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This paper illustrates the results of an experimental study on the impact of a low cetane number (CN) oxygenated fuel on the combustion process and emissions of a light-duty (LD) single-cylinder research engine. In an earlier study, it was concluded that cyclic oxygenates consistently outperformed their straight and branched counterparts at equal oxygen content and with respect to lowering soot emissions. A clear correlation was reported linking soot and CN, with lower CN fuels leading to more favorable soot levels. It was concluded that a lower CN fuel, when realized by adding low reactive cyclic oxygenates to commercial diesel fuel, manifests in longer ignition delays and thus more premixing. Ultimately, a higher degree of premixing, in turn, was thought to suppress soot formation rates.

The combustion quality in modern diesel engines depends strictly on the quality of the air-fuel mixing and, in turn, from the quality of spray atomization process. So air-fuel mixing is strongly influenced by the injection pressure, geometry of the nozzle duct and the hydraulic characteristics of the injector. In this context, spray concepts alternative to the conventional multi-hole nozzles could be considered as solutions to the extremely high injection pressure increase to assure a higher and faster fuel-air mixing in the piston bowl, with the final target of increasing the fuel efficiency and reducing the engine emissions. The study concerns an experimental depiction of a spray generated through a prototype high-pressure hollow-cone nozzle, under evaporative and non-evaporative conditions, injecting the fuel in a constant-volume combustion vessel controlled in pressure and temperature up to engine-like gas densities in order to measure the spatial and temporal fuel patterns.

Nowadays, alcohol fuels are of increasing interest as alternative transportation biofuels even in compression ignition engines because they are oxygenated and producible in a sustainable way. In this paper, the experimental research activity was conducted on a single cylinder research engine provided with a modern architecture and properly modified in a dual-fuel (DF) configuration. Looking at ethanol the as one of the future environmental friendly biofuels experimental campaign was aimed to evaluate in detail the effect of the use of the ethanol as port injected fuel in diesel engine on the size, morphology, reactivity and chemical features of the exhaust emitted soot particles. The engine tests were chosen properly in order to represent actual working conditions of an automotive light-duty diesel engine. A proper engine Dual-Fuel calibration was set-up respecting prefixed limits on in-cylinder peak firing pressure, cylinder pressure rise, fuel efficiency and gaseous emissions.

Diesel will continue to be an indispensable energy carrier for the car fleet CO2 emission targets in the short-term. This is particularly relevant for heavy-duty vehicles as for mid-size cars and SUVs. Looking at the latest technology achievements on the after-treatment systems, it can be stated that the concerning about the NOx emission gap between homologation test and real road use is basically solved, while the future challenge for diesel survival is to keep its competitiveness in the CO2 vs cost equation in comparison to other propulsion systems. The development of the combustion system design still represents an important leverage for further efficiency and emissions improvements while keeping the current excellent performance in terms of power density and low-end torque.