JFUE 8506 No.

of Pages 8, Model 5G
7 October 2014

Fuel xxx (2014) xxxxxx

1

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Fuel
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel

5
6

3 Combustion and emission characteristics of a turbocharged diesel engine

4 using high premixed ratio of methanol and diesel fuel
7 Q1 Lijiang Wei, Chunde Yao , Quangang Wang, Wang Pan, Guopeng Han
8 State Key Laboratory of Engines, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

9
10

1 2
h i g h l i g h t s
13
14  High premixed ratio of methanol was introduced on a turbocharged diesel engine.
15  Ignition delay was prolonged but the combustion duration was shortened.
16  The trade-off relationship between NOX and soot emissions disappeared.
17  DOC could effectively reduce the increased HC, CO, HCHO and proportion of NO2 in NOX.

18
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
2 3
3 0
21 Article history: The combustion and emission characteristics of a dual fuel diesel engine with high premixed ratio of 34
22 Received 15 June 2014 methanol (PRm) were investigated. Experiments were performed on a 6-cylinder turbocharged, inter- 35
23 Received in revised form 8 September 2014 cooling diesel engine. Methanol was injected through the intake port and ignited by direct injected diesel 36
24 Accepted 19 September 2014
in the cylinder, the maximum PRm was over 70%. The experimental results showed that with high PRm, 37
25 Available online xxxx
the maximum in-cylinder pressure increased from medium to high engine load but varied little or even 38
decreased at low engine speed and load. High PRm prolonged the ignition delay but shortened the com- 39
26 Keywords:
bustion duration and decreased the in-cylinder gas temperature at ignition timing. Hydrocarbons (HC), 40
27 Turbocharged diesel engine
28 Methanol
carbon monoxide (CO), formaldehyde emissions and the proportion of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in nitrogen 41
29 High premixed ratio oxides (NOX) increased signicantly with the increase of PRm while NOX and dry soot emissions were sig- 42
30 Combustion characteristic nicantly reduced, which meant the trade-off relationship between NOX and soot emissions disappeared. 43
31 Emission The increased HC, CO and formaldehyde emissions could be effectively reduced by diesel oxidation cat- 44
32 alyst (DOC) when the exhaust gas temperature reached the light off temperature of the DOC. After DOC, 45
the NO2 proportion in NOX was greatly reduced to less than that of baseline engine at methanol premixed 46
mode but increased slightly at pure diesel mode. The maximum PRm was conned by in-cylinder pressure 47
at high engine speed and load. But at low engine speed and load, it was conned by the high emissions of 48
HC, CO and formaldehyde even after DOC. 49
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 50
51

52
53
54
55 1. Introduction pressure of energy shortage and meet the tightening emission reg- 61
ulations, especially to simultaneously reduce nitrogen oxides 62
56 Diesel engines are widely used in agriculture, transportation (NOX) and particulate matter (PM), using oxygenated alternative 63
57 and industry due to their high combustion efciency, reliability, fuels is one of the effective methods. Ren et al. [1] investigated 64
58 adaptability and cost-effectiveness. However, diesel vehicles are the combustion and emissions of a diesel engine fuelled with die- 65
59 one of the main contributors of todays major concerns of energy sel-oxygenate blends. Six oxygenated fuels which reect ethers, 66
60 shortage and environmental pollutions. In order to alleviate the esters and alcohols were selected. The results showed that the 67
smoke decreased with the increase of the oxygen mass fraction 68
in the blends regardless of the types of oxygenate additives and 69
Abbreviations: PRm, premixed ratio of methanol; HC, hydrocarbons; CO, carbon there was no increase of NOX emission. For the benets of saving 70
monoxide; NOX, nitrogen oxides; NO, nitrogen monoxide; NO2, nitrogen dioxide; fossil fuels and reducing emissions, oxygenated alternative fuels 71
N2O, nitrous oxide; PM, particulate matter; DOC, diesel oxidation catalyst.
has gained more and more attentions recently. For example, meth- 72
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 22 2740 6649; fax: +86 22 2738 3362.
anol [24], ethanol [5,6] biodiesel [7,8] and dimethyl ether [9,10] 73
E-mail address: arcdyao@tju.edu.cn (C. Yao).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.09.070
0016-2361/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Wei L et al. Combustion and emission characteristics of a turbocharged diesel engine using high premixed ratio of meth-
anol and diesel fuel. Fuel (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.09.070
 JFUE 8506 No. of Pages 8, Model 5G
7 October 2014

2 L. Wei et al. / Fuel xxx (2014) xxxxxx

74 are the main representatives that have been widely studied. Fig. 1. The engine was coupled with a hydraulic dynamometer 124
75 Among these fuels, methanol is a promising fuel as it can be easily while its speed and torque were controlled by the Yike diesel 125
76 synthesized from abundantly available materials such as coal, nat- engine test system. A special DOC for after-treatment of the 126
77 ure gas and biomass [11]. exhaust gas was installed at the downstream end, 700 mm from 127
78 In previous studies, there are three main applications of meth- the out let of turbocharger. 128
79 anol in diesel engines including direct mixture [3,4], direct injec- The diesel fuel used in this study contained sulfur less than 129
80 tion [12] and port injection [2,13]. Because of the miscibility 350 ppm by weight and the methanol was industrial grade. The 130
81 problem, decreasing of heating value and some other issues, gener- consumption rates of the two fuels were measured by two 131
82 ally, the blending ratio of direct mixture cannot exceed 20%. And, FCM-05 instantaneous automatic fuel consumption meters. The 132
83 the direct injection is hard to apply on the engine. On the contrary, general properties of diesel and methanol are shown in Table 2. 133
84 port injection is very easy to realize, even on in-use diesel vehicles.
85 Furthermore, the quantity of methanol injected can be adjusted 2.2. Sampling and analysis 134
86 according to the engines operation conditions, and the premixed
87 ratio of methanol (PRm) may reach a much higher level. The in-cylinder pressures were traced using a pressure trans- 135
88 In the previous studies of premixed methanol, the PRm was rel- ducer (Kistler 6052C) at 0.5 CA intervals across 100 cycles and 136
89 atively low, usually less than 30%. With dwindling of oil resources, these pressure signal outputs were amplied and averaged by 137
90 the energy crisis is getting worse, especially in the countries with the AVL combustion analyzer IndiSmart 612. The shaft encoder 138
91 limited oil resources like China. Seeking for the possibilities to used was AVL 365C. Based on above data, heat release rate was 139
92 reduce the fuel consumption is of great importance. Based on that, computed from the averaged in-cylinder pressure using Eq. (1) 140
93 in this study, a much higher PRm was introduced. All previously [16,17]: 141
94 reported studies on premixed methanol were conducted on natu- 142
95 rally aspirated diesel engines [13,14]. Since the turbocharged, dQ g dQ n dQ w
1
96 inter-cooling diesel engines are with higher thermal efciency du du du 144
97 and widely used for heavy-duty vehicles, especially for urban dQ n
where the net heat release rate, du
was determined by the tradi- 145
98 buses in recent years. It is necessary to carry out experiments on
tional rst law Eq. (2) [18,19]: 146
99 this type of diesel engines. Meanwhile, in order to reduce the 147
100 increased hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and formal- dQ n c dV 1 dp
p V  2
101 dehyde emissions, commercial diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) du c1 du c  1 du 149
102 was used [14,15]. In this study, a special DOC was used to evaluate dQ w
103 the effects on reducing HC, CO and formaldehyde emissions. And the heat loss rate, was obtained from Eq. (3) in which hc
d/
150

104 Because of its high latent heat of vaporization, methanol can was estimated by means of Woschni model. 151
152
105 reduce the intake air temperature, thus the in-cylinder combustion dQ w
106 could be inuenced especially at low engine speed and load. In this Aht hc T  T w 3
du 154
107 study, the low engine speed and load operation condition was
108 selected and the effects of engine speed on the combustion and The concentrations of the gaseous emissions were measured by 155
109 emissions were also investigated. employing an AVL SESAM Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy 156
(FTIR) multi-component exhaust analyzer, which is capable to 157
determine up to 25 gaseous exhaust components simultaneously. 158
110 2. Experimental setup and procedure The test range, accuracy and margin of error for each emission 159
were shown in the study of Yang et al. [20]. In the measurement 160
111 2.1. Test engine and fuels of FTIR, the HC represented the sum of the main hydrocarbon com- 161
ponents and NOX represented the sum of NO and NO2. Smoke was 162
112 The baseline engine used was a 6-cylinder, turbocharged, inter- measured by an AVL 415S lter paper smoke meter with average 163
113 cooling, heavy-duty diesel engine with specications shown in over ve samples. Then specic dry soot emission (g/kW h) can 164
114 Table 1. The engine was modied to be compatible with diesel/ be calculated from lter smoke number (FSN) through the empir- 165
115 methanol dual fuel. Methanol injectors were mounted near the ical formula provided by the instrument manual [20,21]. 166
116 intake port of each cylinder to ensure methanol uniformity. An
117 electronic methanol pump was used to keep the methanol injec- 2.3. Operating conditions 167
118 tion pressure at 0.35 MPa. Methanol was injected into the intake
119 of each cylinder by methanol injectors to form premixed homoge- Experiments were performed both at the rated speed of 168
120 neous methanol/air mixture. The methanol injection quantity was 2200 rpm and a lower speed of 1000 rpm. The two different engine 169
121 controlled by an electronic control unit. The diesel fuel injection speeds with the same engine load of 0.62 MPa, which representing 170
122 system was an electronic unit pump system and remained the medium engine load, was selected and compared to evaluate 171
123 unchanged. The schematic diagram of engine setup is shown in the effect of engine speed. The other two operation conditions, 172
namely, 0.35 MPa at 1000 rpm and 0.88 MPa at 2200 rpm were 173

Table 1
selected to explore the effects of high PRm at low engine speed 174
Engine main technical specications. and load and high engine speed and load respectively. The details 175
of operation conditions and the mass ow of diesel and methanol 176
Type Inline 6 cylinder, turbocharged, inter-cooler
are shown in Table 3. In this paper, x% PRm refers to the case that 177
Bore/stroke 108 mm/130 mm premixed methanol takes up x% of the engine load and A-0.35, A- 178
Compression ratio 18.1
Power 192 kW/2200 rpm
0.62, B-0.62 and B-0.88 refer to the four operation conditions 179
Displacement 7.14 L respectively. The maximum PRm exceeded 70% at A-0.35, A-0.62 180
Fuel injection pump Electronic unit pump and B-0.62, but was limited to 40% at B-0.88. 181
Fuel injection nozzle 6 Holes Experiments were initially carried out with diesel fuel alone. 182
Nozzle diameter 0.235 mm
Then the engine load was reduced to 1  x% of the desired engine 183
Combustion chamber x bowl in piston
load and the rest x% was recovered by premixed methanol. During 184

Please cite this article in press as: Wei L et al. Combustion and emission characteristics of a turbocharged diesel engine using high premixed ratio of meth-
anol and diesel fuel. Fuel (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.09.070
 JFUE 8506 No. of Pages 8, Model 5G
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intercooler Methanol inlet Methanol injector Methanol outlet Output signals Methanol
Methanol common rail Input ECU
signals
Fresh air

Combustion
analyzer

Air flow
meter Dynamometer

Shaft encoder Pressure transducer

Turbocharger Exhaust gas DOC Engine

control
system
Smoke Gas
meter analyzer

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of engine setup.

Table 2 experiments, the cooling temperature was kept between 80 C 192

Properties of diesel and methanol. and 85 C while the lubricating oil temperature was kept between 193
Properties Diesel Methanol 90 C and 100 C, depending on the engine load. The intake tem- 194

Molecular formula C10C15 CH3OH

perature was controlled at 40 C (2 C) with the intercooler. 195
Molecular weight 190220 32 Experimental uncertainties shown in gures using error bars 196
Cetane number 51 <5 represent the overall uncertainty which was determined by com- 197
Lower heating value (MJ/kg) 42.5 19.7 bining the systematic uncertainty and random uncertainty using 198
Density@20 C (kg/m3) 840 790
the root-sum-square (RSS) method [22]. And a sequential pertur- 199
Viscosity@20 C (mPa s) 2.8 0.59
Heat of evaporation (kJ/kg) 260 1178 bation method was used for the uncertainty propagation of param- 200
Stoichiometric air fuel ratio 14.7 6.45 eters calculated from multiple individual variables [22]. 201
Autoignition temperature (C) 316 464 Experimental results obtained in this study were compared using 202
Carbon content (wt%) 86 37.5
the two-tailed T-test to verify if they were signicantly different 203
Hydrogen content (wt%) 14 12.5
Oxygen content (wt%) 0 50
from each other at the signicance level of 95%. 204
Sulfur content (ppm wt) <350 0
Flame temperature (C) 2054 1890
3. Results and discussion 205

3.1. Combustion characteristics 206

Table 3
Operation conditions and mass ow of diesel and methanol.
In this paper, ignition delay was dened as the crank angle 207
Operation Speed (rpm)/ Premixed Mass ow of Mass ow of interval between the start of injection (SOI) and ignition timing. 208
condition BMEP (MPa) ratio (%) diesel fuel (kg/ methanol (kg/
The ignition timing can be determined by locating the zeroing 209
h) h)
crank angle of the second derivative of pressure, immediately fol- 210
A-0.35 1000/0.35 0 5.37 0
lowing diesel injection [6]. The crank angle of 90% accumulated 211
25.00 4.31 2.35
50.00 3.34 4.17 heat release rate was dened as CA90 and combustion duration 212
75.00 2.35 7.09 was dened as the crank angle interval between ignition timing 213

A-0.62 1000/0.62 0.00 8.50 0 and CA90. 214

42.86 5.37 5.93
57.14 4.36 8.30
71.43 3.34 10.19
3.1.1. In-cylinder pressure and heat release rate 215
The averaged in-cylinder pressure and calculated heat release 216
B-0.62 2200/0.62 0 20.35 0
14.29 17.96 5.15
rate curves of operation conditions for different PRm are shown 217
42.86 13.35 16.06 in Fig. 2. It can be observed that the in-cylinder pressure and heat 218
71.43 9.46 25.17 release rate of pure diesel mode are consistent with traditional die- 219
B-0.88 2200/0.88 0 27.35 0 sel combustion, while they are much different at methanol pre- 220
20.00 22.63 9.79 mixed mode. The compression pressures are lower than that of 221
40.00 17.96 19.25 pure diesel mode and decrease with increasing methanol injection 222
quantity. Methanol has high latent heat of vaporization which is 223
4.5 times of diesel, as shown in Table 2. When methanol is injected 224
at the intake port, methanol begins to vaporize and absorbs the 225
185 this process, the diesel injection timing was maintained unchanged heat of intake gas leading to lower in-cylinder gas temperature 226
186 to investigate the effects of the single factor of PRm. At each oper- and hence lower in-cylinder pressure at compression stroke. At 227
187 ation condition, the engine was allowed to run for a few minutes intake and compression stroke, methanol and air blend with each 228
188 until the temperature of the cooling water, lubricating oil and other and form homogeneous methanol/air mixture in cylinder at 229
189 exhaust gas reached stable values. And stable combustion was methanol premixed mode. Then the premixed methanol/air mix- 230
190 maintained with coefcient of variance (COV) of indicated mean ture ignited by direct injected diesel starts to burn rapidly. Large 231
191 effective pressure (IMEP) lower than 5%. Throughout the amounts of premixed combustion results in rapidly increasing of 232

Please cite this article in press as: Wei L et al. Combustion and emission characteristics of a turbocharged diesel engine using high premixed ratio of meth-
anol and diesel fuel. Fuel (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.09.070
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4 L. Wei et al. / Fuel xxx (2014) xxxxxx

233 in-cylinder pressure and a higher premixed heat release rate, as 14

A-0.35

Maximum in-cylinder pressure (MPa)

234 shown in Fig. 2.
13 A-0.62
235 The maximum in-cylinder pressure increases with the increase B-0.62
236 of PRm at the medium engine load of 0.62 MPa, as shown in Fig. 3. 12 B-0.88
237 The same tendency is showed at the high engine speed and load
11
238 with a higher increase rate and the maximum in-cylinder pressure
239 becomes the limit of methanol increasing. In this study, the PRm 10
240 was limited at 40% and the maximum in-cylinder pressure nearly
241 reached at 14 MPa which was close to the design limit of the 9

242 engine. At the low engine speed and load, the maximum in-cylin- 8
243 der pressure is not signicantly changed at low and middle PRm,
244 but decreases at high PRm. The high latent heat of vaporization of 7
245 methanol lowers in-cylinder gas temperature and retards the com-
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
246 bustion phase excessively at the high PRm of low engine speed and
Premixed ratio of methaol (%)
247 load. These lead to the decrease of the maximum in-cylinder
248 pressure. Fig. 3. Effect of PRm on maximum in-cylinder pressure.

249 3.1.2. In-cylinder gas temperature at ignition timing and ignition delay temperature at compression stroke. The low temperature reduces 263
250 The in-cylinder gas temperature at ignition timing was calcu- the rate of low temperature oxidation of direct injected diesel. Sec- 264
251 lated and shown in Fig. 4(a). It can be found that the temperature ondly, according to the research of Xu et al. [25], the low temper- 265
252 decreases obviously with the increasing PRm. The highest decreases ature oxidation of diesel and methanol connects by the radical 266
253 were 34.9, 39.8, 65.6 and 35.4 K respectively at the maximum PRm pool. Methanol is a species converts active OH into inactive H2O2 267
254 of A-0.35, A-0.62, B-0.62 and B-0.88. The main reason is the high and the latter accumulates to a large amount under lower temper- 268
255 latent heat of vaporization of methanol reduces the intake temper- ature. For the above two reasons, the activity of the system 269
256 ature [23,24] and thus decreases the in-cylinder gas temperature at decreases and the ignition is delayed at methanol premixed mode. 270
257 compression stroke. The impact of above factors strengthens with the increase of PRm, 271
258 Fig. 4(b) shows the inuence of PRm on ignition delay. With the therefore the ignition delay increases with the PRm. Under the 272
259 increasing PRm, the ignition delay increases. At methanol premixed same engine load, the high engine speed has a longer ignition 273
260 mode diesel is injected into the premixed methanol/air mixture delay. That is because more crank angles can be covered in the 274
261 and there are two main effects on the ignition delay. Firstly, the same time at high engine speed. At the same engine speed, the 275
262 vaporization of premixed methanol lowers the in-cylinder gas

8 300 12 500
speed:1000rpm Diesel speed:1000rpm Diesel
7 BMEP:0.35MPa 25% PRm 250 BMEP:0.62MPa 42.86% PRm
10
In-cylinder pressure (MPa)

Heat Release rate (J/CA)

400
In-cylinder pressure (MPa)

50% PRm 57.14% PRm

Heat Release rate (J/CA)

6
75% PRm 200 8 71.43% PRm
5 300
150
4 6
200
3 100
4
2 50 100
2
1
0
0 0
0
-50
-20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40
Crank angle (CA) Crank angle (CA)

(a) Speed: 1000rpm, BMEP: 0.35MPa (b) Speed: 1000rpm, BMEP: 0.62MPa

400 400
Diesel speed:2200rpm 14 speed:2200rpm Diesel
12
14.29% PRm BMEP:0.62MPa BMEP:0.88MPa 20% PRm
Heat Release rate (J/CA)
Heat Release rate (J/CA)

In-cylinder pressure (MPa)

42.86% PRm 12 40% PRm 300

300
Cylinder pressure (MPa)

10 71.43% PRm
10

8 200 8 200

6
6 100
100
4
4
2 0
0

2 0
-20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40
Crank angle (CA) Crank angle (CA)
(c) Speed: 2200rpm, BMEP: 0.62MPa (d) Speed: 2200rpm, BMEP: 0.88MPa

Fig. 2. Effect of PRm on in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate.

Please cite this article in press as: Wei L et al. Combustion and emission characteristics of a turbocharged diesel engine using high premixed ratio of meth-
anol and diesel fuel. Fuel (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.09.070
 JFUE 8506 No. of Pages 8, Model 5G
7 October 2014

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In-cylinder temperature at ignition timing (K)

The gaseous emissions were measured before and after DOC for 301
A-0.35
1000
A-0.62
comparison. In Figs. 68, the solid line with solid symbol refers 302
B-0.62 to the emissions measured before the DOC and the dashed line 303

950
B-0.88 with dashed symbol refers to that after the DOC. 304

3.2.1. HC and CO emissions 305

900
In previous studies, Liu et al. [26], Cheng et al. [27] and Yao et al. 306
[28] all found an increase in HC and CO emissions with the engine 307
850 operating with premixed methanol. In this study, the remarkable 308
increase of HC and CO emissions are shown in Fig. 6. The highest 309
increases of HC were 30.1, 16.7, 55.7 and 32.8 times respectively 310
800
at the maximum PRm of A-0.35, A-0.62, B-0.62 and B-0.88 while 311
the highest increases in CO were 15.0, 22.8, 49.1 and 23.3 times. 312
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
In the study of Zhang et al. [14], the maximum increases in HC 313
Premixed ratio of methanol (%)
and CO were about 7 times and 5.5 times respectively at the speed 314
(a) In-cylinder temperature at ignition timing of 1800 rpm with 30% fumigation methanol and Euro V diesel. 315
Compared with Zhang et al., the maximum PRm in this study are 316
16
much higher than 30%, thus the HC and CO emissions are higher. 317
A-0.35
A-0.62
HC and CO emissions after the DOC are also shown in Fig. 6. The 318
14 B-0.62 light off temperature of the DOC provided by the catalyst manual is 319
B-0.88 between 240 C and 250 C. At low engine speed and load, the 320
Ignition Delay (CA)

exhaust gas temperature was low and became lower with high 321
12
PRm. Below light off temperature, the catalytic efciency was 322
low, for example, the HC and CO at 50% and 75% PRm were only 323
10 reduced by 46.570.2% and 25.047.8% respectively by the DOC. 324
The brake specic HC and CO emissions at 75% PRm were still 325
7.06 g/kW h and 20.98 g/kW h which were much higher than that 326
8
of baseline engine. Therefore, the PRm cannot be too high at low 327
engine speed and load. 328
6 Fortunately, when the exhaust temperature reached the light 329
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 off temperature, the DOC could effectively reduce the HC and CO 330
Premixed ratio of methanol (%) emissions. In this study, disregarding the PRm, over 90.9% of the 331
(b) Ignition delay HC emission and over 89.0% of the CO emission were reduced by 332
the DOC. 333
Fig. 4. Effect of PRm on in-cylinder temperature at ignition timing and ignition
delay.
3.2.2. Formaldehyde emission 334
Formaldehyde is an intermediate combustion product. Previous 335
276 in-cylinder gas temperature of high engine load is higher, so the studies [2932] showed that signicant amount of formaldehyde 336
277 ignition delay is shorter. emission might be an attribute of the methanol fuelled engines. 337
High formaldehyde emission was also observed at methanol pre- 338
278 3.1.3. Combustion duration mixed mode in this study. The formaldehyde emission increased 339
279 Traditional pure diesel combustion is mixing-controlled com- remarkably with the increasing PRm, as shown in Fig. 7. Compared 340
280 bustion and the rate of burning is controlled by the diesel vapor with pure diesel mode, the highest increases of formaldehyde were 341
281 air mixing process. However, at methanol premixed mode, large 35.0, 56.9, 147.7 and 65.5 times respectively at the maximum PRm 342
282 quantities of methanol injected from the intake port forms homo- of A-0.35, A-0.62, B-0.62 and B-0.88. Cheung et al. [33] and Zhang 343
283 geneous methanol/air mixture and burns at premixed combustion et al. [15] also found a high formaldehyde emission from a metha- 344
284 phase. This greatly reduces the diffusion combustion ratio and nol fumigated diesel engine. 345
285 shortens the combustion duration, as shown in Fig. 5. With
286 increasing PRm, premixed fuel increases and the combustion dura-
45
287 tion shortens. At the same engine load, the fuel/air mixing rate of A-0.35
288 high engine speed is fast which results in the fast combustion. So 44 A-0.62
289 the combustion duration of high engine speed is shorter than that B-0.62
Combustion duration (CA)

43 B-0.88
290 of low engine speed. At the same engine speed, the high engine
291 load has a longer combustion duration with pure diesel because 42
292 of the increased duration of diesel injection, diesel/air mixture
41
293 preparation and combustion. But at methanol premixed mode,
294 the high engine load may have a shorter combustion duration 40
295 due to the higher heat release rate. This phenomenon appears at
296 40% PRm of B-0.88 in this study, as shown in Fig. 5. 39

38
297 3.2. Gaseous emissions before and after DOC
37
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
298 A special DOC was used for after-treatment of the exhaust gas. Premixed ratio of methanol (%)
299 The DOC consists of platinum (Pt) and palladium (Pd) as internal
300 coating catalyst and the ratio of the two metals is 1:5 (Pt:Pd). Fig. 5. Combustion duration.

Please cite this article in press as: Wei L et al. Combustion and emission characteristics of a turbocharged diesel engine using high premixed ratio of meth-
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10 14
A-0.35 Solid line+symbol: before DOC Solid line+symbol: before DOC
A-0.35
Dashed line+symbol: after DOC 13 Dashed line+symbol: after DOC
A-0.62 A-0.62
8 B-0.62 12 B-0.62
B-0.88 B-0.88

NOX emission (g/kw h)

11
6
HC (g/kw h)

10

4 9

2 7

6
0
5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 0 20 40 60 80
Premixed ratio of methanol (%) Premixed ratio of methanol (%)
(a) HC (a) NOX
45 100
A-0.35 Solid line+symbol: before DOC A-0.35 Solid line+symbol: before DOC
40
A-0.62 Dashed line+symbol: after DOC A-0.62 Dashed line+symbol: after DOC
B-0.62 80
35 B-0.62

NO2 share in NOX (%)

B-0.88 B-0.88
30
60
CO (g/kw h)

25

20 40
15

10 20

5
0
0

-5 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Premixed ratio of methanol (%)
Premixed ratio of methanol (%)
(b) NO2 proportion in NOX
(b) CO
Fig. 8. Effect of PRm and DOC on NOX and NO2 proportion in NOX.
Fig. 6. Effect of PRm and DOC on HC and CO.

5
3.2.3. NOX emission 356
A-0.35 Solid line+symbol: before DOC
Dashed line+symbol: after DOC The NOX emissions from traditional diesel engines normally 357
A-0.62
4
B-0.62 consist of nitrogen monoxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and 358
B-0.88 nitrous oxide (N2O). NO is the main component and usually 359
accounts for more than 90% of the total NOX, while NO2 proportion 360
HCHO (g/kwh)

3
is less than 10%, and N2O is usually less enough to be ignored. In 361
this study, NOX represent the sum of NO and NO2. 362
2
Fig. 8(a) shows the effects of PRm and DOC on NOX emission. 363
Compared with the baseline engine, NOX emission reduces with 364
1
the increase of PRm. There were 27.3%, 14.7%, 25.7% and 7.1% 365
reductions in NOX emission respectively at the maximum PRm of 366
0 A-0.35, A-0.62, B-0.62 and B-0.88. Cheung et al. [33] also reported 367
a reduction in NOX emission at different engine speeds. Fig. 8(b) 368
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 shows the effects of PRm and DOC on NO2 proportion in NOX. It 369
%x MeOH (%) can be seen clearly from the gure that the proportions of NO2 in 370
NOX are less than 10% at pure diesel mode which is consistent with 371
Fig. 7. Effect of PRm and DOC on formaldehyde.
common sense. However, they increase obviously when the PRm 372
increases. 373
According to the extended Zeldovich mechanism, the formation 374
346 The effect of DOC on formaldehyde emission was similar to of NO is greatly inuenced by combustion temperature and oxygen 375
347 those on HC and CO emissions. At low engine speed and load, the concentration. There are several mechanisms which affect the for- 376
348 catalytic efciency was low and only 47.656.3% of formaldehyde mation and destruction of NO when methanol is injected from the 377
349 emission was reduced. However, at another three operation condi- intake port. Firstly, due to its high latent heat of vaporization, 378
350 tions the exhaust temperatures were higher and almost all formal- methanol lowers the in-cylinder gas temperature at compression 379
351 dehyde emissions were eliminated. The catalytic efciency reached stroke. On the other hand, the long ignition delay and large 380
352 more than 86.2%, 83.5% and 91.7% respectively at the operation amounts of premixed combustion reduce the locally rich region. 381
353 conditions of A-0.62, B-0.62 and B-0.88. Sakamoto et al. [32] also So the local combustion temperature is declined. Secondly, pre- 382
354 reported that over 90% of formaldehyde was reduced by the cata- mixed methanol shortens the combustion duration and hence 383
355 lyst when the temperature of the catalyst was sufciently high. shortens the duration of the in-cylinder high temperature. Thirdly, 384

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 JFUE 8506 No. of Pages 8, Model 5G
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L. Wei et al. / Fuel xxx (2014) xxxxxx 7

385 HO2 is readily formed during methanol oxidation. This happens 0.04
386 through the reactions (1) and (2) [34]. The oxidation of NO to A-0.35
A-0.62
387 NO2 proceeds almost solely through the reaction 3 [34,35]. Reac-
B-0.62
388 tions (1)(3) form a chain-propagating sequence and lots of NO 0.03 B-0.88
389 converts to NO2. Therefore, the formation of NO decreases and thus
NOX, namely, the sum of NO and NO2 which is converted from NO

Soot (g/kw h)
390
391 according to the ratio of 1:1, decreases with the increasing PRm as 0.02
392 shown in Fig. 8(a). Meanwhile the proportion of NO2 in NOX as
393 shown in Fig. 8(b) increases obviously due to the reactions (1)
394 (3) when PRm increases. The maximum proportions of NO2 in 0.01
395 NOX were 53.3%, 45.5%, 79.4% and 60.6% respectively at the maxi-
396 mum PRm of A-0.35, A-0.62, B-0.62 and B-0.88.
397
0.00
399 CH3 OH OH $ CH2 OH H2 O 1 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
400 Premixed ratio of methanol (%)
 
402 CH2 OH O2 $ CH2 O HO2 2 (a) Dry soot
403
405 NO HO2 $ NO2 OH 
3
13 A-0.35
406 Engine speed also effects on NOX emission as shown in Fig. 8(a). A-0.62
12
407 Compared with the high engine speed, low engine speed has a B-0.62
B-0.88
408 longer combustion duration and the duration of in-cylinder high 11
409 temperature is longer too. So NOX emission of low engine speed

NOX (g/kw h)
10
410 is higher than that of high engine speed. se
rea
411 After passing through the DOC, there is a slight increase of NOX 9 inc
PR m
412 emission except the pure diesel mode of the low engine speed. The %x
8
413 increase in NOX emission was also observed by Yao et al. [28] when
414 the DOC was introduced. On the other hand, as shown in Fig. 8(b), 7
415 the NO2 proportion in NOX is greatly reduced to less than that of 6
416 baseline engine by the DOC at methanol premixed mode but
417 slightly increases at pure diesel mode. In the DOC, there are com- 0.000 0.005 0.010 0.015 0.020 0.025 0.030 0.035 0.040
418 plex chemical equilibrium reactions of NO and NO2, which are Soot (g/kw h)
419 related to factors such as the exhaust gas temperature, the type (b) Relationship between NOX and dry soot
420 and amount of catalyst, and the amount of reductants [36,37].
421 Among these factors, the amount of reductants plays a very impor- Fig. 9. Effect of PRm on dry soot and relationship between NOX and dry soot.
422 tant role in the reactions of NO and NO2. Both CO and HC can indi-
423 vidually reduce NO2 to NO [37]. The reactions are as following [36]. blends. Thus it can be seen, methanol has the potential to reduce 453
424
the soot emission in diesel engine combustion. 454
426 NO2 fHCg $ NO CO H2 O 4
At methanol premixed mode, large quantities of methanol is 455
427
injected from the intake port and the quantity of diesel fuel 456
429 NO2 CO $ NO CO2 5
involved in combustion is less and thus there is less soot formed 457
430 Furthermore, the presence of HC and CO can inhibit the oxida- due to a reduction of diesel fuel burning in the diffusion ame. 458
431 tion of NO [38]. Therefore, lots of NO2 converts to NO in the DOC On the other hand, the oxygen mass fraction of methanol is much 459
432 due to the high HC and CO concentrations in the exhaust gas. Thus higher than that of pure diesel and there is no CC bond, so meth- 460
433 NO2 proportion in NOX drops obviously and is even lower than that anol is hard to produce dry soot in the combustion process. Fur- 461
434 of baseline engine at the maximum methanol PRm of the operation thermore, the longer ignition delay of methanol premixed mode 462
435 conditions. But at pure diesel mode, the emissions of HC and CO are leads to more diesel fuel vaporization and burning together with 463
436 little and hence NO is oxidized to NO2. So NO2 proportion in NOX the methanol/air mixture at the premixed combustion phase. All 464
437 increases slightly. these factors can lead to the reduction of soot formation in the 465
combustion process. 466

438 3.3. Soot emission and relationship between NOX and soot Fig. 9(b) shows the relationship between NOX and soot emis- 467
sions. Compared with the pure diesel combustion, a simultaneous 468

439 The specic dry soot emission before the DOC is shown in reduction in both NOX and soot emissions is realized with the 469

440 Fig. 9(a). At the same engine load, the high engine speed has a increase of premixed methanol. The trade-off relationship between 470

441 higher soot emission in both pure diesel mode and methanol pre- NOX and soot emissions disappears. 471

442 mixed mode. While the soot emission decreases with the engine
443 load at the both two engine speeds. In general, for all the engine 4. Conclusions 472
444 speeds and loads in this study, soot emissions are signicantly
445 reduced by premixed methanol, which is line with the results of Experiments were conducted on a 6-cylinder diesel/methanol 473
446 Zhang et al. [14] and song et al. [39]. Compared with pure diesel dual fuel engine. Combustion and emission characteristics with 474
447 mode, at the maximum PRm of A-0.35, A-0.62, B-0.62 and B-0.88, high PRm and the effects of DOC were investigated. Based on these 475
448 the soot emission reductions were 78.7%, 84.0%, 71.8% and 48.8%, experiments, the main results are summarized as follows: 476
449 respectively. Cheng et al. [27] reported that the maximum reduc-
450 tion of smoke was 49% at 30% fumigation methanol at the engine 1. With high PRm, the maximum in-cylinder pressure increased 477
451 speed of 1800 rpm and Huang et al. [3] also reported that about from medium to high engine load. But at low engine speed 478
452 80% of smoke emission could be reduced by diesel methanol and load the maximum in-cylinder pressure varied little at 479

Please cite this article in press as: Wei L et al. Combustion and emission characteristics of a turbocharged diesel engine using high premixed ratio of meth-
anol and diesel fuel. Fuel (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.09.070
 JFUE 8506 No. of Pages 8, Model 5G
7 October 2014

8 L. Wei et al. / Fuel xxx (2014) xxxxxx

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Please cite this article in press as: Wei L et al. Combustion and emission characteristics of a turbocharged diesel engine using high premixed ratio of meth-
anol and diesel fuel. Fuel (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2014.09.070