Effect of dispersed water droplet diameter in light oil-water emulsion fuel on diesel engine operating performance

Abstract

In recent years, NOx and soot contained in the exhaust gas of diesel engines become problems. Currently they are elutriated by exhaust gas aftertreatment devices, which make the engine system more complicated. Therefore, we focused on emulsion fuel, which is known as one of the simultaneous reduction technology of NOx and soot. Although emulsion fuels are generally characterized by its water content, some literatures report that the effect on the diesel engine performance could not be controlled by the water content properly. Therefore, we focused on dispersed water droplet diameter as the other factor. In this study, we prepared emulsion fuels of different water droplet diameters and investigated the exhaust gas and power performance of a diesel engine with these fuels. The emulsion fuels consist of light oil, water and surfactant. We added 2.0 vol% of surfactant whose HLB value was adjusted to 6.0 to light oil. The water content was 10 and 15 vol%. We prepared emulsion fuels of three different mean dispersed water droplet diameters. The test fuel was 6 types of emulsion fuel (3 kinds of dispersed water droplet diameter, water content 10 and 15 vol%) and light oil. The diesel engine used in our experiment was of air-cooled, single-cylinder, jerk pump driven direct injection type. The displacement is 320 cc. We measured in-cylinder pressure, ignition delay, exhaust gas emission (NOx, Soot and CO) and power performance (Output power and Thermal efficiency). We found a relationship between the Sauter Mean Diameter of dispersed water droplets (D S.M.D. ) and each parameter. The smaller D S.M.D. is, the more the NOx and soot are reduced. On the other hand, the bigger D S.M.D. is, the higher the output and thermal efficiency are.