EMISSIONS OF SUBMICRON PARTICLES FROM A DIRECT INJECTION DIESEL ENGINE BY USING BIODIESEL

ABSTRACT

Small airborne particles less than 1 µm in diameter have a high probability to deposit deeply in the respiratory tract and cause respiratory diseases such as lung cancer. In this study, emission characteristics of submicron particles from a direct injection diesel engine using biodiesel (provided by the American Soybean Association) and petroleum-diesel fuels were measured under different operation conditions. The results show that the emitted particle sizes for both fuels are about the same. But when fueled with biodiesel, the diesel engine can substantially reduce 24–42% emission of the total number concentration, and 40–49% of the total mass concentration of submicron particles, which indicates that the emission of submicron particles can be effectively approved.

Keywords:

• Biodiesel fuel
• Submicron particles
• Diesel engine

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the National Science Council, R.O.C., under the grant NSC 89-2313-B-161-001 (Y. C. Chen as principal investigator). The computing resource was provided by the National Center for High-Performance Computing.