Organic acids emissions from natural-gas-fed engines

A natural-gas-fed spark-ignition engine, operating under lean conditions, is used for the study of the organic acids exhaust emissions. These pollutants are collected by passing a sample of exhaust gas into deionised water. The final solution is directly analysed by HPLC/UV at 204 nm. Only formic acid is emitted in detectable concentration under the experimental conditions used. Its concentration decreases with the three engine operating parameters studied: spark advance, volumetric efficiency and fuel/air equivalence ratio. Exhaust formic acid concentration is also linked with exhaust oxygen concentration and exhaust temperature. A comparison with other engines (SI engines fed with gasoline and compression ignition engines) from bibliographic data proves that natural-gas-fed engines emit less organic acids than the other two types of engines.