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Three synthetic fuels, derived from coal, were compared to a Phillips DF-2 control fuel. These fuels were tested in a single-cylinder, direct-injected, Diesel engine. Comparisons were made on the basis of performance, combustion characteristics, gas-phase emissions including aldehydes, and particulate emissions. In addition, the mutagenic activity of the soluble organic compounds from the particulates were analyzed using the Ames test. The objective of these experiments was to determine how well the synthetic fuels would perform as direct replacements for DF-2. All three synthetic fuels were manufactured from an initial batch of middle distillates produced by the Exxon Donor Solvent (EDS) process. The first fuel was a blend of the EDS middle distillate and the baseline DF-2 with a cetane number of 35.

Diesel engines are a source of suspended ambient particulate matter, and some concerns have been raised about the health effects from the inhalation of these particles. Nitrated polycyclic aromatics adsorbed on these particles have been shown to have the potential to cause mutations in living cells. Particulate matter collected on teflon-coated glass fiber filters produces results that may be open to question because of the possible generation of artifactual nitrated aromatics during the filtration process. An experiment using a constant-volume combustion bomb was used with four oxidants (air, nitrogen-free oxidant (29% O2 21% Ar 50% CO2), 50% O2/50% N2, and O2 (99.95% pure)), to address the concern over artifactual generation of nitrated-PAH on the filtration medium. Soot samples were collected both in situ on a cooled plug and on teflon-coated glass fiber filters in the exhaust line. Chemical comparisons of the collected samples were accomplished using chromatographic procedures.