The fuels used in internal-combustion engines are complex mixtures of a multitude of different types of hydrocarbon species. Attempting numerical simulations of combustion of real fuels with all of the hydrocarbon species included is highly unrealistic. Thus, a surrogate model approach is generally adopted, which involves choosing a few representative hydrocarbon species whose overall behavior mimics the characteristics of the target fuel. The present study proposes surrogate models for the nine fuels for advanced combustion engines (FACE) that have been developed for studying low-emission, high-efficiency advanced diesel engine concepts. The surrogate compositions for the fuels are arrived at by simulating their distillation profiles to within a maximum absolute error of ∼4% using a discrete multi-component (DMC) fuel model that has been incorporated in the multi-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, KIVA-ERC-CHEMKIN. The simulated surrogate compositions cover the range and measured concentrations of the various hydrocarbon classes present in the fuels. The fidelity of the surrogate fuel models is judged on the basis of matching their specific gravity, lower heating value, hydrogen/carbon (H/C) ratio, cetane number, and cetane index with the measured data for all nine FACE fuels.

Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) strategies are most promising to simultaneously reduce oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and soot emissions from diesel engines along with offering higher thermal efficiency. Commercial wide spread implementation of diesel LTC strategies requires several challenges to be addressed, including lack of precise ignition timing control, widening the narrow operating load ranges and reducing high unburned fuel emissions. These challenges can be addressed through modifications in the engine or fuel design or both. The timing and rate of combustion in several LTC strategies are controlled primarily by the chemical kinetics of the fuel. Since, diesel fuel reactivity and volatility are tailor-made to perform well under conventional diesel combustion conditions, its application in LTC poses several problems, as highlighted in this paper. Hence, it is important to identify suitable alternative fuels for the different diesel LTC strategies. The published literature on LTC over the past 25 years is critically analyzed to discuss the evolution of the different diesel LTC strategies, their operability limits, the challenges and the controlling parameters for each strategy. This is followed by in-depth analysis of the role of the fuel and the fuel requirements for each strategy. Further, the importance of adopting a hybrid surrogate modeling approach to enable numerical simulation of diesel LTC is highlighted. A novel attempt of relating various diesel low temperature combustion (LTC) strategies based on the approach followed to achieve positive ignition dwell through different injection strategies, utilizing high exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), and dual fuels is presented. The need for replacing diesel with alternative liquid fuels in LTC strategies is presented by highlighting the fundamental problems associated with diesel fuel characteristics. The review concludes by suggesting potential alternative fuels for various diesel LTC strategies and provides directions for future work to address the challenges facing compression ignition LTC operation.

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One of the major limitations that hinder widespread application of biodiesel in automotive engines is its poor oxidative stability, which in turn depends upon methyl ester constituents of biodiesel as well the storage conditions. Hence, a relative assessment of the oxidative stability of biodiesels across the different parts of the world is rather difficult. In the present work, oxidative stability of biodiesel based on the ASTM D4625 accelerated oxidative stability test is compared with that of gradual oxidation under two different long-term storage conditions, namely, open to air and sunlight and closed to air and sunlight. Neat Karanja biodiesel and its blends with diesel at 25, 50, and 75% by volume are used for the present study. The important physicochemical properties of fuel samples are measured at regular time intervals to evaluate the rate of oxidation and the extent of fuel quality degradation. The results obtained show that neat Karanja biodiesel stored under open to air and sunlight conditions has the highest rate of oxidation and fuel quality degradation with a 32% increase in kinematic viscosity, 1.5% increase in density, and 3% decrease in calorific value. The acid value of all the tested fuel samples increased beyond ASTM and EN standard specification limits within the first 3 months of storage period. The peroxide value showed a steep increase during the first 6 months of storage period and decreased afterward. The effects of adding the TBHQ antioxidant in Karanja biodiesel at varying concentrations are also evaluated based on the measured Rancimat induction period, and it is observed that 250 ppm TBHQ is required to meet EN 41214 standard specifications for biodiesel. No correlations are found to exist between the properties of fuel samples stored under gradual and accelerated oxidation conditions. However, adopting the ASTM D4625 standard test method to evaluate the storage stability of biodiesel avoids any ambiguity owing to the variations in the storage and the ambient conditions across the different parts of the world.