Experimental and numerical study on the effect of oxymethylene ether-3 (OME3) on soot particle formation

The reduction and control of particulate matter generated by fossil fuel combustion are among the main issues for actual future devices due to increasingly stringent emission regulations. Recently, various fuels have been investigated as a potential substitute or additive diesel gasoline. This work focuses on how oxymethylene ether-3 (OME3), smallest promising OME compound, affects carbon formation when blended with ethylene in burner-stabilized premixed flames at different equivalence ratios. Particle size distribution (PSD) Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) Incandescence (LII) along numerical (Conditional Quadrature Method Moments – CQMOM, based D’Anna physico-chemical soot model) investigations were conducted study particle growth pure ethylene/OME3 flames. volume fraction PSD indicate total number particles all ratios, while small nanoparticles remains almost unchanged. CQMOM model is able predict similar trends and, using entropy maximization concept, general shape both OME3-blended flames, compared experimental measurements. Further, was thermophoretically sampled highest ratio conditions spectroscopically analyzed. structure UV–Visible Raman spectroscopy, finding slightly higher aromaticity soot. FTIR analysis showed that produced from an OME3-doped flame contained larger amounts oxygen, mainly form CO.