Refine Your Search

Search Results

Technical Paper

Dimethyl Ether as an Ignition Enhancer for Methanol-Fueled Diesel Engines

1991-10-01
912420
Methanol-fueled diesels may be an attractive means of meeting future, more restrictive diesel particulate standards since methanol combustion forms very little soot. Unfortunately, methanol's autoignition temperature is high, and some means of improving its ignition is required. Therefore, we have investigated the use of dimethyl ether (DME), aspirated with the combustion air, to enhance the ignition of the injected methanol. A small, on-board catalytic reactor could be used to generate DME from the methanol fuel. This system requires minimal modifications to the engine design, and does not require use of an additive or fuel other than methanol. In this study, we measured maximum cylinder pressure and rate of pressure rise, ignition delay, emissions, and relative efficiencies for a single-cylinder, direct injection, high-speed diesel engine operated on both diesel fuel and methanol-DME.
X