Oxygenated Diesel: Emissions and Performance Characteristics of Ethanol-Diesel Blends in CI Engines

Diesel engines are major contributors of various types of air polluting exhaust gasses such as Particulate Matter (PM), Carbon monoxide (CO), Oxides of Nitrogen (NO_x ), Sulfur, and other harmful compounds. It has been shown that formation of these air pollutants can be significantly reduced by blending oxygenates into the base diesel. Ethanol blended diesel (e-diesel) is a cleaner burning alternative to regular diesel for both heavy-duty (HD) and light-duty (LD) compression ignition (CI) engines used in buses, trucks, off-road equipment, and passenger cars. Although ethanol has been used as a fuel oxygenate to reduce tail-pipe emissions in gasoline, its use in diesel has not been possible due to technical limitations (i.e., blending). Commercially viable E-Diesel is now possible due to the development of an additive system, Puranol, invented by Pure Energy Corporation (PEC). Puranol allows the splash blending of ethanol in diesel in a clear solution possible for the first time. Laboratory and field tests have demonstrated over 41% reduction in PM, 27% reduction in CO, and 5% reduction in NOx from a HD diesel engine. Significantly higher emissions reductions are observed from smaller 1.9-L VW TDI engines.