Through adding nitro-based fuel additive into diesel fuel,the influences of additive on engine performance, gaseous emission, particle number concentration and exhaust smoke were studied on a test bench. Meanwhile, the functioning mechanism and combustion characteristics were studied through constant volume combustion vessel. The system is composed of high pressure common rail fuel injection system, high pressure constant volume combustion vessel, high speed camera, data synchronization and acquisition system. The maximum diesel injection pressure is 160 MPa, and it can be heated to 1000 K under the back pressure of 3 MPa. According to the research results, adding fuel additive can decrease both exhaust smoke and exhaust temperature of engine for european steady state cycle(ESC). Moreover, The fuel additive improved the engine’s power slightly and expanded the economic fuel consumption working area. The minimum fuel consumption rate was reduced from 204.6g/kWh to 202.2g/kWh, and the highest fuel saving rate was about 2%. After adding MAZ, the mass of the recycled particles can be reduced by about 15%,and the average smoke intensity of most operating points showed a downward trend, with a maximum drop of 55%, the NOx weighted emissions of the whole cycle decreased by more than 2%. After adding nitro-based fuel additive, the ignition delay and flame lift-off length became longer in the combustion process, but the duration of combustion was shorter, which are in accordance with chemical reaction kinetics analysis.

Environmental pollution and depletion of resources from the combustion of fossil fuels have necessitated the need for biofuels in recent years. Oxygenated fuels such as low carbon alcohols have received significant attention from the scientific community in the last two decades as a strategy to decarbonize the transport sector. However, a documentation of the progress, paradigm, and trend of this research area on a global scale is currently limited. In the current study, the bibliometric analysis is adopted to analyze the global transition of automotive fuels from conventional oils to low carbon alcohols in the 21st century. A dataset of 2250 publications was extracted from the Web of Science Core database and analyzed with CiteSpace, Biblioshiny, and Bibexcel. Interest in methanol and ethanol combustion research as transportation fuels is increasing, with a 70% estimated growth by the end of the next decade compared to current levels. China, India, and USA have been the major players in the research field, with Tianjin University being the most influential institution. Research has primarily centered on the combustion, performance, and emission characteristics of ethanol fuel. Alternative fuels to compete actively with low carbon fuel in the near foreseeable future are green hydrogen and biodiesel. Advanced combustion technologies and artificial intelligence are sure to increase in this research area in the coming decades.

With increasingly stringent emission and fuel consumption regulations, fuel additives have been proved to have a huge role in energy conservation and emission reduction, a new type of fuel additive based on nitroparaffin has received worldwide attention. An experimental study was conducted with the aim of developing an understanding of the fuel additive’s effect on a 1.5L naturally aspirated PFI gasoline engine’s power performance, fuel economy, emissions and cylinder cleanliness. The results show that when fueled with fuel additive, engine power increased at full load condition. The commonly used working condition’s average fuel consumption decreased by 4.5% at fuel consumption contour map. For pollutant emissions, unburned hydrocarbons (HC), smoke (filter smoke number, FSN) decreased significantly, slightly higher nitrogen oxides (NOx) compared with no fuel additive. Furthermore, the use of fuel additive has a positive effect on elimination of carbon deposit in the cylinder.