstrate that the higher NO_x emission and total nucleation number concentration are considered as the big obstacles of the application of biodiesel in diesel engine.     

Assessing the influence of methanol-containing additive on biological characteristics of diesel exhaust emissions using microtox and mutatox assays

Here we investigate the effect of the methanol-containing additive (MCA) on the biological characteristics of diesel exhaust emissions. Microtox and Mutatox assays, respectively, were used to evaluate the acute toxicity and genotoxicity of crude extracts from diesel engine exhaust. The engine was tested on a series of diesel fuels blended with five additive levels (0, 5, 8, 10 and 15% of MCA by volume). Emission tests were performed over the hot start portion of the transient Heavy-Duty-Federal Test Procedure (HD-FTP) and two selected steady-state modes. Microtox results show that MCA additive moderately lowers the toxicity levels of particle-associated (SOF) samples, but generally increase the vapor-phase (XOC) associated toxicity. A strong correlation was found between XOC-associated toxicity and total hydrocarbon (THC) concentrations, while only a slight link was found between SOF-associated toxicity and particulate matter (PM) concentrations. For Mutatox test results, when either 5 or 8% MCA used, XOC and SOF-associated genotoxicity in both steady-state and hot-start transient cycle tests were relatively lower compared to those of the base diesel. The genotoxic potential of XOC samples was significantly increased after treatment with an exogenous metabolic activation system (S9). On the contrary, the genotoxic potential of SOF samples without S9 metabolic activation was generally higher than those with S9. It is noteworthy that the total particle-associated (SOF) PAHs emissions showed trends quite similar to that of the genotoxic potential. As expected, the total particle-associated (SOF) PAHs correlated moderately with direct mutagenicity, and fairly well with indirect mutagenicity. Finally, the genotoxicity data did not parallel the Microtox results in this study, indicating that potentially long-term genotoxic agents may not be revealed by short-term toxicity assays.     

Experimental investigation on the performance, gaseous and particulate emissions of a methanol fumigated diesel engine

Experiments were conducted on a 4-cylinder direct-injection diesel engine with fumigation methanol injected into the air intake of each cylinder. The fumigation methanol was injected to top up 10%, 20% and 30% of the power output under different engine operating conditions. The effects of fumigation methanol on engine performance, gaseous emissions and particulate emission were investigated. The experimental results show that there is a decrease in the brake thermal efficiency when fumigation methanol is applied, except at the highest load of 0.67 MPa. At low loads, the brake thermal efficiency decreases with increase in fumigation methanol; but at high loads, it increases with increase in fumigation methanol. The fumigation method results in a significant increase in hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) emissions. The concentration of nitrogen oxides (NOx) is significantly reduced except at close to full load condition. There is also a reduction in the smoke opacity and the particulate matter (PM) mass concentration. For the submicron particles, the total number of particles decreases at low and medium loads but increases at high loads. In all cases, there is a shift of the particles towards smaller geometrical mean diameter, especially at high loads. The increase in nano-sized particles and the increase in NO(2) emission could have serious impact on human health.     

Light vehicle regulated and unregulated emissions from different biodiesels

In this study, the regulated and unregulated emissions profile and fuel consumption of an automotive diesel and biodiesel blends, prepared from two different biodiesels, were investigated. The biodiesels were a rapeseed methyl ester (RME) and a palm-based methyl ester (PME). The tests were performed on a chassis dynamometer with constant volume sampling (CVS) over the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) and the non-legislated Athens Driving Cycle (ADC), using a Euro 2 compliant passenger vehicle. The objectives were to evaluate the impact of biodiesel chemical structure on the emissions, as well as the influence of the applied driving cycle on the formation of exhaust emissions and fuel consumption. The results showed that NO_x emissions were influenced by certain biodiesel properties, such as those of cetane number and iodine number. NO_x emissions followed a decreasing trend over both cycles, where the most beneficial reduction was obtained with the application of the more saturated biodiesel. PM emissions were decreased with the palm-based biodiesel blends over both cycles, with the exception of the 20% blend which was higher compared to diesel fuel. PME blends led to increases in PM emissions over the ADC. The majority of the biodiesel blends showed a tendency for lower CO and HC emissions. The differences in CO₂ emissions were not statistically significant. Fuel consumption presented an increase with both biodiesels. Total PAH and nitro-PAH emission levels were decreased with the use of biodiesel independently of the source material. Lower molecular weight PAHs were predominant in both gaseous and particulate phases. Both biodiesels had a negative impact on certain carbonyl emissions. Formaldehyde and acetaldehyde were the dominant aldehydes emitted from both fuels.     

Comparative investigation of the effects of lower and higher alcohols/bio-diesel blends on engine performance and emissions characteristics of a diesel engine

ABSTRACT

The use of lower alcohol (such as methanol and ethanol) blends in diesel engines shows problems like phase separation, miscibility, higher NO_x emissions etc. The addition of higher alcohols with either diesel or biodiesel is relatively new and only a little information is available on the effects of higher alcohols. In this work, the engine performance and emissions characteristics were compared between the lower and higher alcohol blended with biodiesel. Conventional diesel and biodiesel are considered as the reference fuels. Three lower alcohols (methanol, ethanol and propanol) and three higher alcohols (butanol, pentanol and octanol) of each 50% by volume were mixed with biodiesel of 50% by volume. Experiments were conducted on a single cylinder compression ignition diesel engine by varying the load conditions at a constant speed. Engine performance and emissions of CO, CO₂, NO_x and HC were determined. The results are discussed.     

Emission comparison of urban bus engine fueled with diesel oil and 'biodiesel' blend

The chemical and toxicological characteristics of emissions from an urban bus engine fueled with diesel and biodiesel blend were studied. Exhaust gases were produced by a turbocharged EURO 2 heavy-duty diesel engine, operating in steady-state conditions on the European test 13 mode cycle (ECE R49). Regulated and unregulated pollutants, such as carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and nitrated derivatives (nitro-PAHs), carbonyl compounds and light aromatic hydrocarbons were quantified. Mutagenicity of the emissions was evaluated by the Salmonella typhimurium/mammalian microsome assay. The effect of the fuels under study on the size distribution of particulate matter (PM) was also evaluated. The use of biodiesel blend seems to result in small reductions of emissions of most of the aromatic and polyaromatic compounds; these differences, however, have no statistical significance at 95% confidence level. Formaldehyde, on the other hand, has a statistically significant increase of 18% with biodiesel blend. In vitro toxicological assays show an overall similar mutagenic potency and genotoxic profile for diesel and biodiesel blend emissions. The electron microscopy analysis indicates that PM for both fuels has the same chemical composition, morphology, shape and granulometric spectrum, with most of the particles in the range 0.06-0.3 microm.     

Experimental investigation of engine emissions with marine gas oil-oxygenate blends

This paper investigates the diesel engine performance and exhaust emissions with marine gas oil-alternative fuel additive. Marine gas oil (MGO) was selected as base fuel for the engine experiments. An oxygenate, diethylene glycol dimethyl ether (DGM), and a biodiesel (BD) jatropha oil methyl ester (JOME) with a volume of 10% were blended with the MGO fuel. JOME was derived from inedible jatropha oil. Lower emissions with diesel-BD blends (soybean methyl ester, rapeseed methyl ester etc.) have been established so far, but the effect of MGO-BD (JOME) blends on engine performance and emissions has been a growing interest as JOME (BD) is derived from inedible oil and MGO is frequently used in maritime transports. No phase separation between MGO-DGM and MGO-JOME blends was found. The neat MGO, MGO-DGM and MGO-JOME blends are termed as MGO, Ox10 and B10 respectively. The experiments were conducted with a six-cylinder, four-stroke, turbocharged, direct-injection Scania DC 1102 (DI) diesel engine. The experimental results showed significant reductions in fine particle number and mass emissions, PM and smoke emissions with Ox10 and B10 fuels compared to the MGO fuel. Other emissions including total unburned hydrocarbon (THC), carbon monoxide (CO) and engine noise were also reduced with the Ox10 and B10 fuels, while maintaining similar brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and thermal efficiency with MGO fuel. Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions, on the other hand, were slightly higher with the Ox10 and B10 fuels at high engine load conditions.     

Investigation on the gaseous and particulate emissions of a compression ignition engine fueled with diesel-dimethyl carbonate blends

The effect of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) on the gaseous and particulate emissions of a diesel engine was investigated using Euro V diesel fuel blended with different proportions of DMC. Combustion analysis shows that, with the blended fuel, the ignition delay and the heat release rate in the premixed combustion phase increase, while the total combustion duration and the fuel consumed in the diffusion combustion phase decrease. Compared with diesel fuel, with an increase of DMC in the blended fuel, the brake thermal efficiency is slightly improved but the brake specific fuel consumption increases. On the emission side, CO increases significantly at low engine load but decreases at high engine load while HC decreases slightly. NO_x reduces slightly but the reduction is not statistically significant, while NO₂ increases slightly. Particulate mass and number concentrations decrease upon using the blended fuel while the geometric mean diameter of the particles shifts towards smaller size. Overall speaking, diesel-DMC blends lead to significant improvement in particulate emissions while the impact on CO, HC and NO_x emissions is small.     

Performance and emissions analysis of a diesel engine directly fuelled with waste cooking oil biodiesel

This research focuses on a comparative study of the physical and chemical properties of waste cooking oil (WCO) biodiesel with China stage IV diesel fuel. The estimate method of excess air ratio and the heating value ratio of an engine's cylinder mixture are proposed based on the differences of properties of two fuels. The bench tests of engine performance are carried out with an engine fuelled with two fuels separately. The estimated excess air ratio and the heating value ratio of an engine's cylinder mixture through the method are approximate to the experiment results. This comparison demonstrates that the estimate method can be applied to the performance analysis of an engine. Compared with China stage IV diesel, when a diesel engine is fuelled with WCO biodiesel, the torque and power decline from 1.9% to 13.8%; the brake-speci?c fuel consumption rises from 3.7% to 15.6%; CO, HC and PM emissions decrease significantly and NO_X emissions increase slightly.     

Effect of biodiesel fuel properties and formation of NOx emissions: a review

Biodiesel is revealed as an environmentally friendly alternative fuel for a CI engine and it can palliate regulated and unregulated emissions. Biodiesel is substantially found to reduce the emissions of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter, but increasing (10–15%) oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) emissions compared with conventional diesel fuel. The accurate cause for NO_x emission is still vague. This paper reviews the effect of biodiesel properties and formation of NO_x emissions and it is classified in three sections. The first section bestows the NO_x formation mechanisms. The second edition deals with the influence of formation and biodiesel properties on NO_x emissions. Finally, a few prevailing conclusions are epitomised, and more researches are pointed out.     

Remote sensing of PM, NO, CO and HC emission factors for on-road gasoline and diesel engine vehicles in Las Vegas, NV

A novel light detection and ranging-based remote sensing system was assembled and used to measure mass particulate matter (PM) emissions per unit of fuel burned from in-use on-road vehicles. A commercially available remote sensing system was concurrently used to measure emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NO) and hydrocarbons (HC). The two systems were used to measure 61,207 gasoline and 1180 diesel powered vehicle emissions in Las Vegas, NV from 4/4/2000 to 5/16/2002. Emission factors were related to vehicle age, weight class and fuel type by matching license IDs to the state registration data. Measurements of vehicle speed and acceleration permitted the analysis of emission factors by vehicle specific power (VSP). Average emission factors were calculated for light-duty (<3863 kg [8500 lbs]) gasoline vehicles (LDGV), light-duty diesel vehicles (LDDV), heavy-duty (>3863 kg [8500 lbs]) gasoline vehicles (HDGV) and heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDDV). LDDV and HDDV emitted approximately 25 times more PM per mass of fuel than LDGV and HDGV. Sufficient numbers of LDGV were measured to relate VSP with CO, HC and NO emissions. No relationship was observed between PM emissions and VSP. PM emission factors from LDGV increased with vehicle age. Fuel-based emission factors measured by remote sensing were compared with MOBILE6 and PART5 emissions model factors. Good agreement was observed for HC emission factors for vehicles less than 20 years old. MOBILE6 CO emission factors were approximately 2 times greater than measured CO emission factors for vehicles less than 13 years old. Measured NO emission factors were approximately 50% greater than MOBILE6 factors for vehicles 7-15 years old but in good agreement for vehicles less than 7 years old. Measured PM emission factors showed a clear increase with vehicle age, however, PART5 uses only a single PM emission factor for LDGV less than 18 years old. The PM emission factors for the fleet of LDGV, HDGV, LDDV and HDDV were 0.06, 0.05, 1.6 and 1.5 g/kg, respectively.     

Enhancement in the performance of a diesel engine fuelled with Pongamia methyl ester and n-butanol as oxygenated additive

The present paper investigates the performance and emission characteristics of a single-cylinder, four-stroke diesel engine fuelled with Pongamia methyl ester (PME) and n-butanol, at different loading conditions. Two blends of n-butanol–PME (10% and 20% n-butanol with PME on a volumetric basis) were prepared. The experimental results showed a significant improvement in the brake thermal efficiency of the engine with the blends and were found to increase with increasing percentage of n-butanol in the blends. The blended fuels also show lower emission such as carbon monoxide (CO), oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) and smoke opacity. However, unburned hydrocarbon (HC) emission was found to be slightly increased. Thus, it is concluded that the biodiesel with 20% n-butanol blend showed better results with respect to efficiency and emissions point of view compared with biodiesel.     

Detailed analysis on emission and performance characteristics of neat biofuel-fuelled diesel engine

ABSTRACT

There is an entanglement over the rapid exhaust of fossil fuel and soreness of environmental changes. Biofuels are acting as an alternative resource for petroleum products and also salve of emissions control and engine performance improvement. Scholars have seen the supreme use of bio-fuel apparent, as it will influence greenhouse effect. Investigation results show the diminished heating value in congruence with conventional pabulum, so it had depleted more in brake mean effective-fuel power ratio and proliferated NO_x compared with diesel fuel. The article mainly focuses on the selection – process of biofuel and analysis of performance (BSFC, EGT and brake thermal efficiency), emissions (CO, NO_x, CO₂, PM and HC) and combustion (NHR and CP) of the engine are exclusively discussed and summarised. Finally, stability, opportunity, and restraint of a selection of alternative fuel and investigation and study on the engine were asserted to guide further future exploration and evolution in that domain.     

Biodiesel emissions profile in modern diesel vehicles. Part 1: Effect of biodiesel origin on the criteria emissions

This paper presents the regulated emissions profile of a Euro 4 compliant common rail passenger car, fuelled with low concentration biodiesel blends. Four biodiesels of different origin and quality blended with a typical automotive diesel fuel at proportions of 10, 20, and 30% v/v. Emission and fuel consumption measurements were conducted on a chassis dynamometer with constant volume sampling (CVS) technique, over the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) and the real traffic-based Artemis driving cycles. Limited effects were observed on CO₂ emissions, while fuel consumption marginally increased with biodiesel. PM, HC and CO emissions improved with the addition of biodiesel, with some exceptions. Some increases with biodiesel were observed over the NEDC, as a consequence of biodiesel characteristics and engine conditions. NO_x emissions were increased with the use of biodiesel blends and positively correlated with fuel unsaturation levels.