Bio-fuel plays an important role in addressing the issue
of CO2 and pollutant emission during cocombustion with
fossil fuels.
In this work, the effects of nitrogenous bio-fuel on soot and NO
x
formation during gasoline combustion were
numerically investigated. Three bio-fuels, modeled by mixtures of
pyridine, ethyl acetate, and ethanol with different volume fractions
of pyridine and named SIM1 (0%), SIM2 (0.5%), and SIM3 (1%), were
adopted to investigate the formation of soot and NO
x
when coburning with gasoline. Two mechanisms, i.e., the Glarborg
mechanism and the Okafor mechanism, were employed to study the difference
in soot and NO
x
formation. Results showed
that pyridine exhibited different effects on soot formation in different
regions. Based on the Okafor mechanism, soot formation was suppressed
at the height of z = 3–4 cm, while it was
promoted at the height of z = 4.5–5.5 cm.
However, a reverse trend was predicted by the Glarborg mechanism.
Moreover, the peak soot volume fraction (SVF) calculated by the Okafor
mechanism was obviously higher than that calculated by the Glarborg
mechanism; the major reason for the inconsistency of SVF in the two
mechanisms was that more C6H5CH3 reacted
with OH radicals to form C6H5CH2 in
the Glarborg mechanism, resulting in less C6H5CH3 forming benzene (A1). Along with the increase of the
pyridine proportion in the bio-fuel, the concentrations of NO increased
by 92.1 and 91.4% in both mechanisms, attributed to the pyrolysis
of pyridine into HCN, which promoted the formation of NO precursors
(N, NH, NCO, and HNO) and thus NO. The difference in NO formation
between the two mechanisms was because the reaction rate of NO converted
from NO precursors in the Glarborg mechanism was higher than that
in the Okafor mechanism. The NO2 was converted from NO
via the reaction of NO + HO2 = NO2 + OH, and
it distributed in the region with a lower NO concentration.