Effects of Ambient Oxygen Concentration on Soot Temperature and Concentration for Biodiesel and Diesel Spray Combustion
Publication: Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 141, Issue 2
Abstract
Ambient oxygen concentration, a key variable directly related to exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) levels in diesel engines, plays a significant role in particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides () emissions. The utilization of biodiesel in diesel engines has been investigated over the last decades for its renewable characteristics and lower emissions compared to diesel. In an earlier work, we demonstrated that the soot temperature and concentration of biodiesel were lower than diesel under regular diesel engine conditions without EGR. Soot concentration was quantified by a parameter called KL factor. As a continuous effort, this paper presents an experimental investigation of the ambient oxygen concentration on soot temperature and KL factor during biodiesel and diesel spray combustion. The experiment was implemented in a constant volume chamber system, where the ambient oxygen concentration varied from 21 to 10% and the ambient temperature was kept to 1,000 K. A high speed two-color pyrometry technique was used to measure transient soot temperature and the KL factor of the spray flame. The soot temperature of biodiesel is found to be lower than that of diesel under the same conditions, which follows the same trend from our previous results found when the ambient temperature changes to 21% oxygen conditions. A reduction in ambient oxygen concentration generally reduces the soot temperature for both fuels. However, this is a complicated effect on soot processes as the change of oxygen concentration greatly affects the balance between soot formation and oxidation. The KL factor is observed to be the highest at 12% for diesel and 18% for biodiesel, respectively. On the other hand, the 10% condition shows the lowest KL factor for both fuels. These results can provide quantitative experimental evidences to optimize the ambient oxygen concentration for diesel engines using different fuels for better emissions characteristics.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported in part by the Faculty Research and Professional Development (FRPD) Fund from the North Carolina State University and by the Natural Science Foundation under Grant No. CBET-0854174. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.
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Published In
Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 141 • Issue 2 • June 2015
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 3, 2014
Accepted: May 23, 2014
Published online: Jul 8, 2014
Discussion open until: Dec 8, 2014
Published in print: Jun 1, 2015
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