Soot formation of renewable gasoline: From fuel chemistry to particulate emissions from engines

Abstract

Renewable fuels are essential to meet climate protection goals, especially for decarbonizing the existing vehicle fleet. In addition, optimized and specially designed fuels allow emissions to be avoided before they occur. This paper presents fuel effects on emission characteristics of six chemically complex gasoline blends compliant with the DIN EN 228 standard and one ethanol/gasoline blend, focusing on particle emissions. First, the sooting propensity of the fuels was examined using different soot indices, such as the Particulate Matter Index (PMI), the Oxygen Extended Sooting Index (OESI), the Yield Sooting Index (YSI), and the soot threshold (φST), which is drawn on measurements of the particle number (PN) density in the exhaust gas of a laminar flat flame. Second, PN emissions (particle number concentration) from a production-calibrated turbo gasoline direct injection engine with four cylinders were investigated. Third, soot precursor chemistry was investigated using a laminar flow reactor at atmospheric pressure. Finally, correlations to fuels’ volatility and chemical characteristics were made for the complete data set. Based on the soot precursor chemistry in the homogeneous gas phase reaction, the analysis shows that engine PN emissions are primarily influenced by fuel chemistry for the investigated engine conditions. In particular, the composition of the hydrocarbon fraction is decisive, with the heavy C9+ aromatics and the upper distillate significantly influencing soot formation. In order to reduce PN engine emissions, future fuels should contain fewer soot-increasing hydrocarbon fractions.