Experimental Study of the Effect of Fuel Catalytic Additive on Specific Fuel Consumption and Exhaust Emissions in Diesel Engine

Fuel catalytic additives have been tested for many years. Herein, their influence on the overall efficiency of combustion engines is investigated, and their pro-ecological impact is assessed. The majority of this research concerns diesel engines. Despite many advantages, to this day, the use of catalytic additives has not become widespread. Wishing to clarify the situation, a research group from the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology decided to investigate this matter, starting with verification tests. This article presents the methodology and results of testing an actual diesel engine, and evaluates the effects of the use of a fuel catalytic additive. The focus was on the analysis of fuel consumption and exhaust gas emissions from a Doosan MD196TI engine. The tested additive was a commercial fuel performance catalyst (FAMAX) with up to 5% ferric chloride as an organometallic compound. The proportion of the mixture with the fuel was 1:2000. These studies provide an energy and ecological assessment of propulsion in inland vehicles relative to current exhaust emission standards. The tests were carried out in accordance with the ISO 8178 standard, albeit on a much broader scale regarding engine operation than required by the standard. In this way, a set of previously published data was more than doubled in scope. Detailed conclusions indicate the positive effect of the tested fuel additive. The emission values decreased, on average by 16.7% for particulate matter (PM), 10.1% for carbon monoxide (CO), and 7.9% for total hydrocarbons (THC). Unfortunately, the amount of nitrogen oxides (NOx) increased by 1.2%. The average difference in specific fuel consumption (BSFC) between the fuel with additive and pure diesel fuel was 0.5%, i.e. below the level of measurement error. The authors formulated the following scientific relationship between the thermal efficiency of the engine and the operation of the catalyst: the effect of the catalyst on the combustion process decreases with the increase of the thermodynamic efficiency of the engine. This conclusion indicates that despite the proven positive effect of catalysts on the combustion process, they can only be used in markets where engines with low thermal efficiency are used, i.e., older generation engines.