Investigation of the impacts of regeneration temperature and methanol substitution rate on the active regeneration of diesel particulate filter in a diesel-methanol dual-fuel engine

Abstract

Methanol (CH3OH), a sustainable fuel derived from many renewable resources, simultaneously reduces nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) in diesel-methanol dual-fuel engines. This study systematically investigated the effects of regeneration temperature and methanol substitution rate (MSR) on the performance of diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), diesel particulate filter (DPF), and the temperature characteristics of DPF substrate during active regeneration. The experimental results show that the DOC catalytic oxidation of unburned CH3OH has a conversion rate of more than 97.5 % across various MSR. DPF inlet temperature rose faster with higher MSR. Elevated regeneration temperature reduced effective regeneration times and diesel equivalent consumption. Within active regeneration conditions with MSR increases, both effective regeneration times and diesel equivalent consumption initially decreased and then increased as the MSR rose. At MSR = 30 %, the duration of effective regeneration times during DPF active regeneration was minimized, and diesel equivalent consumption at MSR = 30 % experienced an improvement of 22.52 % compared to MSR = 0 %. The highest DPF substrate temperatures across various MSR levels are consistently observed at T6 position within the DPF. This study can provide a theoretical basis for the active regeneration of DPF in methanol-diesel dual-fuel mode.