Search Results

Unregulated emissions have become an important factor restricting the development of methanol and ethanol alternative alcohols fuels. Using two light-duty vehicles fuelled with pure gasoline, gasoline blend of 10% and 20% volume fraction of ethanol fuels, gasoline blend of 15% and 30% volume fraction of methanol fuels, New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) emission tests were carried on a chassis dynamometer according to ECE R83-05. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), Gas chromatography - Mass spectrometry (GC-MS), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) were used to measure methanol, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone, benzene, toluene, xylene, ethylene, propylene, 1,3-butadiene and isobutene emissions in the exhaust during the NEDC.

Homogeneous charge combustion and emissions of ethanol ignited by pilot diesel fuel were investigated on a two-cylinder diesel engine. The results show that emissions depend on loads and ethanol volume fraction. At low loads, ethanol has little effects on smoke. With the increase of ethanol, NOx decreases, but CO emissions increase. At high loads, smoke emissions reduce greatly with increasing ethanol, but NOx and total hydrocarbon (THC) emissions increase. With the increase of ethanol, ignition delays, combustion duration shortens. The maximum rates of heat release for the fuel containing 10 vol% ethanol (E10) and 30 vol% ethanol (E30) increase. Brake specific energy consumption (BSEC) of E10 and E30 is improved slightly only at full loads. Compared to smoke emissions obtained on the same engine using ethanol blended diesel fuels, the tendency of smoke reduction is similar to that of homogeneous charge combustion of ethanol at the same operating conditions.

A catalyst surfaced on Ag/Al2O3 substrate for the selective catalyst reduction (SCR) of NOx by ethanol was evaluated in a diesel engine, and the effect of the catalyst on the reduction of NOx from the diesel engine under the EURO III ESC test modes was also investigated. The reductant injecting device was designed by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis, and the engine test bench including the reductant injection system for the evaluation of the NOx-SCR catalyst performance was established. On the bench, the SCR catalyst with the ethanol reductant was tested at different temperatures and space velocities (SV), and integrated with an oxidation catalyst to reduce the diesel exhaust emissions of NOx, HC and CO. Under the conditions of the SV=30,000 h-1 and the exhaust temperature range of 350∼420°C, the NOx conversion efficiency is high over 90% and low beyond the temperature range.