Effects of port injection of hydrous ethanol on combustion and emission characteristics in dual-fuel reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) mode

Energy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 145 ◽  
pp. 592-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haifeng Liu ◽  
Guixiang Ma ◽  
Bin Hu ◽  
Zunqing Zheng ◽  
Mingfa Yao
Author(s):  
Wei Fang ◽  
David B. Kittelson ◽  
William F. Northrop

Dual-fuel reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion can yield high thermal efficiency and simultaneously low NOx and soot emissions. Although soot emissions from RCCI is very low, hydrocarbon emissions are high, potentially resulting in higher than desired total particulate matter (PM) mass and number caused by semi-volatile species converting the particle phase upon primary dilution in the exhaust plume. Such high organic fraction PM is known to be highly sensitive to the dilution conditions used when collecting samples on a filter or when measuring particle number using particle sizing instruments. In this study, PM emissions from a modified single-cylinder diesel engine operating in RCCI and conventional diesel combustion modes were investigated under different dilution conditions. To investigate the effect of the fumigated fuel on the PM emissions, 150 proof hydrous ethanol and gasoline were used as low reactivity fuels to study the relative contribution of fumigant versus directly injected fuel on the PM emissions. Our study found that PM from RCCI combustion is more sensitive to the variation of dilution conditions than PM from single fuel conventional diesel combustion. RCCI PM primarily consisted of semi-volatile organic compounds and a smaller amount of solid carbonaceous particles. The fumigated fuel had a significant effect on the PM emissions characteristics for RCCI combustion. Hydrous ethanol fueled RCCI PM contained a larger fraction of volatile materials and were more sensitive to the variation of dilution conditions compared to the gasoline fueled RCCI mode.


2014 ◽  
Vol 137 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Fang ◽  
Junhua Fang ◽  
David B. Kittelson ◽  
William F. Northrop

Dual-fuel reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion using port injection of a less reactive fuel and early-cycle direct injection (DI) of a more reactive fuel has been shown to yield both high thermal efficiency and low NOX and soot emissions over a wide engine operating range. Conventional and alternative fuels such as gasoline, natural gas, and E85 as the lower reactivity fuel in RCCI have been studied by many researchers; however, published experimental investigations of hydrous ethanol use in RCCI are scarce. Making greater use of hydrous ethanol in internal combustion engines has the potential to dramatically improve the economics and life cycle carbon dioxide emissions of using bioethanol. In this work, an experimental investigation was conducted using 150 proof hydrous ethanol as the low reactivity fuel and commercially available diesel as the high reactivity fuel in an RCCI combustion mode at various load conditions. A modified single-cylinder diesel engine was used for the experiments. Based on previous studies on RCCI combustion by other researchers, early-cycle split-injection strategy of diesel fuel was used to create an in-cylinder fuel reactivity distribution to maintain high thermal efficiency and low NOX and soot emissions. At each load condition, timing and mass fraction of the first diesel injection was held constant, while timing of the second diesel injection was swept over a range where stable combustion could be maintained. Since hydrous ethanol is highly resistant to auto-ignition and has large heat of vaporization, intake air heating was needed to obtain stable operations of the engine. The study shows that 150 proof hydrous ethanol can be used as the low reactivity fuel in RCCI through 8.6 bar indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) and with ethanol energy fraction up to 75% while achieving simultaneously low levels of NOX and soot emissions. With increasing engine load, less intake heating is needed and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is required to maintain low NOX emissions.


Author(s):  
Jae Hyung Lim ◽  
Rolf D. Reitz

In the present study a chamfered piston crown design was used in order to reduce unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) emissions from the ring-pack crevice. Compared to the conventional piston design, the chamfered piston showed 17%∼41% reduction in the crevice-borne UHC emissions in homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion. Through parametric sweeps 6 mm was identified to be a suitable chamfer size and the mechanism of the UHC reduction was revealed. Based on the findings in this study, the chamfered piston design was also tested in dual-fuel reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion. In the tested RCCI case using the chamfered piston the UHC and CO emissions were reduced by 79% and 36%, respectively, achieving 99.5% combustion efficiency. This also improved gross indicated thermal efficiency from 51.1% to 51.8% in a 9 bar IMEP RCCI combustion case.


Author(s):  
Wei Fang ◽  
David B. Kittelson ◽  
William F. Northrop ◽  
Junhua Fang

Dual-fuel reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion using port injection of a less reactive fuel and early-cycle direct injection of a more reactive fuel has been shown to yield both high thermal efficiency and low NOX and soot emissions over a wide engine operating range. Conventional and alternative fuels such as gasoline, natural gas and E85 as the lower reactivity fuel in RCCI have been studied by many researchers; however, published experimental investigations of hydrous ethanol use in RCCI are scarce. Making greater use of hydrous ethanol in internal combustion engines has the potential to dramatically improve the economics and life cycle carbon dioxide emissions of using bio-ethanol. In this work, an experimental investigation was conducted using 150 proof hydrous ethanol as the low reactivity fuel and commercially-available diesel as the high reactivity fuel in an RCCI combustion mode at various load conditions. A modified single-cylinder diesel engine was used for the experiments. Based on previous studies on RCCI combustion by other researchers, early-cycle split-injection strategy of diesel fuel was used to create an in-cylinder fuel reactivity distribution to maintain high thermal efficiency and low NOX and soot emissions. At each load condition, timing and mass fraction of the first diesel injection was held constant, while timing of the second diesel injection was swept over a range where stable combustion could be maintained. Since hydrous ethanol is highly resistant to auto-ignition and has large heat of vaporization, intake air heating was needed to obtain stable operations of the engine. The study shows that 150 proof hydrous ethanol can be used as the low reactivity fuel in RCCI through 8.6 bar IMEP and with ethanol energy fraction up to 75% while achieving simultaneously low levels of NOX and soot emissions. With increasing engine load, less intake heating is needed and EGR is required to maintain low NOX emissions. Future work will look at stability of hydrous ethanol RCCI at higher engine load.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document