686

Energy & Fuels 2007, 21, 686-691

Reduction of Smoke and NOx from Diesel Engines Using a

Diesel/Methanol Compound Combustion System
Chunde Yao,*, C. S. Cheung, Chuanhui Cheng,, and Yinshan Wang
State Key Laboratory of Engines, Tianjin UniVersity, Tianjin 300072, China, and Department of
Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic UniVersity, Hong Kong
ReceiVed June 15, 2006. ReVised Manuscript ReceiVed December 5, 2006

This paper presents the concept of a diesel methanol compound combustion (DMCC) system and some
experimental results on the application of the system to two diesel engines. In the DMCC system, diesel fuel
is used for engine starting and for low load operation. At medium to high load, a fixed amount of diesel fuel
is maintained while extra energy is acquired by injecting methanol into the intake manifold to form a
homogeneous methanol/air mixture. The system was tested on two 4-cylinder diesel engines: one naturally
aspirated and the other turbocharged. In both cases, the DMCC is found to reduce brake specific equivalent
fuel consumption, reduce smoke emission, and reduce NOx emission but increase CO and HC emissions.

1. Introduction
Worldwide, diesel engines are preferred to petrol engines for
commercial applications because of their higher thermal efficiency. However, the high particulate and nitrogen oxides
emissions of diesel engines are major air pollution problems.
Hence, there is a need to develop strategies to address these
problems in relation to diesel engines.
It is well-known that the improvement of fuel properties can
reduce pollutant emissions. There have been plenty investigations on the application of nonalcoholic oxygenates to diesel
fuel for reducing pollutant emissions.1-4 The oxygenates used
include esters, ethers, and carbonates. They are found to have
a beneficial effect on reducing smoke and particulate emissions.
It is believed that the oxygen contents of the oxygenate helps
in reducing particulate formation during the combustion process.
However, there are associated problems with the fuel additives
including a probable increase in hydrocarbon and NOx emissions. Moreover, in most cases, the nonalcoholic fuel additives
are more expensive and less readily available.
Alternative fuels such as alcohol fuels have also been applied
to reduce emissions. Ethanol has been applied to spark ignition
engines with success5 while its application to the diesel engine
is also a current topic of research.6 Methanol has been
extensively investigated as a transportation fuel because it is
readily available from the conversion of biomass, coal, and
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-2227406649. Fax: +86-2227383362.
E-mail: arcdyao@tju.edu.cn.
Tianjin University.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
(1) Zhu, J.; Cao, X. L.; Pigeon, R.; Mitchell, K. J. Air Waste Manage.
Assoc. 2003, 53, 67-76.
(2) Xiao, Z.; Ladommatos, N.; Zhao, H. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part
D-J. Automob. Eng. 2000, 214, 307-332.
(3) Tsurutani, K.; Takei, Y.; Fujimoto, Y.; Matsudaira, J.; Kumamoto,
M. The effects of fuel properties and oxygenates on diesel exhaust emissions.
SAE 952349, 1995.
(4) Cheung, C. S.; Liu, M. A.; Lee, S. C.; Pan, K. Y. Clean Air 2005,
6, 239-253.
(5) Brusstar, M.; Stuhldreher, M.; Swain, D.; Pidgeon, W. SAE 200201-2743, 2002.
(6) Bilgin, A.; Durgun, O.; Sahin, Z. Energy Sources 2002, 24, 431440.

natural gas and its application in fuel cell vehicles.7,8 However

application of methanol to diesel engines is difficult. The low
cetane number of methanol makes autoignition difficult. A
methanol fuel compression ignition engine received active
research in the 1980s and the early 1990s,9-12 and methanolfueled buses had once been introduced to reduce pollutant
emission.13 Wang et al.14 compared the emissions from diesel
buses with alternative fuel buses. Their results show a reduction
of particulate and NOx emissions but an increase in CO and
HC emissions from the methanol fueled (M100) buses. However, operational problems have prohibited the development of
M100 diesel vehicles.
Of recent interest is the combined use of diesel and methanol.
Chao et al.15 investigated the emission characteristics of a
6-cylinder natural-aspirated direct-injection diesel engine using
diesel blended with up to 15% by volume of a methanolcontaining additive. They also found a decrease in PM and NOx
emissions but an increase in CO and HC emissions. Huang et
al.16,17 also conducted similar research on a single-cylinder
direct-injection diesel engine with a stabilized diesel-methanol
(7) Allard, M. Issues associated with widespread utilization of methanol.
SAE 2000-01-0005, 2005.
(8) Weimer, T.; Schaber, K.; Specht, M.; Bandi, A. Energy ConVers.
Manage. 1996, 37, 1351-1356.
(9) Heinrich, W.; Marquardt, K. J.; Schaefer, A. J. Methanol as a fuel
for commercial vehicles. SAE 861581, 1986.
(10) Hikino, K.; Suzuki, T. Development of methanol engine with
autoignition for low NOx emission and better fuel economy. SAE 891842,
1989.
(11) Richards, B. G. Methanol-fueled Caterpillar 3406 engine experience
in on-highway trucks. SAE 902160, 1990.
(12) Savonen, C. L.; Miller, S. P. Development status of the Detroit
Diesel Corporation methanol engine. SAE 901564, 1990.
(13) The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
(LACMTA). Methanol buses return to Los Angeles. Alternative Fuel Data
Centre of U.S.A., 1998; http://www.afdc.org.
(14) Wang, W. G.; Clark, N. N.; Lyons, D. W.; Yang, R. M.; Gautam,
M.; Bata, R. M.; Loth, J. L. EnViron. Sci. Technol. 1997, 31, 3132-3137.
(15) Chao, M. R.; Lin, T. C.; Chao, H. R.; Chang, F. H.; Chen, C. B.
Sci. Total EnViron. 2001, 279, 167-179.
(16) Huang, Z. H.; Lu, B. H.; Jiang, D. M.; Zeng, K.; Liu, B.; Zhang, J.
Q.; Wang, X. B. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. Part D-J. Automob. Eng. 2004,
218, 435-447.
(17) Huang, Z. H.; Lu, B. H.; Jiang, D. M.; Zeng, K.; Liu, B.; Zhang, J.
Q.; Wang, X. B. Bioresour. Technol. 2004, 95, 331-341.

10.1021/ef0602731 CCC: $37.00 2007 American Chemical Society

Published on Web 01/27/2007

Reduction of Smoke and NOx from DMCC Engines

Energy & Fuels, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2007 687

Table 1. Basic Properties of Diesel and Methanol Fuel

fuel type

diesel

methanol

cetane number
density (kg/m3) @20C
lower heating value (MJ/kg)
boiling point (C)
latent heat of vaporization (MJ/kg)
fraction of oxygen/wt%
autoignition temp. (C)
viscosity (MPaS) @20 C

55
840
42.7
195
0.28
0
308
2.8

4
792
19.9
64.5
1.09
50
470
0.61

blend with up to 18% by weight of methanol. In these two cases,

the methanol and diesel fuels have to be premixed.
Popa et al.18 applied two fueling methods in their investigation. The first method takes in methanol through a carburetor
while diesel is supplied through the normal fuel injector. The
second one uses a double injection method. In both methods,
there is no need to premix the two fuels. The first method, the
fumigation approach which has also been reported in ethanol
applications,6,19 is unfavorable for starting and low load operation.
When methanol is applied to a diesel engine, its high heat of
evaporation will lead to difficulty in cold start and emission of
a large quantity of aldehydes when the engine is operating at
light loads. The aldehydes play a major role in the formation
of photochemical smog and are strong oxidants which can
irritate the respiratory system of human beings. The high
aldehydes emissions coupled with ignition difficulties have
limited the development of methanol-fueled diesel vehicles, not
to mention its application to in-service diesel vehicles.
To solve these problems, a diesel/methanol compound
combustion (DMCC) system is proposed and investigated. Using
the DMCC, methanol will be injected into the manifold to form
a homogeneous mixture with air for combustion, while the
original diesel fuel injection system will be retained but slightly
modified to limit diesel fuel injection. At engine start and light
loads, the engine will operate on diesel alone to ensure cold
starting capability and to avoid aldehydes production. At
medium to high loads, the engine will operate on a homogeneous
air/methanol mixture ignited by pilot diesel to reduce particulate
and NOx emissions. At medium to high load, methanol is used
to provide part of the required engine power and hence reduces
the reliance on diesel and also reduces CO2 emission. The
system thus developed can be retrofitted on in-use diesel engines
and vehicles.
The DMCC system is developed taking into consideration
properties of the two fuels. The major properties of diesel and
methanol used in the present experimental investigation are
given in Table 1. It is well-known that methanol has a higher
autoignition temperature than diesel, resulting in difficulty of
compression ignition. For this reason, diesel fuel is used for
generating a pilot flame at medium to high loads. On the other
hand, methanol has a higher latent heat of vaporization and thus
it absorbs a great deal of heat upon vaporization and helps to
reduce combustion temperature and, consequently, NOx emission. Furthermore, its C/H ratio is low and also it contains
oxygen, both of which are favorable for complete combustion,
lower smoke emission, and a reduction of the specific CO2
emission. Thus, the DMCC is designed to take advantage of
each fuel by providing a different proportion of diesel and
methanol to the engine based on the loading requirement. Thus,
(18) Popa, M. G.; Negurescu, N.; Pana, C.; Racovitza, A. Results obtained
by methanol-fueling diesel engine. SAE 2001-01-3748, 2001.
(19) Abu-Qudais, M.; Haddad, O.; Qudaisat, M. Energy ConVers.
Manage. 2000, 41, 389-399.

Table 2. Specifications of Baseline Engines

Engine model
engine type
bore/stroke (mm)
displacement (cc)
aspirated method
compression ratio
max. torque/speed (Nm/rpm)
max. power/speed (kW/rpm)
injection pressure (MPa)
injection nozzle
nozzle diameter (mm)

485QDI

4102BZQ

water-cooled, in-line, 4-stroke,

4-cylinder, DI, diesel engine
85/95
102/118
2156
3856
natural-aspirated
turbocharged
18
16.5
110/2000
343/1600
31/3000
88/2800
20
19.5
4-hole nozzle
4-hole nozzle
0.32
0.28

it adopts diffusion combustion using diesel fuel alone at low

load as well as at starting and warm-up stages and uses quasiHCCI (homogeneous charging compression ignition) formed by
a methanol/air mixture combined with diesel fuel at medium
and high load conditions.
2. Experimental Setup
Experiments were carried out on two diesel engines to investigate
the performance of the engines using the DMCC system. The two
engines include a natural-aspirated engine and a turbocharged
engine. The specifications of the engines are shown in Table 2 and
the experimental setup is shown in Figure 1.
The engines were tested on a CW260 electrical vortex dynamometer, and the exhaust was measured using a FQD-102A Bosch
digital smoke meter and a HORIBA MEXA-7100 exhaust gas
analyzer. The fuel consumptions were measured by two FCM-05
instantaneous automatic fuel consumption meters.
Figure 1 shows that methanol is injected into the intake manifold
through an electronically controlled fuel injection system. The
injection pressure is about 0.3 MPa. The quantity of methanol
injected is controlled by the methanol injector operating time which
is controlled by the engine control unit (ECU) based on the
conditions as shown in Figure 2. In Figure 2, T is the cooling water
temperature, n is the engine speed, and Ttq is the engine torque,
while T0, n0, and Ttq0 are the corresponding minimum value of each
parameter set for injecting methanol. When the values of T0, n0,
and Ttq0 are not reached, the engine will operate on pure diesel.
When all parameters exceed the minimum setting, methanol will
be injected to supplement the extra power requirement.
Some investigators applied heating to intake air18,20 because the
injected methanol tends to cool down the intake air temperature
which would then affect subsequent combustion. However, with
heated air, there is a reduction of volumetric efficiency and a

Figure 1. Schematic of the experimental setup.

688 Energy & Fuels, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2007

Yao et al.

Figure 2. Flowchart of the DMCC control system.

Figure 4. Comparison of smoke opacity emissions (D for baseline

diesel, D+M for DMCC): (a) natural-aspirated engine; (b) turbocharged
engine.

Figure 3. Comparison of brake specific equivalent fuel consumption

(D for baseline engine, D+M for DMCC): (a) natural-aspirated engine;
(b) turbocharged engine.

reduced efficiency in reducing smoke and NOx emissions. Since

this project aims at investigating the effect of the DMCC system
on smoke and NOx reduction, the intake air was not preheated.

3. Results and Discussion

In this paper, experiments were carried out for each engine
at its maximum torque speed. Thus, the natural-aspirated engine
was tested at 2000 rev/min for a range of engine torques while
the turbocharged engine was tested at 1600 rev/min at different
(20) Udayakumar, R.; Sundaram, S.; Sivakumar, K. Engine performance
and exhaust characteristics of dual fuel operation in DI diesel engine with
methanol. SAE 2004-01-0096, 2004.

engine torque. For the natural-aspirated engine, the experiments

were conducted with engine loads ranging from 60 Nm to the
rated torque of 110 Nm. For the engine with the DMCC system,
when the engine load reached 60 Nm, the diesel fuel flow rate
was fixed and then methanol was injected to increase the loading
to the desired value. Due to deterioration of the engine, the
maximum torque reached with diesel alone was slightly less
than 110 Nm, while with diesel and methanol the maximum
torque achieved was slightly higher than 110 Nm. For the
turbocharged engine, the experiments were carried out with
engine loads ranging from 235 to 343 Nm. For the engine with
the DMCC system, when the engine load reached 235 Nm, the
diesel fuel flow rate was fixed and methanol was injected to
increase the loading to the desired value. Due to an engine
knocking problem, the maximum torque achieved with the
DMCC system was limited to 313 Nm in this investigation.
The fuel economy and the emissions of the DMCC system
were investigated and are discussed in the following sections.
Experiments were first conducted on the baseline engines using
diesel fuel for all tests and then repeated on the modified engines
using a combination of diesel and methanol. In the figures
presented, D refers to the baseline engine using only diesel
fuel and D+M refers to the modified engine using the DMCC
system.
3.1. Comparison of Equivalent Brake Specific Fuel Consumption. The equivalent brake specific fuel consumption (beq)
is used to compare the advantages of using the DMCC engine.
The concept of beq is to convert the consumption of both
methanol and diesel into the equivalent diesel fuel based on

Reduction of Smoke and NOx from DMCC Engines

Energy & Fuels, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2007 689

Figure 5. Comparison of NOx emissions (D for baseline engine, D+M

for DMCC): (a) natural-aspirated engine; (b) turbocharged engine.

their lower heating values, as shown in the following equation:

beq )

HLd Gd + HLm Gm
1000
HLd Pe

(1)

Where, HLd and HLm are the lower heating value of diesel fuel
and methanol, respectively, in megajoules per kilogram; Gd and
Gm are the consumption of diesel and methanol, respectively,
in kilograms per hour; and Pe is the brake power of the engine
in kilowatts.
The comparison of the equivalent brake specific fuel consumptions are shown in Figure 3a and b for the natural-aspirated
engine and the turbocharged engine, respectively.
In Figure 3a, the engine with DMCC started to consume
methanol at a torque of 60 Nm. There is lower brake specific
equivalent fuel consumption using DMCC. The difference is
more significant when the engine torque is more than 90 Nm.
The maximum reduction is 11.6% in this case. In Figure 3b,
there is also a reduction of the brake specific equivalent fuel
consumption upon using DMCC but the reduction is not
significant throughout the tests. The maximum reduction is about
2.8% in this case. The injection of methanol has two effects.
First, it will increase the volumetric efficiency and the enhanced
rate of heat release due to the homogeneous methanol/air
mixture. Second, the cooling effect will induce ignition delay
which might not be beneficial to combustion efficiency. For
the natural-aspirated engine, the former effect seems to be
dominating which leads to increased improvement in fuel
economy with the increasing amount of methanol burned. For

Figure 6. Comparison of intake air temperature (D for baseline engine,

D+M for DMCC): (a) natural-aspirated engine; (b) turbocharged
engine.

the turbocharged engine, the second effect is also significant,

as evidenced by the engine knocking effect observed, resulting
in only a marginal improvement in fuel economy.
3.2. Comparison of Emissions. (a) Smoke Opacity Emissions. The influence of DMCC on exhaust smoke opacity is
shown in Figure 4a and b, from which it can be observed that
the smoke opacity in general increases with engine load for both
baseline engines. However, the smoke opacity hardly increases
with the engine load when operating with the DMCC system.
The reduction is more significant with the natural-aspirated
engine than the turbocharged engine.
When the DMCC is introduced, methanol is injected and
mixes with intake air to form a homogeneous mixture. A fixed
amount of diesel fuel is still injected into the cylinder to burn
there and to ignite the compressed methanol/air mixture. The
ignited diesel fuel will burn together with the methanol/air
mixture. Smoke formation and oxidation mechanisms have been
proposed by many investigators.21,22 There are several reasons
leading to the reduction of smoke emission after injecting
methanol. The first one is that the quantity of diesel fuel
involved in burning is now less than when pure diesel fuel burns
in diffusion mode. Second, the smaller amount of diesel fuel
burning in diffusion mode is now combusting together with the
(21) Haynes, B. S.; Wagner, H. G. Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 1981, 7,
229-273.
(22) Toshiyuki, Y.; Nobuyuki, F.; Shigeki, T.; Yasuhiro, F. Analysis of
diesel smoke emission at low engine speed. SAE 950084, 1995.

690 Energy & Fuels, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2007

Yao et al.

Figure 7. Comparison of CO emissions (D for baseline engine, D+M

for DMCC): (a) natural-aspirated engine; (b) turbocharged engine.

homogeneous methanol/air mixture which will help to burn

faster and with a high availability of oxygen supply, because
of the presence of methanol. Third, the C/H ratio of methanol
is lower than that of pure diesel fuel and thus there is a reduction
of the total carbon proportion in the whole fuel which limits
the production of smoke. Fourth, there is a reduction of the
maximum combustion temperature which is also beneficial for
reducing smoke. The turbocharged engine has methanol injection
starting from 235 Nm. Thus, the methanol replacement is low
and there is a high percentage of diesel fuel even at the
maximum torque of 313 Nm, leading to a lower smoke
reduction. On the other hand, the natural-aspirated engine has
methanol injection starting from 60 Nm while the maximum
torque is up to 110 Nm, indicating that there is a more significant
methanol replacement and thus a higher level of smoke
reduction.
(b) NOx Emissions. The influence of DMCC on NOx
emissions is shown in Figure 5a and b. It can be observed that
in general there is an increase of NOx emission with engine
load for both baseline engines and for the engines with the
DMCC system. Comparing the baseline engine with the DMCC
engine, there is about 8% reduction in NOx when operating
with the DMCC. For the turbocharged engine, the reduction is
more than 10% and reaches about 16% at high loading
conditions. NOx formation depends on gas temperature as well
as the oxygen concentration. Methanol injection helps to cool
down the intake air temperature while its oxygen content will
increase oxygen availability, coupled with other effects, such

Figure 8. Comparison of HC emissions (D for baseline engine, D+M

for DMCC): (a) natural-aspirated engine; (b) turbocharged engine.

as combustion efficiency, it can produce different effects on

NOx formation. For example, in Huang et al.,16 there was both
increase and decrease of NOx emission; in Chao et al.,15 there
was a reduction, and in Popa et al.,18 there was an increase.
The intake air temperature measured at a position after the
methanol injectors of the two diesel engines is shown in Figure
6a and b. After injecting methanol, the intake air temperature
significantly reduces and the reduction of intake air temperature
of the turbocharged diesel engine is higher than that of the
natural-aspirated one. This is one of the reasons that NOx
reduction of the turbocharged engine is greater than that of the
natural-aspirated engine.
The temperature of intake air of the turbocharged engine is
higher than that of the natural-aspirated engine, which will
increase the charge temperature toward the end of the compression stroke, resulting in an even higher gas temperature upon
combustion. Thus, the NOx of the turbocharged engine is always
higher than that of the natural-aspirated one at the corresponding
engine load, for both the baseline case and for the DMCC case.
Figure 6b shows that the intake air temperature at the
maximum load reduces from 91.7 to 69.2 C after injecting
methanol into the intake manifold. This helps to reduce the
maximum in-cylinder gas temperature and hence the NOx
formed. The same is true for the natural-aspirated engine. Thus,
the reduced intake air temperature is the major reason for the
reduced NOx emission after using the DMCC system.

Reduction of Smoke and NOx from DMCC Engines

Energy & Fuels, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2007 691

8 also show that when the combustion temperature is increased

at higher engine loads and the premixed methanol/air mixture
is rich enough, the combustion conditions improve and the HC
and CO emissions are reduced. Figure 7a shows that for the
natural-aspirated engine, there is lower CO emission with the
DMCC system at brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) values
below 0.52 MPa but higher CO emission at higher power output.
Thus at low concentrations of methanol in the intake air, the
CO deterioration is overcome by the improved combustion
conditions as indicated by the improved brake specific equivalent fuel consumption; while at high methanol concentration in
the intake air, the CO deterioration cannot be compensated by
the improved combustion conditions.
Figure 9a and b shows the exhaust gas temperatures. The
lowest exhaust gas temperature of the natural-aspirated engine
is more than 250 C and that of the turbocharged engine is more
than 400 C, both of them increase with engine load. The
temperatures are high enough to light off an oxidation catalyst.
This means that, even under the DMCC system, the exhaust
gas temperature is high enough to ensure lighting off of an
oxidation catalyst to remove CO and HC as well as aldehydes
from exhaust emissions, which helps in alleviating the increased
CO and HC emissions in the system.
4. Conclusions

Figure 9. Comparison of exhaust gas temperature (D for baseline

engine, D+M for DMCC): (a) natural-aspirated engine; (b) turbocharged engine.

(c) CO and HC Emissions. The emissions of CO and HC are

shown in Figures 7 and 8, respectively, from which it can be
observed that both CO and HC increased after using the DMCC
system. The extent of CO increase is more obvious for the
turbocharged engine than for the natural-aspirated engine, while
the HC increase is obvious for both engines.
HC and CO are mainly products of incomplete combustion.
Using the DMCC system, the injected methanol tends to reduce
the combustion temperature, which makes it difficult to burn
the homogeneous methanol/air mixture completely, especially
when the amount of methanol injected is small and its mixture
is too lean for sustaining combustion. Moreover, as in the HCCI
engine, some of the methanol fuel is stored in crevices during
the compression stroke and escapes combustion. Figures 7 and

This paper presents the concept of a diesel/methanol compound combustion (DMCC) system and some experimental
results on the application of the system to two diesel engines.
The following conclusions can be drawn from the current
investigation:
(1) The DMCC concept can be applied to both naturalaspirated and turbocharged diesel engines with reduced brake
specific equivalent fuel consumption.
(2) There is a significant reduction in smoke emissions from
both engines using the DMCC system.
(3) There is a reduction of NOx emission from both engines
using the DMCC system due to the reduced intake air temperature and consequently the combustion temperature.
(4) There is an increase in CO and HC emissions due to the
lower combustion temperature as well as the homogeneous
methanol/air charge formed. However, an oxidation catalyst can
be applied to reduce these pollutants because when the DMCC
system is in operation, the exhaust gas temperatures are high
enough for lighting off.
Acknowledgment. This project is supported by the Natural
Science Foundation Committee of China (Contract No. 50576064)
and a research grant from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
(G-YE33).
EF0602731