A Numerical Approach for the Analysis of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil and Dimethoxy Methane Blends as Low-Carbon Alternative Fuel in Compression Ignition Engines

Abstract

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Despite recent advances towards powertrain electrification as a solution to mitigate pollutant emissions from road transport, synthetic fuels (especially e- fuels) still have a major role to play in applications where electrification will not be viable in short-medium term. Among e-fuels, oxymethylene ethers are getting serious interest within the scientific community and industry. Dimethoxy methane (OME₁) is the smaller molecule among this group, which is of special interest due to its low soot formation. However, its application is still limited mainly due to its low lower heating value. In contrast, other fuel alternatives like hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) are considered as drop-in solutions thanks to their very similar properties and molecular composition to that of fossil diesel. However, their pollutant emission improvement is limited. This work proposes the combination of OME₁ and HVO as an alternative to fossil diesel, to achieve noticeable soot emission reductions while compensating for the different properties of the first fuel.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">The aim of this work is to provide insight into the combustion characteristics of blends of these two fuels. For this purpose, experimental and numerical studies are combined. In this context, n-dodecane is proposed as a surrogate for HVO simulation based on the high similarities experimentally observed between both fuels. Then, a compact kinetic mechanism is developed and validated, combining individual OME₁ and n-dodecane mechanisms. Results confirm that the numerical approach followed was able to capture the experimental behavior of these blends in terms of heat release rate, in-cylinder pressure and soot formation. An increase of the OME₁ content in the blend greatly influences the combustion process. The ignition delay, as well as the premixed combustion phase peak, increase with the OME₁ percentage in the blend. However, HVO helps on limiting this effect while remarkable soot formation reductions are still achieved thanks to OME₁.</div></div>