Performance, Combustion and Emission Characteristics of Polyoxymethylene Dimethyl Ethers (PODE _3-4 )/ Wide Distillation Fuel (WDF) Blends in Premixed Low Temperature Combustion (LTC)

Wide Distillation Fuel (WDF) refers to the fuels with a distillation range from Initial Boiling Point (IBP) of gasoline to Final Boiling Point (FBP) of diesel. Polyoxymethylene Dimethyl Ethers (PODEn) have high oxygen content and cetane number, are promising green additive to diesel fuel. In this paper, WDF was prepared by blending diesel and gasoline at ratio of 1:1, by volume; the mass distribution of oligomers in the PODE_3-4 product was 88.9% of PODE₃ and 8.46% of PODE₄. Diesel fuel (Diesel), WDF (G50D50) and WDF (80%)-PODE_3-4 (20%) (G40D40P20) were tested in a light-duty single-cylinder diesel engine, combustion characteristic, fuel consumption and exhaust emissions were measured. The results showed that: at idling condition, G40D40P20 has better combustion stability, higher heat release rate, higher thermal efficiency compared with G50D50. At medium load, G40D40P20 can be run with higher EGR to get much lower NOx emissions compared with G50D50; both G40D40P20 and G50D50 maintain very low soot emissions, while diesel has a soot bump during the EGR sweep; G40D40P20 leads to highest thermal efficiency during the EGR sweep.