A prominent science magazine whose storied archives include articles from Albert Einstein recently wrote about new diesel technology which has been shown to drastically reduce soot.
The December edition of Scientific American features a story on a patented ducted fuel injection (DFI) system which has demonstrated soot particle reduction rates of 50 to 100 percent.
Combustion scientist Charles Mueller, who works at Sandia National Laboratories, has patented his Bunsen burner like technology which has attracted support from Ford, Caterpillar, Toyota and Georgia Tech.
Mueller’s device introduces more air into diesel injectors which makes for a more thorough burn and thus produces far less soot. His idea hails from the humble, but effective Bunsen burner.
“He saw that by equipping diesel fuel injectors with tiny Bunsen–burner-chimney equivalents—small metal tubes installed a short distance from the injector nozzle hole and aligned with the fuel stream—fuel and air could be more fully premixed to enable that even, soot-free, blue-flame burning,” writes Scientific American staff editor Steven Ashley. “And it could happen at the lower temperatures required for anti-NOx dilution.”
In a Sandia Lab News story titled ‘Diesel Engine Revolution,’ Mueller explains how oxygenated, renewable diesel fuels used in a DFI system could further lower emissions and lead to a reduction of heavy and costly after-treatment exhaust components.
“Using oxygenated fuels with DFI lowers emissions more than DFI with conventional diesel fuel, perhaps enough to enable a less-expensive engine system because less exhaust after-treatment would be required,” Mueller says.
