Research and Development of a DME Engine for Heavy-Duty Trucks.

In recent years, attention has focused on smokeless, sulfur-free dimethyl ethyl (DME) as a clean fuel for heavy-duty diesel vehicles. As a part of its Next-Generation Environmentally Friendly Vehicles Project (EFV21), the Japan Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has developed an engine for heavy-duty trucks in the 20-ton class that uses DME as its fuel. The developed DME engine performance achieved an output and fuel consumption the same as the base diesel engine, and also achieved near zero emission levels for NOx (0.11 g/kWh) and PM (0.001g/kWh). In this paper, a summary of the project is given and development targets are described. Furthermore, this paper explains the final results of development regarding a DME injection system, improvement of DME combustion, and a NOx reduction catalyst system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]