Comprehensive overview on diesel additives to reduce emissions, enhance fuel properties and

improve engine performance

Introduction

There is a growing demand for energy due to the increasing population which can lead to greater air
pollution. On the other hand, it is clear that there are lmited sources of fossil-based fuels as a
sustainable energy. As a result of world industrialization, the demand for oil-based fuels (fossil fuels) has
increased dramatically. Apart from the economic matters, widespread use of fossil fuels is responsible
for a long-term environmental problem in the form of climate changes and the global warming. The
main source of energy in different forms originates from the combustion. Recently, depletion of the
fossil fuels due to their continuous use has become the first priority concern for all people in the world
whose lives depend on this source of energy for all their activities. Diesel engines have a considerable
share of transportation. At the same time, along with the large-scale use of the diesel fuels, lung
diseases and cancer invasion have been icreased dramatically such that a comprehensive study on this
issue seems necessary. Today, the fossil fuels constitute about 80% of the total needed energy with
almost 50% of it being related to the local transportation. The diesel fuel mainly contains aliphatic
hydrocarbons of C8=28 with the boiling temperatures varying from 130 to 370 C. The exhaust emissions
from the diesel engines contain various types of air pollutants such as total hydrocarbon content (THC),
oxides of nitrogen (NOx), PARTICULATE MATTER (pm) , carbon monoxide (CO). The oxides of nitrogen
and sulfur which are emitted by internal combustion engines can result in acid rains. The main source of
greenhouse gas emissions are the fossil fuels. The worldwide concern of the environmental pollutants
has triggered intensified researches for new alternative sources of energy. Widespread applications of
the fossil fuels and the environmental issues associated with their use have directed us to replace them
with reasonable price, high efficiency and renewable sources. To find a proper convincing answer to this
question how to select, distribute and use the data, one need focus on both engine technology and fuel
efficiency. However, the blended renewable bio fuels or the oxygenated fuels with the capability of
reduction of the exhaust emissions are among the most important topics in the literature. Alcoholic
fuels are of potential capability for being used as oxygenated fuel additives with fossil-based fuels (such
as gasoline to improve the octane number and to reduce the air pollutant emissions, as well as diesel
fuels to control the soot emissions) for the diesel engines. They can be an alternative source of
environment friendly fuels to reduce the exhaust gas emissions using the renewable energy in different
countries of the world. Previous researches and studies were just focused on addition of vegetable oil,
cooking oil, bio diesel, methanol and ehanol to the oil-based fuels. The vegetable oil, cooking oil and
biodiesel were all useable in the diesel engines, while the methanol and ethanol could be used in most
of the oil-based engines and have the potential to be used in most of the fossil fuels. Butanol can also be
added to the diesel fuel with no need to incorporate other additives, due to high cetane number and
great molecular weight of the n-butanol. Moreover, in case of blending with diesel fuel at any
temperature, a two-phase composition does not form. Pirouzfar et. Al. studied the studied the influence
of various tertiary additives (nitro methane, nitro ethane and 2-methoxy ethyl ether) blended with the
ethanol-diesel on the exhaust emissions (CO, CO2, HC and NOx). The results were obtained from the
blended fuels through the free acceleration test. They showed that the nitro ethane has a negative
effect on all of the air pollutants as compared to the other additives. However, they reported that
increasing of the ethanol to the diesel-ethanol blend causes poorer chemical-physical properties of the
fuel. This paper reviews the latest tests on the additives which are present in the diesel fuel. The effect
of additives is compared in two aspects: reduction of the emissions and improvement of the fuel
efficiency. Moreover, the effect of adding different alcohols and various nitrogenated fuels will be
investigated on the fuel chemical-physical properties which include direct and indirect effects on the
particles dispersed from the exhaust emissions. The current study concentrates on the fuel properties
(cetane number and viscosity), exhaust emissions ( CO,CO2,HC,NOx AND soot) and engine performance
(brake specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency) in various speeds and engine loads. The
oxygenated fuel in advantageous in terms of the BSFC, but has a negative impact on the thermal
efficiency. However, the oxygenated fuel are also effective on all the fuel properties (density, viscosity,
flash point and cetane number). The engine load and engine speed have no effect on the fuel properties.
For emproving the engine performance, one can add the nano-metal additives to the diesel fuel. Due to
a lower thermal conductivity coefficient of the nano-metal additives as compared to that of the fuel
blend, a nano-metal with a low thermal conductivity coefficient such as silica, alumina, manganese and
cerium must be used. This review study, tried to demonstrate the effect of different additives on the
engine performance, fuel chemical-physical properties and the exhaust emissions. The other purpose of
this research is to review the effect of adding various additives on the diesel fuel at the same time.

2.Fundaments of using alcohol

Alcohol contains hydroxyl groups which are attached to a carbon atom. Chemical and physical
properties of a neat diesel fuel and alcohol are listed in Table 1.

2.1.Methanol

Methanol is more oxygenated in comparison with butanol and ethanol, due to its higher ratio of oxygen
to carbon and also oxygen to hydrogen. Methanol is produced from fossil fuels (by syn-gas process) and
biomass. Gas fuel including hydrogen, CO and a little CO2, are used to produce ammonia or methanol. A
great deal of research work is done recently to produce methanol by reacting CO2, and hydrogen retrial,
which is not affordable. Because of the significant heat of vaporization, temperature of the incoming air
may decrease, so it can be said that the incoming air improves the efficiency of the internal combustion
engines. Taking into account the significant latent heat of vaporization, increasing of the oxygen content
of the fuel containing methanol increases the amount of NOx ( in some temperature conditions,
especially at temperatures than needed for combination of nitrogen and oxygen).

2.2.Ethanol

Ethanol is a fuel that is produced from biological materials and is known as a renewable fuel. Ethanol
can be produced in carious ways such as distillation fermentation of natural materials or sugar beet. Due
to its high octane number, ethanol can be added to gasoline in order to increase its octane number.
Therefore, some studies have been carried out for the application of ethanol as a fuel in the spark
ignition engines or even as an additive in the diesel fuels. Different methods have been developed so far
for adding the ethanl to the diesel fuel, for example: ethanol suspension (making an emulsifying
dilution), spraying of the ethanol to the diesel fuels, and bilateral injections . The advantage of ethanol
in comparison with the case where just the pure diesel fuel is used, ethanol can add to the heat of the
combustion chamber and crease the output heat from it. The combination of various alcohols including
ethanol and diesel fuel, leads to make a clean fuel. In the past there was not a stable and single-phase
diesel-ethanol fuel by direct injection of the ethanol .However, this problem was solved to some extent
by adding ethyl ester, octyl nitrate, methyl esters, nitro methane, nitri ethane and 2-methoxy ethyl
ether as other additives or stabilizers.

2.3.Butanol

Butanol is a four-carbon alcohol. This alcohol can also be blended as an additive with the diesel fuel. The
main advantage of butanol over the other alcohols is that butanol has higher cetane number. The
corrosion caused by the additives in the butanol is lower than the one in the other alcohols (i.e. ethanol
and methanol), because the ratios of oxygen to carbon and also oxygen to hydrogen are rather small in
butan with a greater heat capacity as compared to that of the ethanol and methanol .The properties of
butanol are close to those of the base fossil fuel to some extent :its ignition temperature is lower than
that of ethanol and, methanol. Additionally, butanol can burn much simply when blended with the
diesel fuel. Butanol has a lower latent heat of vaporization as compared to those of ethanol and
methanol, while the percentage of wasted energy in butanol is lower than that of the other alcohols.
Moreover, butanol can be added to the diesel fuel through fermentation of the biomass particularly
disposable residues of trees which are rich of cellulose.

3.Tertiary and nano-metal additives