Barium Additives As Diesel Smoke Suppressants

The body of information presented in this paper is directed to those individuals concerned with the emission of smoke from diesel engines. A series of tests was performed on a Petter Type AA1 diesel engine using barium smoke suppressant additives. An Andersen cascade type sampler was used to collect samples and thus study the effect of the additive upon the total smoke emission, smoke size distribution and smoke composition. For a portion of the tests radioactive barium (¹³³Ba) and scintillation counting techniques were used.

Type 1-D fuel was used for all tests. Baseline tests were performed to determine the smoke emission characteristics using nontreated fuel, 0.5% by volume of Bryton additive, and 0.75% by volume of Lubrizol additive. For the radioactive additive, tests were conducted using dosages of 0.13%, 0.26%, 0.41%, and 0.82% by volume. The results of these tests revealed that the additive does not alter the particle size distribution, but the total mass emission from the engine is reduced by approximately 50% at the dosages tested. The dosage level of the additive does not influence the distribution of barium within the exhaust particles. Also it seems that the soluble percentage (in 0.1 N HCI) is influenced by the dosage level. The results of the solubility tests at low dosage levels seem to imply that the smoke inhibition mechanism occurs within the fuel droplet.