Study of Simple Detection of Gasoline Fuel Contaminants Contributing to Increase Particulate Matter Emissions

Abstract

The reduction of particulate emissions is one of the most important challenges facing the development of future gasoline engines. Several studies have demonstrated the impact of fuel chemical composition on the emissions of particulate matter, more particularly, the detrimental effect of high boiling point components such as heavy aromatics. Fuel contamination is likely to become a critical issue as new regulations such as Real Driving Emissions RDE involves the use of market fuel. The objective of this study is to investigate several experimental approaches to detect the presence of Diesel contamination in Gasoline which is likely to alter pollutant emissions.To achieve this, a fuel matrix composed of 12 fuels was built presenting diesel fuel in varying concentrations from 0.1 to 2% v/v. The fuel matrix was characterized using several original techniques developed in this study. These are Near Infrared spectroscopy (NIR) associated to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Square (PLS) modelling, filtration. Their capacity to identify diesel fuel was compared to standard methods, such as, distillation, washed and unwashed gums, high boiling components by gas chromatography (EN16270 and VDA265). Furthermore, vehicle tests were conducted to evaluate the impact of Diesel contamination on tailpipe particle emissions on Worldwide harmonised Light vehicle Test Procedure WLTP. Vehicle test results suggest a significant impact of Diesel contamination on Particle emissions. A good detection of Diesel fuel (down to 0.5% v/v) is accomplished using filtration, NIR and high boiling components. Filtration and NIR have the added benefit of availability, ease of use and small test duration. This work highlights the critical impact of Diesel fuel contamination on pollutant emissions from future Gasoline engines. It proposes a novel practical approach of measuring Diesel contamination in market gasoline fuels.