Detailed study on the effect of nano-particle size on emission characteristics of diesel engine

This work examines the effect of particle size of silicon oxide (SiO2) nanoparticle on the emissions characteristics of four-stroke, single cylinder water-cooled diesel engine fueled with neat diesel (D100). Silicon oxide as an additive in various particle-size of 10 nm and 20 nm is included to D100 and termed as D100SiO210 and D100SiO220. The experimental result proved that the CO and HC emissions are 3.3% and 3.7% lower for D100SiO210 than D100 at 3.5 bar BMEP. SiO2 nanoparticle further reduces CO and HC emissions by 3.2% and 2.6% correspondingly for D100SiO220 than D100. The degree of NOx emission in D100 is 4.6% higher at 3.5 bar BMEP. When compared to D100, tailpipe NOx emission was found to be 1.7% and 2.6% lower when fueled with D100SiO210 and D100SiO220. In addition, the tailpipe smoke emission was found to be 0.7% lower when fueled with D100.