Performance and emission characteristics of a DI diesel engine operated with diesel/DEE blended fuel

Abstract

Diethyl ether (DEE) has long been known as a promising renewable fuel to be used in diesel engines due to its exceptional cetane number, reasonable energy density, high oxygen content, low auto-ignition temperature and high volatility. In this study, an experimental investigation was carried out to evaluate the effects of blending DEE with diesel on the performance, gas and particle emissions and combustion characteristics of a diesel engine. The blending percentages of DEE in the DEE/diesel blended fuel were set to 10, 25 and 50% by mass. Experimental results showed that highly stable engine operation was possible for blended fuels, and the fuel conversion efficiency was comparable to that of pure diesel. The combustion of DEE blended fuels produced less hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions than diesel combustion over the entire engine load range. Particulate matter (PM) also decreased for blended fuels due to the high oxygen content of DEE. However, nitrogen oxides (NOx) from the blended fuels were higher than that of diesel over the entire engine load range of indicated mean effective pressures (IMEP) 0.2–0.8 MPa due to the shorter ignition delay and high oxygen content.