Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Numerical investigation on the effect of water in the reduction of diesel engine exhaust emissions using a novel ionic chemical kinetics mechanism

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the role of water in the reduction of diesel exhaust emissions. To do so, a multi-zone thermodynamic model coupled to a novel semi-detailed ionic chemical kinetics mechanism is used. This mechanism includes 467 reactions and 105 species containing 51 ionic reactions and 15 ions. The mechanism contains 6 basic ionic reactions, 23 NOx-related ionic reactions, and 22 soot-related ionic reactions. Four different amounts of water are added to the in-cylinder mixture and the effects of water in the formation of soot and NOx are investigated. The results showed that water does not have a regular effect on diesel exhaust soot, but causes a significant reduction in exhaust NOx. Water has decreased the temperature of the combustion chamber and consequently has reduced the ionic current inside the combustion chamber. Reduction of the in-cylinder ion current decreases the mass of NOx-related ions and results in reduced exhaust NOx. Adding 5% water reduces the in-cylinder ion current by 47%. Five percent water also reduces engine exhaust NOx to 33%. Among NOx-related ions, water has the greatest effect on N+ ions and reduces its amount to less than 20%. Water affects the progress rate of ionic reactions, and 5% of water reduces the progress rate of the fastest reaction to 14% of its initial value.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16
Fig. 17

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

CAD :

crank angle degree

c v :

specific heat constant at constant volume (J/kg K)

C D :

discharge coefficient

D :

cylinder diameter (m)

d n :

nozzle hole diameter (m)

H :

enthalpy (J/kg)

m :

mass (kg)

MW :

molecular weight

n :

number of zones

n n :

number of nozzle holes

n s :

number of species

P :

pressure (Pa)

Q :

heat (J)

R u :

universal ideal gas constant (J/mol K)

T :

temperature (K)

t :

time (s)

U :

internal energy (J)

u :

specific internal energy (J/kg)

V :

volume (m3)

W :

work (J)d

z :

distance between zone center and injector (m)

Y :

mass fraction

ρ:

density (kg/m3)

\( \dot{\omega} \) :

molar rate of production (mole/m3s)

f:

fuel

i:

ith zone

j:

jth species

References

  • Abdollahi M, Ghobadian B, Najafi G, Hoseini SS, Mofijur M, Mazlan M (2020) Impact of water – biodiesel – diesel nano-emulsion fuel on performance parameters and diesel engine emission. Fuel 280:118576

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Aghbashlo M, Tabatabaei M, Khalife E, Roodbar Shojaei T, Dadak A (2018) Exergoeconomic analysis of a DI diesel engine fueled with diesel/biodiesel (B5) emulsions containing aqueous nano cerium oxide. Energy 149:967–978

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Aithal S (2013) Prediction of voltage signature in a homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine fueled with propane and acetylene. Combust Sci Technol 185:1184–1201

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Aithal S, White A, Subramaniam V (1999) Kinetic modeling of an ionization sensor for combustion processes, 30th Plasmadynamic and Lasers Conference, pp. 3606

  • Alagumalai A (2020) Reduced smoke and nitrogen oxide emissions during low-temperature combustion of ethanol and waste cooking oil. Environ Chem Lett 18:511–516

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Avinash GRS, Kavitha C, Ashok B, Vignesh R, Venkat V, Karthickeyan V (2020) Study of diesel fuel multiple injection characteristics using shadow-graphic imaging technique with CRDI system in constant volume chamber. Fuel 279:118436

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Avulapati MM, Ganippa LC, Xia J, Megaritis A (2016) Puffing and micro-explosion of diesel–biodiesel–ethanol blends. Fuel 166:59–66

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Awad OI, Ma X, Kamil M, Ali OM, Ma Y, Shuai S (2020) Overview of polyoxymethylene dimethyl ether additive as an eco-friendly fuel for an internal combustion engine: current application and environmental impacts. Sci Total Environ 715:136849

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Badawy T, Estefanous F, Henein N (2013) Cycle-by-cycle soot estimation in diesel engines. 0148-7191, SAE Technical Paper

  • Bogin G Jr, Chen J-Y, Dibble RW (2009) The effects of intake pressure, fuel concentration, and bias voltage on the detection of ions in a Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine. Proc Combust Inst 32:2877–2884

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bragadeshwaran A, Kasianantham N, Balusamy S, Muniappan S, Reddy DMS, Subhash RV, Pravin NA, Subbarao R (2018) Mitigation of NOx and smoke emissions in a diesel engine using novel emulsified lemon peel oil biofuel. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25:25098–25114

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brown RC, Eraslan AN (1988) Simulation of ionic structure in lean and close-to-stoichiometric acetylene flames. Combust Flame 73:1–21

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Caliskan H, Mori K (2017) Thermodynamic, environmental and economic effects of diesel and biodiesel fuels on exhaust emissions and nano-particles of a diesel engine. Transp Res Part D: Transp Environ 56:203–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Channappagoudra M, Ramesh K, Manavendra G (2018) Comparative investigation of the effect of hemispherical and toroidal piston bowl geometries on diesel engine combustion characteristics. Biofuel Re J 5:854–862

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen B, Wang H, Wang Z, Han J, Alquaity AB, Wang H, Hansen N, Sarathy SM (2019a) Ion chemistry in premixed rich methane flames. Combust Flame 202:208–218

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen B, Wang H, Wang Z, Han J, Alquaity ABS, Wang H, Hansen N, Sarathy SM (2019b) Ion chemistry in premixed rich methane flames. Combust Flame 202:208–218

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chong HS, Park Y, Kwon S, Hong Y (2018) Analysis of real driving gaseous emissions from light-duty diesel vehicles. Transp Res Part D: Transp Environ 65:485–499

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dhahad HA, Fayad MA (2020) Role of different antioxidants additions to renewable fuels on NOX emissions reduction and smoke number in direct injection diesel engine. Fuel 279:118384

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dong G, Li L, Wu Z, Zhang Z, Zhao D (2013) Study of the phase-varying mechanisms of ion current signals for combustion phasing in a gasoline HCCI engine. Fuel 113:209–215

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dong G, Chen Y, Li L, Wu Z, Dibble R (2017) A skeletal gasoline flame ionization mechanism for combustion timing prediction on HCCI engines. Proc Combust Inst 36:3669–3676

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • El Shenawy E, Elkelawy M, Bastawissi HA-E, Shams MM, Panchal H, Sadasivuni K, Thakar N (2019) Investigation and performance analysis of water-diesel emulsion for improvement of performance and emission characteristics of partially premixed charge compression ignition (PPCCI) diesel engines. Sustaina Energy Technol Assess 36:100546

    Google Scholar 

  • EPA (2020) Fuel economy in major car markets. Available from. https://www.epa.gov/, Accessed date: 8 March 2020

  • Eraslan AN, Brown RC (1988) Chemiionization and ion-molecule reactions in fuel-rich acetylene flames. Combust Flame 74:19–37

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eremeitsev I, Pilyugin N (1986) Calculation of the nonequilibrium parameters of air at the surfaces of models and in the wakes behind them for the conditions of aeroballistic experiments. J Appl Mech Tech Phys 27:250–260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Estefanous F (2013) Modeling of Ion Current Signal in Diesel Combustion. In Internal Combustion Engine Division Fall Technical Conference (Vol. 56109, p. V002T06A010). American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York, NY

  • Estefanous FAA, Badawy T, Henein N (2013) Cycle resolved in-cylinder NOx and ion current measurements in a diesel engine. 0148-7191, SAE Technical Paper

  • Ghadikolaei MA, Wei L, Cheung CS, Yung K-F (2019) Effects of engine load and biodiesel content on performance and regulated and unregulated emissions of a diesel engine using contour-plot map. Sci Total Environ 658:1117–1130

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gharehghani A, Asiaei S, Khalife E, Najafi B, Tabatabaei M (2019) Simultaneous reduction of CO and NOx emissions as well as fuel consumption by using water and nano particles in Diesel–Biodiesel blend. J Clean Prod 210:1164–1170

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Golovitchev VI, Chomiak J (2000) Comprehensive chemical mechanism of soot formation and oxidation for diesel spray combustion modeling. In: Open Meeting on Combustion, 23rd Event of the Italian Section of the Combustion Institute, Lacco Ameno

  • Green J, Sugden T (1963) Some observations on the mechanism of ionization in flames containing hydrocarbons. In Symposium (International) on Combustion 9(1):607–621

  • Hagos FY, Aziz ARA, Tan IM (2011) Water-in-diesel emulsion and its micro-explosion phenomenon-review, 2011 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Communication Software and Networks, pp. 314–318

  • Heywood JB (1988) Internal combustion engine fundamentals. McGraw-Hill Education, New York

  • Hoang AT, Le AT (2019) Trilateral correlation of spray characteristics, combustion parameters, and deposit formation in the injector hole of a diesel engine running on preheated Jatropha oil and fossil diesel fuel. Biofuel Res J 6:909–919

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hosseinzadeh-Bandbafha H, Khalife E, Tabatabaei M, Aghbashlo M, Khanali M, Mohammadi P, Roodbar Shojaei T, Soltanian S (2019) Effects of aqueous carbon nanoparticles as a novel nanoadditive in water-emulsified diesel/biodiesel blends on performance and emissions parameters of a diesel engine. Energy Convers Manag 196:1153–1166

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jain A, Singh AP, Agarwal AK (2017) Effect of split fuel injection and EGR on NOx and PM emission reduction in a low temperature combustion (LTC) mode diesel engine. Energy 122:249–264

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kattela SP, Vysyaraju RKR, Surapaneni SR, Ganji PR (2019) Effect of n-butanol/diesel blends and piston bowl geometry on combustion and emission characteristics of CI engine. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:1661–1674

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Khalife E, Tabatabaei M, Demirbas A, Aghbashlo M (2017) Impacts of additives on performance and emission characteristics of diesel engines during steady state operation. Prog Energy Combust Sci 59:32–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar N, Raheman H, Machavaram R (2019) Performance of a diesel engine with water emulsified diesel prepared with optimized process parameters. Int J Green Energy 16:687–701

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu H, Ma S, Zhang Z, Zheng Z, Yao M (2015a) Study of the control strategies on soot reduction under early-injection conditions on a diesel engine. Fuel 139:472–481

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Y, Li L, Ye J, Wu Z, Deng J (2015b) Numerical simulation study on correlation between ion current signal and NOX emissions in controlled auto-ignition engine. Appl Energy 156:776–782

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Y, Li L, Ye J, Deng J, Wu Z (2016) Ion current signal and characteristics of ethanol/gasoline dual fuel HCCI combustion. Fuel 166:42–50

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Y, Li L, Wu Z, Deng J, Dibble RW (2017) Near-engine-condition simulation of ionization in pre-ignition based on chemical kinetics. Fuel 190:444–450

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Y, Deng J, Hu Z, Li L (2018) In-cycle combustion feedback control for abnormal combustion based on digital ion current signal. Int J Engine Res 19:241–249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu H, Wang X, Wu Y, Zhang X, Jin C, Zheng Z (2019) Effect of diesel/PODE/ethanol blends on combustion and emissions of a heavy duty diesel engine. Fuel 257:116064

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McElroy D, Walsh C, Markwick A, Cordiner M, Smith K, Millar T (2013) The UMIST database for astrochemistry 2012. Astron Astrophys 550:A36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehresh P, Flowers D, Dibble R (2005a) Experimental and numerical investigation of effect of fuel on ion sensor signal to determine combustion timing in homogeneous charge compression ignition engines. Int J Engine Res 6:465–474

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mehresh P, Souder J, Flowers D, Riedel U, Dibble RW (2005b) Combustion timing in HCCI engines determined by ion-sensor: experimental and kinetic modeling. Proc Combust Inst 30:2701–2709

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mirzajanzadeh M, Tabatabaei M, Ardjmand M, Rashidi A, Ghobadian B, Barkhi M, Pazouki M (2015) A novel soluble nano-catalysts in diesel–biodiesel fuel blends to improve diesel engines performance and reduce exhaust emissions. Fuel 139:374–382

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mohammadi M, Neshat E (2020) Accurate prediction of NOx emissions from diesel engines considering in-cylinder ion current. Environ Pollut 266:115347

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mura E, Massoli P, Josset C, Loubar K, Bellettre J (2012) Study of the micro-explosion temperature of water in oil emulsion droplets during the Leidenfrost effect. Exp Thermal Fluid Sci 43:63–70

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mura E, Calabria R, Califano V, Massoli P, Bellettre J (2014) Emulsion droplet micro-explosion: Analysis of two experimental approaches. Exp Thermal Fluid Sci 56:69–74

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nanthagopal K, Ashok B, Raj RTK (2016) Influence of fuel injection pressures on Calophyllum inophyllum methyl ester fuelled direct injection diesel engine. Energy Convers Manag 116:165–173

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Neshat E, Honnery D, Saray RK (2017) Multi-zone model for diesel engine simulation based on chemical kinetics mechanism. Appl Therm Eng 121:351–360

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Neshat E, Bajestani AV, Honnery D (2019) Advanced numerical analyses on thermal, chemical and dilution effects of water addition on diesel engine performance and emissions utilizing artificial inert species. Fuel 242:596–606

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pastor JV, García-Oliver JM, García A, Micó C (2020) Combustion improvement and pollutants reduction with diesel-gasoline blends by means of a highly tunable laser plasma induced ignition system. J Clean Prod 271:122499

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pedersen T, Brown RC (1993) Simulation of electric field effects in premixed methane flames. Combust Flame 94:433–448

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pipitone E, Costanza A (2018) An experimental investigation on the long-term compatibility of preheated crude palm oil in a large compression ignition diesel engine. Biofuel Res J. https://doi.org/10.18331/BRJ2018.5.4.5

  • Prager J, Riedel U, Warnatz J (2007) Modeling ion chemistry and charged species diffusion in lean methane–oxygen flames. Proc Combust Inst 31:1129–1137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Radhakrishnan S, Munuswamy DB, Devarajan Y, Mahalingam A (2019) Performance, emission and combustion study on neat biodiesel and water blends fuelled research diesel engine. Heat Mass Transf 55:1229–1237

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rai RK, Sahoo RR (2019) Effective power and effective power density analysis for water in diesel emulsion as fuel in diesel engine performance. Energy 180:893–902

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rao R, Honnery D (2015) A simplified mechanism for the prediction of the ion current during methane oxidation in engine-like conditions. Combust Flame 162:2928–2936

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rao R, Honnery D (2017) A study of the relationship between NOx and the ion current in a direct-injection diesel engine. Combust Flame 176:309–317

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Seifi MR, Hassan-Beygi SR, Ghobadian B, Desideri U, Antonelli M (2016) Experimental investigation of a diesel engine power, torque and noise emission using water–diesel emulsions. Fuel 166:392–399

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sheng H-Z, Chen L, Wu C-k (1995) The droplet group micro-explosions in W/O diesel fuel emulsion sprays. SAE Transact 104:1534–1542

  • Shinjo J, Xia J, Ganippa L, Megaritis A (2014) Physics of puffing and microexplosion of emulsion fuel droplets. Phys Fluids 26:103302

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solomon JM, Pachamuthu S, Arulanandan JJ, Thangavel N, Sathyamurthy R (2020) Electrochemical decomposition of NOx and oxidation of HC and CO emissions by developing electrochemical cells for diesel engine emission control. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27:32229–32238

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Starik A, Titova N (2002) Kinetics of ion formation in the volumetric reaction of methane with air. Combust, Explosion Shock Waves 38:253–268

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Starikovskaia S, Starikovskii AY, Zatsepin D (2001) Hydrogen oxidation in a stoichiometric hydrogen-air mixture in the fast ionization wave. Combust Theory Model 5:97–129

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vali RH, Wani MM (2020) Optimal utilization of ZnO nanoparticles blended diesel-water emulsion by varying compression ratio of a VCR diesel engine. J Environ Chem Eng 8:103884

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vellaiyan S (2020a) Combustion, performance and emission evaluation of a diesel engine fueled with soybean biodiesel and its water blends. Energy 201:117633

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vellaiyan S (2020b) Enhancement in combustion, performance, and emission characteristics of a biodiesel-fueled diesel engine by using water emulsion and nanoadditive. Renew Energy 145:2108–2120

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vellaiyan S, Subbiah A, Chockalingam P (2019) Multi-response optimization to improve the performance and emissions level of a diesel engine fueled with ZnO incorporated water emulsified soybean biodiesel/diesel fuel blends. Fuel 237:1013–1020

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wei M, Li S, Xiao H, Guo G (2017) Combustion performance and pollutant emissions analysis using diesel/gasoline/iso-butanol blends in a diesel engine. Energy Convers Manag 149:381–391

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wojciechowska M, Lomnicki S (1999) Nitrogen oxides removal by catalytic methods. Clean Prod Process 1:237–247

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang W, An H, Chou S, Chua K, Mohan B, Sivasankaralingam V, Raman V, Maghbouli A, Li J (2013) Impact of emulsion fuel with nano-organic additives on the performance of diesel engine. Appl Energy 112:1206–1212

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zheng Z, Yue L, Liu H, Zhu Y, Zhong X, Yao M (2015) Effect of two-stage injection on combustion and emissions under high EGR rate on a diesel engine by fueling blends of diesel/gasoline, diesel/n-butanol, diesel/gasoline/n-butanol and pure diesel. Energy Convers Manag 90:1–11

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Sahand University of Technology, Sahand new town, Tabriz, Iran

    Milad Mohammadi & Elaheh Neshat

Authors
  1. Milad Mohammadi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Elaheh Neshat
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

EN: study conception and design, data analysis and interpretation, drafting of the article, and critical revision of the article. MM: data collection and drafting of the article.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elaheh Neshat.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mohammadi, M., Neshat, E. Numerical investigation on the effect of water in the reduction of diesel engine exhaust emissions using a novel ionic chemical kinetics mechanism. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 33461–33479 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12904-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12904-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation