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The regulations on diesel engine emissions are growing worldwide. The use of cetane improvement additives in diesel fuels is a cost-effective option to reduce engine emissions and enhance engine operations. Cetane response, which may be defined as the relationship between the change in cetane number of the fuel and the concentration of the cetane improver, is a key factor for commercial acceptance of a cetane improver. A study of the cetane response of di-t-butyl peroxide in a variety of commercial U.S. No. 2 diesel fuels and in various diesel fuel blend stocks was performed. The performance of the peroxide has been directly compared to that of the traditional cetane improvement additive, 2-ethyl hexyl nitrate in these fuels. On an average, di-t-butyl peroxide was found to be 85% to 90% as effective as the nitrate. A correlation between the cetane response of both the cetane improvers with the different fuel properties is discussed.

The implementation of stringent diesel engine emissions regulations is growing worldwide. The use of high cetane diesel fuels is a cost-effective option that can be used to reduce engine emissions. A direct comparison of heavy-duty diesel engine emissions for three different low sulfur diesel fuels treated with di-t-butyl peroxide and 2-ethylhexyl nitrate, at the same cetane level, were evaluated. Both the peroxide and the nitrate cetane improvement additive significantly reduced all regulated and unregulated emissions including the oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emission. Di-t-butyl peroxide shows a small advantage over ethylhexyl nitrate in reducing NOx in all the three fuels. Compatibility of the peroxide and the nitrate additives, when mixed in a fuel blend, has been demonstrated by cetane response and engine emissions for the fuel blend.