Study on the active regeneration characteristics of DPF in diesel-methanol dual-fuel engine under different exhaust oxygen concentrations

•Intake airflow modulation is proposed to manage exhaust O2 concentrations.•Studied DPF active regeneration efficiency across varying O2 concentrations.•Evaluated fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in DPF’s active regeneration phase. This study proposes a method to control exhaust oxygen (O2) concentration by adjusting the intake throttle valve, achieving intake throttling, and reducing intake airflow. The impact of exhaust O2 concentration at the inlet of the diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) the diesel particulate filter (DPF) performance during active regeneration in diesel engines is investigated. Experiments are conducted under methanol substitution rates (MSR) of 0% and 20% to investigate how different exhaust O2 concentrations affect the performance of the DOC and DPF during active regeneration. A comparative analysis of fuel consumption and cumulative CO2 emissions during DPF active regeneration under different exhaust O2 concentrations is performed. Research results indicate that decreasing exhaust O2 concentration reduces exhaust flow, raising DOC inlet temperature. This enhancement improves catalytic conversion efficiency, accelerating the rise in DPF inlet temperature. The average conversion efficiency of DOC to unburned methanol exceeds 98.07%. After initiating DPF active regeneration, O2 concentration sharply drops, leading to elevated CO2 emissions. As soot combustion advances, the required O2 diminishes, resulting in a gradual rise and eventual stabilization of O2 emissions. Economically and environmentally, irrespective of MSR (20% or 0%), there exists an optimal exhaust O2 concentration that minimizes effective regeneration time during DPF active regeneration, achieving minimal fuel consumption and the lowest CO2 mass emissions. This study offers theoretical support for optimizing energy-saving and emission-reduction processes during DPF active regeneration.