Combined Impact of Biodiesel and Exhaust Gas Recirculation on NOx Emissions in Di Diesel Engines

In Diesel engines, NOx formation is a highly temperature-dependent phenomenon and takes place when the temperature in the combustion chamber exceeds 2000K. Therefore, in order to reduce NOx emissions in the exhaust, it is necessary to keep peak combustion temperatures under control. One simple way of reducing the NOx emission of a diesel engine is by late injection of fuel into the combustion chamber. This technique is effective but increases fuel consumption by 10-15%,which necessitates the use of more effective NOx reduction techniques like exhaust gas recirculation (EGR).Re-circulating part of the exhaust gas helps in reducing NOx, but appreciable particulate emissions are observed at high loads, hence there is a trade-off between NOx and smoke emission. To get maximum benefit from this trade-off, a particulate trap may be used to reduce the amount of unbumt particulates in turn reduce the particulate emission also. An experimental investigation was conducted to observe the effect of exhaust gas re-circulation on the exhaust gas temperature. The experimental setup for the proposed experiments was developed on a two-cylinder, direct injection, air-cooled, compression ignition engine. A matrix of experiments was conducted for observing the effect of different quantities of EGR on exhaust gas temperature. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education