Experimental study on particulate emissions of a methanol fumigated diesel engine equipped with diesel oxidation catalyst

In this article, the effects of fumigation methanol, diesel oxidation catalyst, and engine operation parameters (engine load and engine speed) on diesel smoke opacity, particulate mass concentration, particulate number concentration and the soluble organic fraction (SOF) in the particulate were investigated at certain selected operation conditions. Experiments were performed on a 4-cylinder direct injection diesel engine operating at three engine speeds and three loads for each engine speed. For each engine speed, there was a decrease of smoke opacity with increase in the level of fumigation methanol. The reduction was particularly obvious at the high engine load but was not significant at the low and medium engine loads. For all test conditions, fumigation methanol could effectively reduce the particulate mass and number concentrations. However, fumigation methanol increased the fraction of SOF in the particles. The DOC could further reduce the particulate mass and number concentrations as well as the fraction of SOF in the particles when the exhaust gas temperature was sufficiently high.