A Study on Performance and Simultaneous Reduction of Smoke and NOx Emission by an DMM Addition and Application of EGR Method in a Diesel Engine

Dimethoxy methane(CH3-O-CH2-O-CH3), also known as methylal or DMM, is an oxygenated additive that contains 42.5% oxygen by weight and is soluble in diesel fuel. It is a colorless liquid and a gas-to-liquid chemical that has been evaluated for use as a diesel fuel component. Experiments were conducted by using the five blends with different volumetric percentage of DMM(2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, and 12.5%) in baseline diesel fuel. The test engine was single cylinder, four stroke, DI diesel engine unmodified. Also, data was collected for steady state operation at 24 engine speed-load conditions. The focus of this study was to investigate the effects of the addition of oxygenated fuel to diesel fuel on the engine-out emissions and the performance. Smoke emissions of all DMM blends were reduced substantially in comparison with conventional diesel fuel. These results indicate that DMM may be an effective blendstock for diesel fuel as an environment-friendly alternative fuel. Besides, this study showed that simultaneous reduction of smoke and NOx emissions could be achieved by oxygenated fuel and EGR method that was applied to decrease NOx emissions increasing with smoke emissions reduction.