Bioeconomy Institute

Modeling Study on NOx Reduction Strategies for Biodiesel

There is increasing interest in using higher biodiesel blends in diesel engines for electricity generation for reasons of reducing petroleum dependency and decreasing emissions in particulate matters, carbon monoxides (CO) and unburned hydrocarbons (HC). Nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission is an important factor in determining the operating hours of a utility generator. Unfortunately NOx increases as biodiesel blends increase and therefore research is needed to propose NOx reduction strategies for biodiesel combustion.

This project will perform modeling study of combustion and NOx emissions from large diesel engines using biodiesel/diesel blends. This project is a sub-contract from Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities who will burn B10 and B20 in several power plants to obtain emissions data. The objective of this project is to use the test data to validate a computer code for engine simulations. The test data consist of engine power and NOx emissions for different biodiesel blends. Different engine types that are used for utility generation will be studied. After validation and calibration, the model will be run to determine the impact of timing changes for NOx control for many engine types. This will provide recommendations for utilities that wish to burn high biodiesel blends and control NOx.

Prinicipal Investigator:

Song-Charng Kong, Iowa State University

Participating and/or Sponsoring Organizations:

Iowa Energy Center
Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities