[Voltek Hybrid]

I have a single cylinder 5kW diesel generator to use for fuel efficiency and emissions reductions improvement experiments. I built an emulsifier out of an old drill press and paint cans. It's basically just a spinning cylinder inside another cylinder to get a lot of shearing force.

The experiments I'm doing is seeing if I can get this diesel generator to run on water/diesel emulsions, with up to 70% water. I want to determine how much ozone is needed to support combustion of high water percentage Water/Diesel Emulsion.

I've found several papers going back over the last decades about improving the efficiency and emissions of compression ignition engines. It's well documented that water injection, Water/Diesel emulsions, and ozone can be very beneficial for CI engines when utilized properly.

I've read papers where they increased efficiency by 10% and significantly reduced emissions by using water injection or emulsions alone. I've seen similar results with ozone or oxygen enrichment. I've also found 2 papers that experimented with combining ozone enrichment and Water/Diesel emulsions; both had very encouraging results.

Combining these two methods together can produce some incredible results. There's a point of diminishing returns for both ozone and emulsions, however if you combine them together, their strengths are amplified and their weaknesses are reduced. Once you get to about 30% water in your emulsion, peak cylinder temperatures get too low and combustion takes too long to fully complete. Once you get to about 26% O2 the peak temperatures get too high resulting in high NOx emissions and engine damage. Combined together, the water keeps the temperatures down. What I want to know is, where's the limit? If you had over 30% O2 in your intake air, could you run up to 70% water in your emulsion while still producing the same amount of power?

Ok so I know I was just saying O2 above when this thread is about O3, ozone. Most of the papers I could find were about oxygen enriched combustion; I could only find a few about ozone assisted combustion. So I've had to borrow some things from those papers to fill in the gaps. Whether it's O2 or O3, we can still look at the total amount of just O entering the cylinder and use that to determine how many grams of O are in 1L of intake air and what percentage O it is.

Ok so for the chemistry part of my questions. Combustion of hydrocarbons with ozone is different than with O2. If my understanding is correct, it kind of splits the combustion into 2 phases, a cool combustion phase and regular combustion phase. The "cool" combustion was diesel and ozone combusting to acetylene, and then regular combustion happens. That acetylene helps more diesel molecules combust faster. There's actually several papers about acetylene enriched combustion of CI engines as well. In this way, the ozone is working as a partial catalyst to assist combustion; so it's not because were just adding more O into the intake air that we get improvements, it's because of the difference between how oxygen and ozone react.

I also found a paper talking about the solubility of ozone in different liquids. Ozone is 10 times more soluble in water than oxygen. I couldn't get a number for diesel, but I do know that they sell ozonated olive oil for topical use and that you can ozonate it until the oil starts solidifying. My question is: what's the solubility at STP of ozone gas in diesel?

I've found papers about using ozone to help clean up oil spills or even diesel spills. The ozone speeds up the decomposition of the hydrocarbons. For my experiment, I wanted to fully saturate the water and diesel with ozone before they go into the emulsifier while also feeding pure O2 gas into an ozone generator that goes to the intake manifold. What I can't figure out, is if it's even possible for me to ozonate diesel fuel or if I'm just decomposing it. I tried bubbling ozone gas through a gallon of diesel inside a little refrigerator for a few days. It turned brown, does have an ozone smell, but I have no idea what the composition is anymore!

So I guess that's my question, is it possible to ozonate diesel fuel?

What is the limit for sustaining combustion of a Water/Diesel emulsion if the combustion is being enhanced with ozone?

Thank you so much for your time!

[rolnor]

I guess diesel is partially unsaturated and the double bonds will react with ozone forming ozonides, these ozonides are unstable and will break down to other products over time.
I think the whole process is very complex. I think it has been studied so you should search Scifinder, Reaxys and the patent databases.

I found this on the webb:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0045653514003452

[Borek]

So I guess that's my question, is it possible to ozonate diesel fuel?

Define "ozonate".

You are looking for a solution that is saturated with ozone, right? So no, that's not what you get. Ozone quickly reacts with hydrocarbons from the diesel and gets consumed in the process.

[rolnor]

I think I already explained this Borek?

[Voltek Hybrid]

Yes by ozonate I mean saturate with ozone gas. Yes I do remember reading about the ozonides. So it forms ozonides and then those further decay? So it's not possible to ozonate diesel? Why can olive oil be ozonated but not diesel? Thank you!

[rolnor]

Olive oil also reacts the same way with ozone.

[Borek]

So it's not possible to ozonate diesel?  Why can olive oil be ozonated but not diesel?

Again: you are confusing two different possible meanings of the word "ozonate".

You want it to mean "saturate the liquid with unchanged ozone molecules". What it really means is "pass the ozone through the solution and let it do whatever it does to the solution components".

I think I already explained this Borek?

Yes, but apparently not strongly enough, as OP still makes the same mistake.