A novel biomass lubricant filter and its effect on gasoline engine emissions and fuel economy

Abstract

With the increasing number of light-duty passenger car, a large amount of waste engine oil was produced yearly which has polluted the environment and wasted fossil resources. Extend engine oil drain interval and reduce its effect on engine emission is of great importance. In this paper, a kind of modified-sawdust engine oil filter was developed and the study focus on its effect on the emission characteristics and fuel consumption rate of spark ignite gasoline engine. This modified-sawdust engine oil filter was also compared with common oil filter. The tests were performed in four-cylinder direct injection gasoline engine at six different typical operating conditions. Various tests were proceed including the exhaust emissions measurement of nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC) as well as the fuel consumption rate measurement. The effect of engine oil change on engine emission and fuel consumption rate were also studied. Impurity element content of waste oil and kinetic viscosity were measured before and after modified oil filter was used. The results show that relative to common oil filter, the modified-sawdust oil filter has 0.4–2.1%, 3.7–7.5%, 1.6–13.3% decrease for CO, HC, NOx emissions, respectively. In addition, it significantly reduces oil consumption, and the three major emission species (CO, HC and NOx) was also reduced when fresh engine oil was adopted. These results indicate that the use of modified-sawdust oil filter is an effective choice to improve gasoline engine emission and fuel economy.