Development of a method to measure “soft particles” in the fuel

Sammanfattning: As environmental awareness raises the expectations to reduce emission of modern diesel engines are growing as well. Fuel diversity and the advanced injector systems requires even more attention on an ever existing problem which is called nozzle hole fouling. Recent literature and observations at Scania indicate the phenomena is connected to fuel filter plugging caused by metal carboxyl contaminants through the formation of “soft particles”. This report begins with a literature review about the nature of agglomerates in biodiesel. Followed by the evaluation of six particle sizing equipment. This include one ensemble technique based on Brownian motion, namely dynamic light scattering. The remaining five techniques are single particle counters, including a high speed camera system, light blocking system, Nano tracking analysis and two different approaches using light microscope. To characterise the structure and chemical components of the particles SEM, EDX, FT-IR and ICP-OES were used. From the above mentioned methods optical microscopy was chosen to be the best method to evaluate the particle distribution. The main reasons for this is the ability to measure particles in the solution in the desired size range and the possibility to couple it with a Raman spectrometer, providing possibilities for future studies. Besides finding the best technique to measure the particles, a secondary result is the negation of Zinc-neodecanoate creating particles in the fuel. It opposes the assumption made in the literature about filter blocking, and it finds the need for deeper understanding of the nature of soft particles.