Isopropanol-butanol-ethanol (IBE) is considered to be a promising alternative fuel for diesel to reduce soot emissions. However, currently researchers have not yet revealed its soot formation processes. In this regard, the forward illumination light extinction (FILE) technology was used to investigate the soot formation process of IBE/diesel blends. Diesel containing 50% of IBE in volume (IBE50), pure IBE (IBE100), and diesel were tested. The experimental results show that soot formation regions for the tested fuels are greatly affected by the ambient conditions. The lower the ambient temperature is, the smaller the soot formation region is. Besides, a low ambient temperature coupled with a small ambient oxygen concentration may further reduce soot formation regions of the tested fuels. Results also show that soot formation regions of IBE50 and IBE100 are obviously smaller than that of diesel. In most test conditions, the head of soot formation regions for IBE50 and IBE100 exhibits as a thin strip. Furthermore, soot formation duration and intensity of IBE50 and IBE100 are obviously small in comparison with diesel, especially at low ambient temperature. The results of this study indicate that when IBE is directly blended with diesel, it is able to reduce soot emissions.

In order to address the issue of battery cell disparity in lithium-ion battery systems, battery balancing techniques are required. This paper proposes an improved battery balancing strategy within a reconfigurable converter system. The strategy is based on the state of charge (SOC) of batteries, and utilizes the reconfigurable converter system to transfer energy from battery modules with high SOC to those with lower SOC. Additionally, it allows for battery module balancing while supplying power to loads. A MATLAB/Simulink simulation model with five batteries was built to validate the effectiveness of the proposed balancing strategy under unloaded and loaded conditions. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed strategy achieves more efficient and accurate battery module balancing compared to the previous balancing modes.

The dual-fuel combustion strategy is a promising method to achieve the high-ratio utilization of isopropanol–butanol–ethanol (IBE) in diesel engines. However, how the diesel injection timing affects the combustion and emission characteristics of the diesel/IBE dual-fuel engine has been seldom systematically studied. In this regard, experiments were conducted on a diesel/IBE dual-fuel engine with the engine load fixed at 50% and the engine speed fixed at 1600 rpm, while the co-combustion ratio of IBE to diesel varied from 20.51% to 52.56%. The results show that both the peak in-cylinder pressure and maximum heat release rate increase as the diesel injection timing advances, resulting in the brake thermal efficiency of the diesel/IBE dual-fuel engine increasing. For emissions, CO emissions always decrease as the diesel injection timing advances, while HC emissions increase with the diesel injection timing either delayed or advanced. Furthermore, although the NO₂ emissions first increase and then decrease as the diesel injection timing advances, the NO emissions continue to increase, leading to an overall increase in NO_x emissions. However, whether the diesel injection timing is advanced or delayed, PN emissions are significantly reduced. That is to say, delaying the diesel injection timing can simultaneously reduce NO_x and PN emissions in a diesel/IBE dual-fuel engine.