Formation of Soft Paticles in Drop-in Fuels

Abstract: As the mission to the decrease global warming and phase out highly pollutingenvironmental practices globally, regulations including Euro 6 and policies generated by theUnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are pushing companiesto be more innovative when it comes to their energy sources. These regulations involve manyfactors related to the cleanliness of the fuel and produced emissions, for example, propertiesof the fuels such as sulfur content, ash content, water content, and resulting emission valuesof Carbon dioxide (CO2) and Nitrogen Oxides (NOx). Furthermore, Sweden has set achallenging target of a fossil-fuel-independent vehicle fleet by 2030 and no net greenhousegasemissions by 2050.One way to cut down on the polluting properties in the fuel, as well as weakening thedependence on fossil fuel based fuel includes utilizing higher blending ratios of biofuels in thetransport sector. This transition to biofuels comes with many challenges to the transportindustry due to higher concentrations of these new fuels leads to clogging of the filters in theengine, as well as, internal diesel injector deposits (IDIDs) that produce injector fouling. Thisclogging of the filters leads to lower performance by the engines which leads to higher repairtimes (uptime) and less time on the road to transport goods. The formation of these softparticles at the root of the clogging issue is a pivotal issue because the precise mechanismsbehind their formation are highly unknown. Scania, a leader in the Swedish automotiveindustry, is very interested in figuring out what mechanisms are the most influential in theformation of these particles in the engine. Understanding the key mechanisms would allowScania to make appropriate adjustments to the fuel or the engines to ensure more time onthe road and less maintenance.There are many conditions known to be possible causes of the formation of softparticles in engines such as water content, ash content, and temperature. After generatingsoft particles using a modified accelerated method, particles were analyzed using infraredtechnology (RTX-FTIR) and a Scanning Electric Microscope (SEM-EDX). Many differentexperiments were performed to be able to make a conclusion as to which mechanisms weremost influential including temperature, time, water, air, and oil. The combination of agingbiofuels (B100, B10, HVO) with metals, and water produced the largest amount of particlesfollowed by aging the biofuels with aged oil, metals, and water. Aging the fuels with aged oilincreased particles, meanwhile the addition of water prevented particle production possiblydue to additives. B100 produced the highest amount of particles when aged with Copper, B10with Brass, and HVO with Iron.