The impact of natural gas on the ecological safety of using Diesel engine

Transport is the source of numerous hazards both to natural environment and to people's health and life. Currently, efforts are being undertaken to limit the negative impact of the economy, transport included, upon the natural environment, and one of the main concerns is ensuring safety to people. The sources of hazard caused by transportation include, among other things, combustion engines. Their operation generates emission of toxic compounds, greenhouse gases and noise. This article discusses the basic hazards caused by transportation to natural environment and to people as well as the issue of fuels used for powering combustion engines. The aim of the paper was to demonstrate the impact of natural gas upon ecological safety of using Diesel engine powered by both natural gas and Diesel fuel. The tests have been conducted on the engine testing bench. During the tests, the engine was operating under the load characteristics. With specified operating conditions, ecological parameters and fuel consumption of the engine have been determined as it was powered with both fuels and - for comparison purposes - with Diesel fuel only. With dual-fuelling, the energy consumption increased and so did the concentration of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons in exhaust gases. Also, smokiness of the exhaust gases noted a higher value, whereas the concentration of carbon dioxide and nitric oxides decreased. The obtained results suggest that it is necessary to interfere in the process of creating the fuel-air mixture and its combustion in order to improve the ecological parameters of the engine's operation.