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Conventional diesel engines will continue to hold a vital role in the heavy- and medium-duty markets for the transportation of goods along with many other uses. The ability to offset traditional diesel fuels with low-net-carbon biofuels could have a significant impact on reducing the carbon footprint of these vehicles. A prior study screened several hundred candidate biofuel blendstocks based on required diesel blendstock properties and identified 12 as the most promising. Eight representative biofuel blendstocks were blended at a 30% volumetric concentration with EPA certification ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) and were investigated for emissions and fuel efficiency performance. This study used a single cylinder engine (based on the Ford 6.7L engine) using Conventional Diesel Combustion (CDC), also known as Mixing Control Compression Ignition (MCCI). The density, cetane number, distillation curve and sooting tendency (using the yield sooting index method) of the fuels were measured.

Knock-limited loads for a set of surrogate gasolines all having nominal 100 research octane number (RON), approximately 11 octane sensitivity (S), and a heat of vaporization (HOV) range of 390 to 595 kJ/kg at 25°C were investigated. A single-cylinder spark-ignition engine derived from a General Motors Ecotec direct injection (DI) engine was used to perform load sweeps at a fixed intake air temperature (IAT) of 50 °C, as well as knock-limited load measurements across a range of IATs up to 90 °C. Both DI and pre-vaporized fuel (supplied by a fuel injector mounted far upstream of the intake valves and heated intake runner walls) experiments were performed to separate the chemical and thermal effects of the fuels’ knock resistance. The DI load sweeps at 50°C intake air temperature showed no effect of HOV on the knock-limited performance. The data suggest that HOV acts as a thermal contributor to S under the conditions studied.

We describe a study to identify potential biofuels that enable advanced spark ignition (SI) engine efficiency strategies to be pursued more aggressively. A list of potential biomass-derived blendstocks was developed. An online database of properties and characteristics of these bioblendstocks was created and populated. Fuel properties were determined by measurement, model prediction, or literature review. Screening criteria were developed to determine if a bioblendstock met the requirements for advanced SI engines. Criteria included melting point (or cloud point) < -10°C and boiling point (or T90) <165°C. Compounds insoluble or poorly soluble in hydrocarbon were eliminated from consideration, as were those known to cause corrosion (carboxylic acids or high acid number mixtures) and those with hazard classification as known or suspected carcinogens or reproductive toxins.

For renewable fuels to displace petroleum, they must be compatible with emissions control devices. Pure biodiesel contains up to 5 ppm Na + K and 5 ppm Ca + Mg metals, which have the potential to degrade diesel emissions control systems. This study aims to address these concerns, identify deactivation mechanisms, and determine if a lower limit is needed. Accelerated aging of a production exhaust system was conducted on an engine test stand over 1001 h using 20% biodiesel blended into ultra-low sulfur diesel (B20) doped with 14 ppm Na. This Na level is equivalent to exposure to Na at the uppermost expected B100 value in a B20 blend for the system full-useful life. During the study, NOx emissions exceeded the engine certification limit of 0.33 g/bhp-hr before the 435,000-mile requirement.

The latent heat-of-vaporization (HoV) of blends of biofuel and hydrocarbon components into gasolines has recently experienced expanded interest because of the potential for increased HoV to increase fuel knock resistance in direct-injection (DI) engines. Several studies have been conducted, with some studies identifying an additional anti-knock benefit from HoV and others failing to arrive at the same conclusion. Consideration of these studies holistically shows that they can be grouped according to the level of fuel octane sensitivity variation within their fuel matrices. When comparing fuels of different octane sensitivity significant additional anti-knock benefits associated with HoV are sometimes observed. Studies that fix the octane sensitivity find that HoV does not produce additional anti-knock benefit. New studies were performed at ORNL and NREL to further investigate the relationship between HoV and octane sensitivity.

Several high octane number oxygenates that could be derived from biomass were blended with gasoline and examined for performance properties and their impact on knock resistance and fine particle emissions in a single cylinder direct-injection spark-ignition engine. The oxygenates included ethanol, isobutanol, anisole, 4-methylanisole, 2-phenylethanol, 2,5-dimethyl furan, and 2,4-xylenol. These were blended into a summertime blendstock for oxygenate blending at levels ranging from 10 to 50 percent by volume. The base gasoline, its blends with p-xylene and p-cymene, and high-octane racing gasoline were tested as controls. Relevant gasoline properties including research octane number (RON), motor octane number, distillation curve, and vapor pressure were measured. Detailed hydrocarbon analysis was used to estimate heat of vaporization and particulate matter index (PMI). Experiments were conducted to measure knock-limited spark advance and particulate matter (PM) emissions.

The objective of this work was to measure knock resistance metrics for ethanol-hydrocarbon blends with a primary focus on development of methods to measure the heat of vaporization (HOV). Blends of ethanol at 10 to 50 volume percent were prepared with three gasoline blendstocks and a natural gasoline. Performance properties and composition of the blendstocks and blends were measured, including research octane number (RON), motor octane number (MON), net heating value, density, distillation curve, and vapor pressure. RON increases upon blending ethanol but with diminishing returns above about 30 vol%. Above 30% to 40% ethanol the curves flatten and converge at a RON of about 103 to 105, even for the much lower RON NG blendstock. Octane sensitivity (S = RON - MON) also increases upon ethanol blending. Gasoline blendstocks with nearly identical S can show significantly different sensitivities when blended with ethanol.

Alkali and alkaline earth metal impurities found in diesel fuels are potential poisons for diesel exhaust catalysts. Using an accelerated aging procedure, a set of production exhaust systems from a 2011 Ford F250 equipped with a 6.7L diesel engine have been aged to an equivalent of 150,000 miles of thermal aging and metal exposure. These exhaust systems included a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst, and diesel particulate filter (DPF). Four separate exhaust systems were aged, each with a different fuel: ULSD containing no measureable metals, B20 containing sodium, B20 containing potassium and B20 containing calcium. Metals levels were selected to simulate the maximum allowable levels in B100 according to the ASTM D6751 standard. Analysis of the aged catalysts included Federal Test Procedure emissions testing with the systems installed on a Ford F250 pickup, bench flow reactor testing of catalyst cores, and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA).

In this work, the influences of ethanol and iso-butanol blended with gasoline on engine-out and post three-way catalyst (TWC) particle size distribution and number concentration were studied using a General Motors (GM) 2.0L turbocharged spark ignition direct injection (SIDI) engine. The engine was operated using the production engine control unit (ECU) with a dynamometer controlling the engine speed and the accelerator pedal position controlling the engine load. A TSI Fast Mobility Particle Sizer (FMPS) spectrometer was used to measure the particle size distribution in the range from 5.6 to 560 nm with a sampling rate of 1 Hz. U.S. federal certification gasoline (E0), two ethanol-blended fuels (E10 and E20), and 11.7% iso-butanol blended fuel (BU12) were tested. Measurements were conducted at 10 selected steady-state engine operation conditions. Bi-modal particle size distributions were observed for all operating conditions with peak values at particle sizes of 10 nm and 70 nm.

A prototype 2007 ISL Cummins diesel engine equipped with a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), diesel particle filter (DPF), variable geometry turbocharger (VGT), and cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) was tested at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) under a high-load accelerated durability cycle for 1000 hours with B20 soy-based biodiesel blends and ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel to determine the impact of B20 on engine durability, performance, emissions, and fuel consumption. At the completion of the 1000-hour test, a thorough engine teardown evaluation of the overhead, power transfer, cylinder, cooling, lube, air handling, gaskets, aftertreatment, and fuel system parts was performed. The engine operated successfully with no biodiesel-related failures. Results indicate that engine performance was essentially the same when tested at 125 and 1000 hours of accumulated durability operation.

Increasing interest in biofuels—specifically, biodiesel as a pathway to energy diversity and security—have necessitated the need for research on the performance and utilization of these fuels and fuel blends in current and future vehicle fleets. One critical research area is related to achieving a full understanding of the impact of biodiesel fuel blends on advanced emission control systems. In addition, the use of biodiesel fuel blends can degrade diesel engine oil performance and impact the oil drain interval requirements. There is limited information related to the impact of biodiesel fuel blends on oil dilution. This paper assesses the oil dilution impacts on an engine operating in conjunction with a diesel particle filter (DPF), oxides of nitrogen (NOx) storage, a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) emission control system, and a 20% biodiesel (soy-derived) fuel blend.

Raising interest in Diesel powered passenger cars in the United States in combination with the government mandated policy to reduce dependency of foreign oil, leads to the desire of operating Diesel vehicles with Biodiesel fuel blends. There is only limited information related to the impact of Biodiesel fuels on the performance of advanced emission control systems. In this project the implementation of a NOx storage and a SCR emission control system and the development for optimal performance are evaluated. The main focus remains on the discussion of the differences between the fuels which is done for the development as well as useful life aged components. From emission control standpoint only marginal effects could be observed as a result of the Biodiesel operation. The NOx storage catalyst results showed lower tailpipe emissions which were attributed to the lower exhaust temperature profile during the test cycle. The SCR catalyst tailpipe results were fuel neutral.

Tests of ultra-low sulfur diesel blended with soy-biodiesel at 5% and 20% were conducted using a 2002 model year Cummins ISB engine (with exhaust gas recirculation) that had been retrofitted with a passively regenerated catalyzed diesel particulate filter (DPF). Results show that on average, the DPF balance point temperature (BPT) is 45°C and 112°C lower for B20 blends and neat biodiesel, respectively, than for 2007 certification diesel fuel. Biodiesel causes a measurable increase in regeneration rate at a fixed steady-state condition, even at the 5% blending level. The data show no significant differences in NOx emissions for these fuels at the steady-state regeneration conditions, suggesting that differences in soot reactivity are responsible for the observed differences in BPT and regeneration rate.

Biodiesel produced from soybean oil, canola oil, yellow grease, and beef tallow was tested in two heavy-duty engines. The biodiesels were tested neat and as 20% by volume blends with a 15 ppm sulfur petroleum-derived diesel fuel. The test engines were a 2002 Cummins ISB and 2003 DDC Series 60. Both engines met the 2004 U.S. emission standard of 2.5 g/bhp-h NOx+HC (3.35 g/kW-h) and utilized exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). All emission tests employed the heavy-duty transient procedure as specified in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations. Reduction in PM emissions and increase in NOx emissions were observed for all biodiesels in all engines, confirming observations made in older engines. On average PM was reduced by 25% and NOx increased by 3% for the two engines tested for a variety of B20 blends. These changes are slightly larger in magnitude, but in the same range as observed in older engines.

The exhaust emissions from a single-cylinder version of a heavy-duty diesel engine with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) were studied using 12 diesel fuels derived from oil sands and conventional sources. The test fuels were blended from 22 refinery streams to produce four fuels (two from each source) at three different total aromatic levels (10, 20, and 30% by mass). The cetane numbers were held constant at 43. Exhaust emissions were measured using the AVL eight-mode steady-state test procedure. PM emissions were accurately modeled by a single regression equation with two predictors, total aromatics and sulphur content. Sulphate emissions were found to be independent of the type of sulphur compound in the fuel. NOx emissions were accurately modeled by a single regression equation with total aromatics and density as predictor variables. PM and NOx emissions were significantly significantly affected by fuel properties, but crude oil source did not play a role.

Natural gas presents several challenges to engine manufacturers for use as a heavy-duty, lean burn engine fuel. This is because natural gas can vary in composition and the variation is large enough to produce significant changes in the stoichiometry of the fuel and its octane number. Similarly, operation at high altitude can present challenges. The most significant effect of altitude is lower barometric pressure, typically 630 mm Hg at 1600 m compared to a sea level value of 760 mm. This can lower turbocharger boost at low speeds leading to mixtures richer than desired. The purpose of this test program was to determine the effect of natural gas composition and altitude on regulated emissions and performance of a Cummins B5.9G engine. The engine is a lean-burn, closed loop control, spark ignited, dedicated natural gas engine. For fuel composition testing the engine was operating at approximately 1600 m (5,280 ft) above sea level.

Methane emissions from lean-burn natural gas engines can be relatively high. As natural gas fueled vehicles become more prevalent, future regulations may restrict these emissions. Preliminary reports indicated that conventional, precious metal oxidation catalysts rapidly deactivate (in less than 50 hours) in lean-burn natural gas engine exhaust. This investigation is directed at quantifying this catalyst deactivation and understanding its cause. The results may also be relevant to oxidation of lean-burn propane and gasoline engine exhaust. A platinum/palladium on alumina catalyst and a palladium on alumina catalyst were aged in the exhaust of a lean-burn natural gas engine (Cummins B5.9G). The engine was fueled with compressed natural gas. Catalyst aging was accomplished through a series of steady state cycles and heavy-duty transient tests (CFR 40 Part 86 Subpart N) lasting 10 hours. Hydrocarbons in the exhaust were speciated by gas chromatography.

Regulated emissions (THC, CO, NOx, and PM) and particulate SOF and sulfate fractions were determined for a 1995 Detroit Diesel Series 50 urban bus engine at varying fuel sulfur levels, with and without catalytic converters. When tested on EPA certification fuel without an oxidation catalyst this engine does not appear to meet the 1994 emissions standards for heavy duty trucks, when operating at high altitude. An ultra-low (5 ppm) sulfur diesel base stock with 23% aromatics and 42.4 cetane number was used to examine the effect of fuel sulfur. Sulfur was adjusted above the 5 ppm level to 50, 100, 200, 315 and 500 ppm using tert-butyl disulfide. Current EPA regulations limit the sulfur content to 500 ppm for on highway fuel. A low Pt diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) was tested with all fuels and a high Pt diesel oxidation catalyst was tested with the 5 and 50 ppm sulfur fuels.