scholarly journals Potential and Limitations of Dual Fuel Operation of High Speed Large Engines

2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Redtenbacher ◽  
Constantin Kiesling ◽  
Maximilian Malin ◽  
Andreas Wimmer ◽  
José V. Pastor ◽  
...  

The aim of this paper is to identify and investigate the potential and limitations of diesel–gas combustion concepts for high speed large engines operated in gas mode with very small amounts of pilot fuel (<5% diesel fraction). Experimental tests were carried out on a flexible single cylinder research engine (displacement 6.24 dm3) equipped with a common rail system. Various engine configurations and operating parameters were varied and the effects on the combustion process were analyzed. The results presented in this paper include a comparison of the performance of the investigated dual fuel concept to those of a state-of-the-art monofuel gas engine and a state-of-the-art monofuel diesel engine. Evaluation reveals that certain limiting factors exist that prevent the dual fuel engine from performing as well as the superior gas engine. At the same NOx level of 1.3 g/kWh, the efficiency of the dual fuel engine is ≈3.5% pts. lower than that of the gas engine. This is caused by the weaker ignition performance of the injected pilot fuel compared to that of the gas scavenged prechamber of the gas engine. On the other hand, the dual fuel concept has the potential to compete with the diesel engine. The dual fuel engine can be operated at the efficiency level of the diesel engine yet with significantly lower NOx emissions (3.5 g/kWh and 6.3 g/kWh, respectively). Since the injection of pilot fuel is of major importance for flame initialization, and thus for the main combustion event of the dual fuel engine, optical investigations in a spray box, measurements of injection rates, and three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation were conducted to obtain even more detailed insight into these processes. A study on the influence of the diesel fraction shows that diminishing the diesel fraction from 3% to lower values has a significant impact on engine performance because of the effects of such a reduction on injection, ignition delay, and initial flame formation. The presented results illustrate which operating strategy is beneficial for engine performance in terms of low NOx emissions and high efficiency. Moreover, potential measures can be derived which allow for further optimization of the diesel–gas combustion process.

Author(s):  
Christoph Redtenbacher ◽  
Constantin Kiesling ◽  
Maximilian Malin ◽  
Andreas Wimmer ◽  
Jose V. Pastor ◽  
...  

Interest is growing in using fully flexible diesel-gas dual fuel engines for power generation and propulsion on land and sea. Benefits such as the flexibility to adapt the type of fuel to the market situation, fail-safe operation and lower NOx emissions than diesel engines are convincing arguments for engine operators. However, diesel-gas engine concepts still suffer from lower efficiency than state-of-the-art monovalent diesel engines and spark ignited gas engines when operated in the corresponding fuel mode. To meet stringent NOx emission legislation, high diesel substitution rates are necessary, which in turn often lead to poor combustion stability. Especially with these small diesel fractions, the challenge remains to ensure stable ignition, fast combustion of the air-fuel mixture and low hydrocarbon emissions. The aim of this paper is to identify and investigate the potential and limitations of diesel-gas combustion concepts for high speed large engines operated in gas mode with very small amounts of pilot fuel (&lt; 5 % diesel fraction1). Experimental tests were carried out on a flexible single cylinder research engine (swept volume approximately 6 1) equipped with a common rail system. Various engine configurations and operating parameters were varied and the effects on the combustion process were analyzed. The results presented in this paper include a comparison of the performance of the investigated dual fuel concept to those of a state-of-the-art monovalent gas engine and a state-of-the-art monovalent diesel engine. Evaluation reveals that certain limiting factors exist that prevent the dual fuel engine from performing as well as the superior gas engine. On the other hand, the potential is already present for the dual fuel concept to compete with the diesel engine. Since the injection of pilot fuel is of major importance for flame initialization and thus for the main combustion event of the dual fuel engine, optical investigations in a spray box, measurements of injection rates and 3D-CFD simulation were conducted to obtain even more detailed insight into these processes. A study on the influence of the diesel fraction shows that diminishing the diesel fraction from 3 % to lower values has a significant impact on engine performance because of the effects of such a reduction on injection, ignition delay and initial flame formation. An investigation of the influence of the injection timing reveals that with diesel fractions of ≤ 1.5 %, the well-known relationship between the injection timing and combustion phasing of conventional engine concepts is no longer valid. The presented results illustrate which operating strategy is beneficial for engine performance in terms of low NOx emissions and high efficiency. Moreover, potential measures can be derived which allow for further optimization of the diesel-gas combustion process.


Author(s):  
Roussos G. Papagiannakis ◽  
Theodoros C. Zannis ◽  
Elias A. Yfantis ◽  
Dimitrios T. Hountalas

The simultaneous reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions and particulate matter in a compression ignition environment is quite difficult due to the soot/NOx trade off and it is often accompanied by fuel consumption penalties. Thus, fuel reformulation is also essential for the curtailment of diesel pollutant emissions along with the optimization of combustion-related design factors and exhaust after-treatment equipment. Various solutions have been proposed for improving the combustion process of conventional diesel engines and reducing the exhaust emissions without making serious modifications on the engine, one of which is the use of natural gas as a supplement for the conventional diesel fuel (Dual Fuel Natural Gas/Diesel Engines). Natural gas is considered to be quite promising since its cost is relative lower compared to conventional fuels and it has high auto-ignition temperature compared to other gaseous fuels facilitating thus its use on future and existing fleet of small high speed direct injection diesel engines without serious modifications on their structure. Moreover, natural gas does not generate particulates when burned in engines. The most common natural gas/diesel operating mode is referred to as the Pilot Ignited Natural Gas Diesel Engine (P.I.N.G.D.E). Here, the primary fuel is natural gas that controls the engine power output, while the pilot diesel fuel injected near the end of the compression stroke autoignites and creates ignition sources for the surrounding gaseous fuel mixture to be burned. Previous research studies have shown that the main disadvantage of this dual fuel combustion is its negative impact on engine efficiency compared to the normal diesel operation, while carbon monoxide emissions are also increased. The specific engine operating mode, in comparison with conventional diesel fuel operation, suffers from low brake engine efficiency and high carbon monoxide (CO) emissions. The influence becomes more evident at part load conditions. Intake charge temperature, pilot fuel quantity and injection advance are some of the engine parameters which influence significantly the combustion mechanism inside the combustion chamber of a Pilot Ignited Natural Gas Diesel Engine. In order to be examined the effect of these parameters on performance and exhaust emissions of a natural gas/diesel engine a theoretical investigation has been conducted by using a numerical simulation. In order to be examined the effect of increased air inlet temperature combined with increased pilot fuel quantity and its injection timing on performance and exhaust emissions of a pilot ignited natural gas-diesel engine, a theoretical investigation has been conducted by using a comprehensive two-zone phenomenological model. The results concerning engine performance characteristics and NO, CO and Soot emissions for various engine operating conditions (i.e. load and engine speed), comes from the employment of a comprehensive two-zone phenomenological model which had been applied on a high-speed natural gas/diesel engine. The main objectives of this comparative assessment are to record and to comparatively evaluate the relative impact each one of the above mentioned parameters on engine performance characteristics and emitted pollutants. Furthermore, the present investigation deals with the determining of optimum combinations between the parameters referred before since at high engine load conditions, the simultaneous increase some of the specific parameters may lead in undesirable results about engine performance characteristics. The conclusions of the specific investigation will be extremely valuable for the application of this technology on existing DI diesel engines.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-112
Author(s):  
Ashok Kumar ◽  
Piyushi Nautiyal ◽  
Kamalasish Dev

The present study is investigated on the performance and emissions characteristics of a diesel engine fuelled by compressed natural gas and base diesel (CNG + Diesel). The CNG fuels used as the primary fuel, and diesel as pilot fuel under dual-fuel mode. The pilot fuel is partially replaced by CNG at a different percentage. The primary fuel is injected into the engine with intake air during the suction stroke. The experimental results reveal the effect of CNG + diesel under dual fuel mode on BTE, BSFC, CO, CO2, HC, NOx and Smoke. It is observed from the experimental results that CO2, NOx and Smoke emissions decreased but HC and CO emissions increase with an increase in CNG energy share.


Author(s):  
Bhaskor J. Bora ◽  
Ujjwal K. Saha

The race among the different nations to attain supremacy has given rise to twin crisis: depletion of fossil fuel reserves and degradation of environment. Every nation wants to increase the per capita income by producing more power. In order to achieve this feat, each nation has to burn huge amounts of fossil fuels causing an increase in the emission of greenhouse gases. In this regard, renewable energy can be a panacea to the above mentioned problems. Biogas, one form of biomass energy, has an immense potential as a renewable fuel. This biogas can be used successfully in diesel engines for the generation of power. However, in order to achieve an optimum efficiency, the operating parameters of the biogas run dual fuel engine have to be standardized. In such an engine, injection timing of the pilot fuel is one of the important operational parameters that greatly affects the engine performance. In view of this, in the present paper, an attempt has been made to standardize the injection timing of pilot fuel a biogas run dual fuel diesel engine on the basis of its performance and emission characteristics of. Experimental investigation demonstrates an improvement in efficiency and a reduction in emissions at the injection timing of 29° before top dead centre.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Hasan ◽  
Oskar J. Haidn

AbstractThe Paris Agreement has highlighted the need in reducing carbon emissions. Attempts in using lower carbon fuels such as Propane gas have seen limited success, mainly due to liquid petroleum gas tanks structural/size limitations. A compromised solution is presented, by combusting Jet A fuel with a small fraction of Propane gas. Propane gas with its relatively faster overall igniting time, expedites the combustion process. Computational fluid dynamics software was used to demonstrate this solution, with results validated against physical engine data. Jet A fuel was combusted with different Propane gas dosing fractions. Results demonstrated that depending on specific propane gas dosing fractions emission reductions in ppm are; NOx from 84 to 41, CO2 from less than 18,372 to less than 15,865, escaping unburned fuels dropped from 11.4 (just Jet A) to 6.26e-2 (with a 0.2 fraction of Propane gas). Soot and CO increased, this is due to current combustion chamber air mixing design.


Author(s):  
Raouf Mobasheri ◽  
Zhijun Peng

High-Speed Direct Injection (HSDI) diesel engines are increasingly used in automotive applications due to superior fuel economy. An advanced CFD simulation has been carried out to analyze the effect of injection timing on combustion process and emission characteristics in a four valves 2.0L Ford diesel engine. The calculation was performed from intake valve closing (IVC) to exhaust valve opening (EVO) at constant speed of 1600 rpm. Since the work was concentrated on the spray injection, mixture formation and combustion process, only a 60° sector mesh was employed for the calculations. For combustion modeling, an improved version of the Coherent Flame Model (ECFM-3Z) has been applied accompanied with advanced models for emission modeling. The results of simulation were compared against experimental data. Good agreement of calculated and measured in-cylinder pressure trace and pollutant formation trends were observed for all investigated operating points. In addition, the results showed that the current CFD model can be applied as a beneficial tool for analyzing the parameters of the diesel combustion under HSDI operating condition.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Pasternak ◽  
Fabian Mauss ◽  
Christian Klauer ◽  
Andrea Matrisciano

A numerical platform is presented for diesel engine performance mapping. The platform employs a zero-dimensional stochastic reactor model for the simulation of engine in-cylinder processes. n-Heptane is used as diesel surrogate for the modeling of fuel oxidation and emission formation. The overall simulation process is carried out in an automated manner using a genetic algorithm. The probability density function formulation of the stochastic reactor model enables an insight into the locality of turbulence–chemistry interactions that characterize the combustion process in diesel engines. The interactions are accounted for by the modeling of representative mixing time. The mixing time is parametrized with known engine operating parameters such as load, speed and fuel injection strategy. The detailed chemistry consideration and mixing time parametrization enable the extrapolation of engine performance parameters beyond the operating points used for model training. The results show that the model responds correctly to the changes of engine control parameters such as fuel injection timing and exhaust gas recirculation rate. It is demonstrated that the method developed can be applied to the prediction of engine load–speed maps for exhaust NOx, indicated mean effective pressure and fuel consumption. The maps can be derived from the limited experimental data available for model calibration. Significant speedup of the simulations process can be achieved using tabulated chemistry. Overall, the method presented can be considered as a bridge between the experimental works and the development of mean value engine models for engine control applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1441
Author(s):  
Farhad Salek ◽  
Meisam Babaie ◽  
Amin Shakeri ◽  
Seyed Vahid Hosseini ◽  
Timothy Bodisco ◽  
...  

This study aims to investigate the effect of the port injection of ammonia on performance, knock and NOx emission across a range of engine speeds in a gasoline/ethanol dual-fuel engine. An experimentally validated numerical model of a naturally aspirated spark-ignition (SI) engine was developed in AVL BOOST for the purpose of this investigation. The vibe two zone combustion model, which is widely used for the mathematical modeling of spark-ignition engines is employed for the numerical analysis of the combustion process. A significant reduction of ~50% in NOx emissions was observed across the engine speed range. However, the port injection of ammonia imposed some negative impacts on engine equivalent BSFC, CO and HC emissions, increasing these parameters by 3%, 30% and 21%, respectively, at the 10% ammonia injection ratio. Additionally, the minimum octane number of primary fuel required to prevent knock was reduced by up to 3.6% by adding ammonia between 5 and 10%. All in all, the injection of ammonia inside a bio-fueled engine could make it robust and produce less NOx, while having some undesirable effects on BSFC, CO and HC emissions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 459 ◽  
Author(s):  
La Xiang ◽  
Gerasimos Theotokatos ◽  
Haining Cui ◽  
Keda Xu ◽  
Hongkai Ben ◽  
...  

Both spark ignition (SI) natural gas engines and compression ignition (CI) dual fuel (DF) engines suffer from knocking when the unburnt mixture ignites spontaneously prior to the flame front arrival. In this study, a parametric investigation is performed on the knocking performance of these two engine types by using the GT-Power software. An SI natural gas engine and a DF engine are modelled by employing a two-zone zero-dimensional combustion model, which uses Wiebe function to determine the combustion rate and provides adequate prediction of the unburnt zone temperature, which is crucial for the knocking prediction. The developed models are validated against experimentally measured parameters and are subsequently used for performing parametric investigations. The derived results are analysed to quantify the effect of the compression ratio, air-fuel equivalence ratio and ignition timing on both engines as well as the effect of pilot fuel energy proportion on the DF engine. The results demonstrate that the compression ratio of the investigated SI and DF engines must be limited to 11 and 16.5, respectively, for avoiding knocking occurrence. The ignition timing for the SI and the DF engines must be controlled after −38°CA and 3°CA, respectively. A higher pilot fuel energy proportion between 5% and 15% results in increasing the knocking tendency and intensity for the DF Engine at high loads. This study results in better insights on the impacts of the investigated engine design and operating settings for natural gas (NG)-fuelled engines, thus it can provide useful support for obtaining the optimal settings targeting a desired combustion behaviour and engine performance while attenuating the knocking tendency.


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