Sustainable future fuels are likely to be produced by a wide range of processes, and there exists the opportunity to engineer these fuels so that they burn more efficiently and produce fewer harmful emissions. Such potential is especially important within the context of reducing the emissions of both greenhouse gases (GHG) and toxic pollutants that adversely impact air quality and human health. To illustrate how fuel design on a molecular level may be exploited to reduce these emissions, the combustion and emission properties of three potential future fuels, geraniol, diethyl carbonate, and a biodiesel (soy methyl ester), were evaluated along with a fossil diesel. The fuels were assessed using “smoke point” tests and a Stirling engine. The purpose of the demonstration was to highlight to a general audience several burning characteristics of some possible future fuels, and thus the potential for the development of clean burning “designer” fuels. During the 15 min demonstration, significant differences in the combustion properties of the different fuels were shown. For example, the conventional fossil diesel fuel produced a significant amount of soot in flame tests, whereas diethyl carbonate, which is a potential second-generation biofuel, produced visibly lower amounts of soot.
A significant amount of harmful emissions pass unreacted through catalytic after-treatment devices for IC engines before the light-off temperature is reached, despite the high conversion efficiency of these systems in fully warm conditions. Further tightening of fleet targets and worldwide emission regulations will make a faster catalyst light-off to meet legislated standards hence reduce the impact of road transport on air quality even more critical. This work investigates the effect of adding hydrogen (H2) at levels up to 2500 ppm into the exhaust gases produced by combustion of various oxygenated C2-, C4-and renewable fuel molecules blended at 20 % wt/wt with gasoline on the light-off performance of a commercially available three-way catalyst (TWC) (0.61 L, Pd/Rh/Pt-19/5/1, 15g). The study was conducted on a modified naturally aspirated, 1.4 L, four-cylinder, direct-injected, spark-ignition engine. The experiments were performed at the steady-state condition of 1600 r/min and BMEP of 3.6 bar, derived from a time-based load distribution of a WLTC cycle simulation, with levels of gaseous pollutants, particulate matter and hydrogen measured both upstream and downstream of the TWC. Low-level H2 addition reduced the TWC light-off temperature of CO, THC and NOx, and decreased the time to reach steady particulate number/ mass levels post-TWC. The presence of C2-(ethanol, acetaldehyde, diethyl ether) and C4-(1-butanol, butyraldehyde, 2-butanone, methyl tert-butyl ether) molecules displayed minimal impact on the conversion efficiencies relative to operating the engine with pure reference gasoline. Linalool and γ-valerolactone blends displayed a slight increase in light-off temperature and produced elevated levels of particulates pre and post catalyst, while 2-methylfuran and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran blends emitted lower levels of particulates. Hydrogen levels post-converter were found to reach almost full conversion after H2 light-off, independent of the amount added, however after CO light-off the conversion of the additional H2 was reduced significantly.
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