The Effect of Fuel Aromatic Structure and Content on Direct Injection Diesel Engine Particulates

A single cylinder, Cummins NH, direct-injection, diesel engine has been operated in order to evaluate the effects of aromatic content and aromatic structure on diesel engine particulates. Results from three fuels are shown. The first fuel, a low sulfur Chevron diesel fuel was used as a base fuel for comparison. The other fuels consisted of the base fuel and 10% by volume of 1-2-3-4 tetrahydronaphthalene (tetralin) a single-ring aromatic and naphthalene, a double-ring aromatic. The fuels were chosen to vary aromatic content and structure while minimizing differences in boiling points and cetane number. Measurements included exhaust particulates using a mini-dilution tunnel, exhaust emissions including THC, CO₂, NO/NOx, O₂, injection timing, two-color radiation, soluble organic fraction, and cylinder pressure. Particulate measurements were found to be sensitive to temperature and flow conditions in the mini-dilution tunnel and exhaust system. Repeatable results were only obtained after a set procedure for warm-up and run time were followed which consisted of approximately 1 hour to reach steady state and 25 minutes of sampling. At an engine condition where premix burn fraction was the same for each fuel, particulate measurements showed an increase of 9% for the tetralin doped fuel in comparison to the baseline and naphthalene fuels that were the same.