Influence of ethanol/diesel fuel and propanol/diesel fuel blends over exhaust and noise emissions

Abstract

Nowadays, alternative fuels to fossil-based ones are emerging, one of them consisting in the use of oxygenated fuels, i.e. short-chain alcohols. Their main advantage is that alcohols may be produced by renewable processes. In the present work, diesel engine exhaust and acoustic emissions using different short-chain alcohols (ethanol and 1-propanol)/diesel fuel blends have been analyzed. For this purpose, nine engine steady-state operating conditions at moderate loads, covering the most used quarter of the engine map, have been selected. The effect of the increase of alcohol in the blend provided a reduction of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and soot emissions, while soluble organic fraction (SOF), total hydrocarbons (THC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions increased. Moreover, a rise of noise was observed with the increase of the amount of alcohol in the blend. It may be concluded, from this field trial, that at similar concentration of alcohol blended with diesel fuel (10% v/v), propanol showed better behavior in terms of global exhaust and noise emissions than ethanol.