Study of Soot Formation of Oxygenated Diesel Fuels Using Forward Illumination Light Extinction (FILE) Technique

Oxygenated diesel fuels were tested inside a constant-volume chamber to explore the potential of soot reduction by adding oxygenate into diesel fuel. DBM and TPME were two oxygenates examined with the newly developed forward illumination light extinction (FILE) soot measurement technique. The quantitative soot measurement capability makes the study of detail soot formation process of oxygenated fuels possible. The two oxygenated fuels and base fuel were studied at baseline ambient environment with 1000K ambient temperature and 21% oxygen.

It is found that oxygenated fuels have different soot reduction performance at different periods of combustion and TPME shows more benefits at premixed combustion while DBM at mixing controlled combustion. It is demonstrated that not only the oxygen carried by oxygenates, but also oxygen entrained from ambient benefits soot reduction.