An investigation into the relationship between the formation of thermal cracked components and PM reduction during diesel combustion using water emulsified fuel

Abstract

Water-in-diesel emulsion fuel (W/O) operated in diesel engines, shows a significant reduction of particulate matter (PM). In this paper, PM reduction characteristics by thermal decomposition of W/O10 and W/O20 (10vol.% and 20vol.% of water in W/O respectively) are identified in diesel combustion atmosphere using a plug flow reactor with a co-flow diffusion burner. To analyze initial thermal decomposition at diesel diffusion combustion, the W/O fuels are thermally decomposed in the plug flow reactor first, then the thermally decomposed W/O fuels are introduced into a co-flow diffusion burner as fuel and PM are generated. In high temperature atmosphere without oxygen in the reactor, W/O10 and W/O20 are thermally decomposed and both of them almost produce light hydrocarbons (LHCs) higher than a diesel fuel, which means thermal decomposition before combustion are encouraged by the W/O. Excitation-emission matrix (EEM) method shows that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are produced by both W/O fuels and diesel fuel during the thermal decomposition period but some W/O fuels oxidize a huge amount of PAHs in the later diffusion combustion. CO, CO2 measurements after the combustion of the thermal decomposed substances in the diffusion burner via high temperature reactor reveal that diffusion combustion of W/O fuels contribute to Soluble Organic Fraction (SOF) and Solid reduction which leads to reduction of CO and increase of CO2 respectively.