Emission characteristics of a diesel engine fueled with nanoemulsions of continuous diesel dispersed with solketal droplets

Abstract Solketal is a promising oxygenate additive that can be chemically derived from bioglycerol. Emulsification by a microwave-irradiating method was used to prepare the micro- and nanoemulsions of solketal dispersed in continuous ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) due to the immiscibility of solketal with ULSD. The emissions from a direct-injection, four-stroke and naturally aspirated diesel engine fueled with each of these emulsions, and with neat ULSD, were analyzed and compared. The experimental results show that the nanoemulsion and microemulsions were successfully produced. In addition, an increasing engine speed resulted in lower NOx, CO and O2 but higher CO2 emissions. The nanoemulsion was found to produce the lowest NOx emission while neat ULSD produced the highest NOx emission among these three test fuels. The lowest CO emission was formed by fueling the micro-emulsion of dispersed solketal-in-ULSD. Moreover, the burning of the nanoemulsion in the diesel engine formed the highest CO2 along with the lowest O2 emissions. Hence, the nanoemulsion had the highest burning efficiency among the three test fuels for the diesel engine.