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Synthetic fuels and fuel blends like OMEs can contribute to tank-to-wheel CO2 emission savings. At the same time, it is known that these fuels have a lower exhaust temperature compared to conventional diesel. This effect has major impact on the exhaust after-treatment system, particularly in cold start conditions. This paper investigates the light-off behavior of exhaust gases containing OMEs by temperature-programmed oxidation experiments using a state-of-the-art oxidation catalyst. The main side product of catalytic oxidation of OMEs between 100 °C and the oxidation temperature T50, which was around 160 °C, was shown to be formaldehyde. While alkane oxidation, in this case heptane, was little influenced by OME oxidation, the oxidation temperature T50 of CO increases by more than 10 °C by OME addition. Nitrogen monoxide impeded the oxidation of OME in a similar way to the other components investigated. Due to the amount of FA produced and its toxicity, it could be concluded that it is necessary to heat up exhaust after-treatment systems of OME diesel engines even faster than conventional diesel exhaust after-treatment systems. The relatively high reactivity of OME on oxidation catalyst can be used by active thermal management approaches.

In this work, a novel catalytic evaporator was tested in a single-cylinder Heavy-Duty Diesel engine in order to achieve low NOx and soot emissions as well as to control the combustion phase for homogeneous Low-Temperature Combustion (LTC). Conventionally, two fuels with different ignition properties are used to control the combustion phasing, however in this study only diesel is used. As a consequence of our presented approach, the ignition properties of the fuel vapour can be adjusted by changing the operating parameters of the catalytic evaporator.