Investigations of Emission Reduction Potential of Diesel-Methanol Blends in a Heavy-Duty Genset Engine 2021-26-0104

One of the most promising fuel alternatives for Diesel is Methanol. The fuel is regarded advantageous owing to the easy availability of raw materials for its production, its low cost and high Oxygen content that has potential to reduce emissions of smoke, CO and PM. Methanol as a fuel blend with Diesel is non-viable as they are not readily miscible with each other. This paper expounds the engine performance and emission evaluation of blending Methanol with Diesel by using two methods that aid in overcoming phase separation. The experiments were performed in two stages. In the first stage, investigation of phase stabilization of Methanol in Diesel with suitable additive concentration was performed. This was performed to determine the optimum additive and its concentration for a Methanol share of up to 25% in Diesel-Methanol blends for a stabilization period of 30 days. In the second stage, performance and emission investigations were conducted on the engine with (i) Diesel fuel (baseline data) (ii) Diesel-Methanol blends (using an on-board stirrer inside a fuel tank) (iii) phase stable Diesel, Methanol and additive blends. All performance and emission tests were conducted on a heavy-duty Genset engine in a certified engine testing laboratory without making any changes to base engine hardware or compromising on performance of the engine. By increasing the Methanol share in the blends without the use of an additive, it was observed that SFC improved with a reduction in smoke, CO and PM, while NOx emissions increased. However, with the use of an additive, PM reduction was superior than observed in Diesel in Methanol blends without additive, but at the cost of deteriorated SFC, NOx, CO and HC emissions due to the physio-chemical properties of the additive. It was concluded that Methanol blending in Diesel without using an additive shows promising results in terms of lower fuel costs, SFC, smoke, CO and PM emission reduction when compared to existing Diesel engines. This can be further optimized by designing the engine as per Methanol percentage in the blend.