Comprehensive Review of the Impact of 2,5-Dimethylfuran and 2-Methylfuran on Soot Emissions: Experiments in Diesel Engines and at Laboratory-Scale

Abstract

2,5-Dimethylfuran (2,5-DMF) and 2-methylfuran (2-MF) are furan derivatives that are shown to be able to reduce soot emissions from diesel engines. However, their capacity to form soot is high due to their cyclic structures. Therefore, the question arises that if the tendency to form soot of these oxygenated compounds is high, how do they have the ability to reduce soot emissions when added to diesel fuel. The operating conditions, as well as their physicochemical and combustion characteristics, can contribute significantly in such reduction. Moreover, the reactivity and physicochemical properties of the soot originated in the combustion chamber can also be important. However, this factor is hardly taking into account when an explanation is given for the reduction of soot emissions when furan derivatives are used. With the aim of analyzing the main factors that control the reduction of soot emissions from diesel engines when diesel/furan derivatives blends are used, the present review paper compiles and analyzes the studies that address: (1) the reduction of soot emissions when diesel/2,5-DMF and diesel/2-MF blends are used in diesel engines; (2) the formation of soot precursors and soot from the conversion of 2,5-DMF and 2-MF at laboratory-scale; and (3) the reactivity and characteristics of soot formed from the conversion of blends of a base fuel with 2,5-DMF or 2-MF and in the conversion of pure 2,5-DMF and 2-MF. This compilation will help focus future research works that may help understand the phenomena through which soot emissions are reduced when diesel fuel is blended with 2,5-DMF or 2-MF.

Laminar Flame Characteristics of 2,5-Dimethylfuran (DMF) Biofuel: A Comparative Review with Ethanol and Gasoline

“…Most notably, DMF is considered as a potential furan derivative to improve combustion characteristics and reduce negative emissions from SI engines (Balasubramanian et al, 2021) (Engel et al, 2021) compared to ethanol and gasoline (Ya et al, 2020) (Tran et al, 2021). In addition, the advantages of stratified flame characteristics may open up potential applications of furan-based fuels for efficient applications in CI engines (Sandro and Viet, 2020) (Alexandrino, 2020) (Ölçer and Nižetić, 2021). In short, a bright prospect to wake up the DMF giant is entirely possible in the coming decades.…”

Development and validation of a reduced MF/biodiesel mechanism for diesel engine application

“…MF can be produced from non-edible biomass [4][5][6] and the potential of MF as surrogate fuel on engine has been proved [7,8]. As shown in Table 1 [9][10][11], the boiling point of MF is similar with gasoline, and its high octane number makes it suitable as a substitute for gasoline. In addition, MF has several advantages over smaller alcohols.…”

“…Table 1 Properties of diesel, biodiesel, ethanol, gasoline and MF [9][10][11] The applicability of MF fuel as gasoline surrogate fuel or diesel additives in internal combustion engines has been experimentally evaluated in many studies. Wang et al [7] investigated the performance of a direct-injection spark-ignition (DISI) engine fueled with MF, ethanol, gasoline and 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF).…”

Construction and validation of a reduced mechanism in a diesel engine fueled with 2-methylfuran-diesel

“…However, under 3.5 bar IMEP, MF emitted 82%, 281% and 40% more NOx than gasoline, ethanol and 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF), respectively. Katiuska [7] described the characteristics of soot formation during combustion of diesel blended with MF or DMF and found that the reduction of soot emission from the diesel engine was due to different factors when using a diesel / furan derivative mixture, such as operating conditions, and combustion characteristics and physiochemical properties of the fuel. Xiao et al [8] showed that when the pre-injection ratio was 20%, HC and CO emissions were greatly reduced, but NOx emissions increased after MF was added into the pre-injection fuel.…”