Reducing Exhaust Gas Emissions of Stationary Diesel Engines Using Water Bath

This work was conducted with the aim of reducing exhaust gas emissions of stationary diesel engines, particularly those used locally by the private sector for electric power generation. A specially designed water bath equipped with perforated tubes submerged in water and supplied with water circulation to maintain the cleanness of water was used for this purpose. The diesel engine exhaust gas was admitted to the water bath through the perforated tubes such that the exhaust gas is "cleaned up" thoroughly before being released to the atmosphere. An experimental work was conducted on a four-stroke, air-cooled, one-cylinder diesel engine to verify the feasibility of using this technique in reducing exhaust gas emissions before applying it to large size diesel engines. The experimental results indicated that the use of the proposed water bath led to enormous reductions in oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), unburnt Hydrocarbons (HC), Carbon Monoxide (CO), and exhaust gas temperatures. In addition to a relatively small reduction in exhaust noise. For the engine power range considered in this work (0.4-2 kW), NOx was reduced by 62-73%, unburned HC was reduced by 72-85%, CO was reduced by 41-68%, exhaust gas temperature was reduced by 89-91% and exhaust noise was reduced by 1-7%.