Performance and pollutant characteristics of an old generation diesel engine fuelled with dual-fuel diesel-dimethyl ether

Abstract

An old generation diesel engine running on dual-fuel dimethyl ether (DME) and diesel was tested for pollution reduction and performance enhancement. DME was pre-mixed with intake air using a single-port gaseous fuel injection system to replace 5% (DME5) and 10% (DME10) diesel. Study results show that the fuel economy improves when the engine operates with dual fuel. The brake-specific energy consumption reduces by 2.5% and 3.0% at full load condition and 4.5% and 5.1% at a medium speed of 1600 rpm on average for DME5 and DME10 compared to pure diesel case. The in-cylinder pressure, temperature, and vibration rate were evaluated to determine DME's effect on engine combustion. The impact of DME was noticeable as exhaust pollutants enhanced remarkably for NO_x and smoke components. When the engine was fueled with DME5 and DME10, the specific particulate matter fell dramatically by 32.90% and 50.23%, NO_x declined moderately by 8.66% and 20.39%.

KEYWORDS:

• Dimethyl ether
• dual-fuel
• old generation diesel engine
• alternative energy
• emission reduction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).