Study of combustion and emission characteristics of turbocharged diesel engine fuelled with dimethylether

An experimental study of a turbocharged diesel engine operating on dimethyl ether (DME) was conducted. The combustion and emission characteristics of the DME engine were investigated. The results show that the maximum torque and power of DME are greater than those of diesel, particularly at low speeds; the brake specific fuel consumption of DME is lower than that of diesel at low and middle engine speeds, and the injection delay of DME is longer than that of diesel. However, the maximum cylinder pressure, maximum pressure rise rate and combustion noises of the DME engine are lower than those of diesel. The combustion velocity of DME is faster than that of diesel, resulting in a shorter combustion duration of DME. Compared with the diesel engine, NO_x emission of the DME engine is reduced by 41.6% on ESC data. In addition, the DME engine is smoke free at any operating condition.