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Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Kanpur, India (208016)


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Prototyping Development of Dimethyl Ether Fuelled Tractor Engine

As emission norms are becoming stringent day by day and in the view of energy security, it is very much essential and necessary to find alternate solutions. Dimethyl Ether is an alternative fuel for conventional diesel engine similar to as Alcohol is for petrol engine. Dimethyl Ether is a simplest form of ether with chemical formula CH3OCH3. It can be synthesis indirectly by dehydration of methanol or directly from natural gas. As DME does not have any C-C bond it is said that exhaust emission would be free of soot and NOx can be eliminated by Exhaust Gas Recirculation, which are the two main exhaust emission constituents for diesel engines. Challenges for using DME as a fuel are mainly, handling the liquefied gas at a pressure above its vapour pressure(5bar @NTP) to maintain liquid state through out the fuel injection system, both in high pressure line and low pressure line with leak proof joints and mixing additives with DME in pressurized condition to lubricate the fuel injection pump. Other modification that might be incorporated are: changes in design of fuel injection system such as injection angle and nozzle diameter to inject the high vapor pressure DME having low calorific value compared to conventional diesel. Currently in our laboratory to modify the design of mechanical fuel injection system of existing 49hp tractor engine, macroscopic and microscopic spray study is being carried out with a  high speed CCD camera (Photron, FastCam SA 1.1) and Phase Doppler Interferometry(Artium, PDI-300 MD). Further the low pressure line suitable for liquid DME supply to the engine is also being developed. This project also has a scope to run the engine in transient dynamometer for checking transient load conditions, combustion analyzing, exhaust gas emission and particulate measurements.


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Last updated on 1st March, 2020