Influence of Adding Low Concentration of Oxygenates in Mineral Diesel Oil and Biodiesel on the Concentration of NO, NO2 and Particulate Matter in the Exhaust Gas of a One-Cylinder Diesel Generator

Air quality currently poses a major risk to human health worldwide. Transportation is one of the principal contributors to air pollution due to the quality of exhaust gases. For example, the widely used diesel fuel is a significant source of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM). To reduce the content NOx and PM, different oxygenated compounds were mixed into a mineral diesel available at the pump, and their effect on the composition of exhaust gas emissions was measured using a one-cylinder diesel generator. In this setup, adding methanol gave the best relative results. The addition of 2000 ppm of methanol decreased the content of NO by 56%, 2000 ppm of isopropanol decreased NO2 by 50%, and 2000 ppm ethanol decreased PM by 63%. An interesting question is whether it is possible to reduce the impact of hazardous components in the exhaust gas even more by adding oxygenates to biodiesels. In this article, alcohol is added to biodiesel in order to establish the impact on PM and NOx concentrations in the exhaust gases. Adding methanol, ethanol, and isopropanol at concentrations of 2000 ppm and 4000 ppm did not improve NOx emissions. The best results were using pure RME for a low NO content, pure diesel for a low NO2 content, and for PM there were no statistically significant differences.

Automated summary

Air pollution caused by transportation contributes to the major risk of air quality to human health worldwide. Adding oxygenated compounds into diesel fuel can effectively reduce the content of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter in exhaust gases. Methanol shows the best performance in reducing NO content by 56%, isopropanol reduces NO2 by 50%, and ethanol decreases PM by 63%. However, adding alcohols to biodiesel did not improve NOx emissions.