Study on physicochemical properties of biodiesel and Fischer–Tropsch diesel exhaust particle

ABSTRACT

In this study, the physicochemical properties of exhaust particulate matter (PM) from the combustion of biodiesel, Fischer–Tropsch (F-T) diesel, and diesel are studied. The experiment was carried out on the four-stroke air-cooled single-cylinder diesel engine under the same engine operating conditions. The microstructure, particle size, box-counting dimension, element, and oxidation characteristics of the particles were studied. The results show that, compared with diesel particles, the average particle size of biodiesel particles is reduced by 10.8%, and the average particle size of F-T diesel particles is reduced by 27%. Biodiesel particles are closely arranged, followed by diesel particles, and F-T diesel particles are loose. Compared with diesel particles, the relative content of O element in biodiesel particles is high, and the relative content of O element in F-T diesel particles is low. The content of soluble organic fraction (SOF) in biodiesel, diesel, and F-T diesel particles was 23.4%, 17.6%, and 12.7%, respectively. In addition, compared with diesel particles, the activation energy of biodiesel particles is the lowest, while the activation energy of F-T diesel particles is the highest, it means that oxidation of biodiesel particles is more actively.

KEYWORDS:

• Diesel engine
• biodiesel
• Fischer–Tropsch diesel
• PM
• microscopic characterization
• oxidation reactivity

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural science research projects in Jiangsu higher education institutions [18KJB470006]; National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [51776089]; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Project [2019M651732]; The Open Research Subject of Key Laboratory of Automobile Measurement and Control and Safety [QCCK2019-004].