Morphology and volatility of particulate matter emitted from a gasoline direct injection engine fuelled on gasoline and ethanol blends

•Particulate matter from GDI engine fuelled with gasoline-ethanol blends studied.•Increase in ethanol fraction or decrease in load decreased number concentration.•Increase in ethanol fraction or decrease in load decreased effective density.•Number and mass-based volatile fractions were consistently under 10%.•No significant effects observed from denuding particles.

The particulate matter emitted from a turbocharged, four cylinder, wall-guided, gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine fuelled with gasoline and ethanol blends was investigated, and characterized by size distribution, mass-mobility exponent, effective density, and volatility using tandem measurements from differential mobility analysers (DMA) and a centrifugal particle mass analyser (CPMA). Three engine loads were tested at 2250 RPM (4%, 13%, and 26% of maximum load) in addition to an idle condition while the engine was fuelled using gasoline mixed with ethanol fractions of 0% (E0), 10% (E10), and 50% (E50) by volume. An increase in engine load increased particle number concentration, although idle produced approximately as many particles as at 13% load. In the majority of cases, an increase in ethanol fraction decreased number concentration. The fraction of the number of particles comprised of only volatile material to total number of particles (number volatile fraction) both overall and as a function of particle mobility-equivalent diameter was under 10 percent at all engine conditions and fuels (measured after a three-way catalytic converter). The size-segregated ratio of the mass of internally mixed volatile material to total particle mass was similarly low. Volatility measurements were conducted using a thermodenuder set to 300°C. Mass-mobility exponent was seen to range between 2.28 and 2.60. Effective density increased with load, and in general mass-mobility exponent increased as well. Effective density decreased with an increase in ethanol fraction and a slight decrease in mass-mobility exponent was also observed for all conditions except idle. No significant changes in effective density, particle size, or number concentration were observed in GDI soot after denuding particle samples.