Light Hydrocarbon Emissions From Diesel Low Temperature Combustion

Author(s):  
Kelvin Xie ◽  
Xiaoye Han ◽  
Graham T. Reader ◽  
Meiping Wang ◽  
Ming Zheng

A modern common-rail diesel engine was used to investigate hydrocarbon emissions under low temperature diesel combustion conditions. In this work, various EGR ratios and fuel mixing strategies were applied under a series of fixed-load conditions to progressively lower the flame temperature, which is verified by progressively reduced NOx emission. During the tests, the concentrations of total hydrocarbons, representative light hydrocarbon species (methane, acetylene, and ethylene), and hydrogen gas were measured with a set of emission analyzers, FTIR, and H2 mass-spectrometer. The trend for light hydrocarbon emissions was identified to be a function of both load and EGR ratio. Hydrogen gas can be emitted in significant quantities with the application of very high EGR. Under ultra-low NOx production conditions for medium and high load conditions, the light hydrocarbon species can account for the majority of hydrocarbon emissions.

Author(s):  
Prasad Divekar ◽  
Usman Asad ◽  
Xiaoye Han ◽  
Xiang Chen ◽  
Ming Zheng

Suitable cylinder charge preparation is deemed critical for the attainment of a highly homogeneous, diluted, and lean cylinder charge, which is shown to lower the flame temperature. The resultant low temperature combustion (LTC) can simultaneously reduce the NOx and soot emissions from diesel engines. This requires sophisticated coordination of multiple control systems for controlling the intake boost, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), and fueling events. Additionally, the cylinder charge modulation becomes more complicated in the novel combustion concepts that apply port injection of low reactivity alcohol fuels to replace the diesel fuel partially or entirely. In this work, experiments have been conducted on a single cylinder research engine with diesel and ethanol fuels. The test platform is capable of independently controlling the intake boost, EGR rates, and fueling events. Effects of these control variables are evaluated with diesel direct injection and a combination of diesel direct injection and ethanol port injection. Data analyses are performed to establish the control requirements for stable operation at different engine load levels with the use of one or two fuels. The sensitivity of the combustion modes is thereby analyzed with regard to the boost, EGR, fuel types, and fueling strategies. Zero-dimensional cycle simulations have been conducted in parallel with the experiments to evaluate the operating requirements and operation zones of the LTC combustion modes. Correlations are generated between air–fuel ratio (λ), EGR rate, boost level, in-cylinder oxygen concentration, and load level using the experimental data and simulation results. Development of a real-time boost-EGR set-point determination to sustain the LTC mode at the varying engine load levels and fueling strategies is proposed.


Author(s):  
Prasad Divekar ◽  
Usman Asad ◽  
Xiaoye Han ◽  
Xiang Chen ◽  
Ming Zheng

Suitable cylinder charge preparation is deemed critical for the attainment of a highly homogeneous, diluted, and lean cylinder charge which is shown to lower the flame temperature. The resultant low temperature combustion (LTC) can simultaneously reduce the NOx and soot emissions from diesel engines. This requires sophisticated coordination of multiple control systems for controlling the intake boost, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), and fueling events. Additionally, the cylinder charge modulation becomes more complicated in the novel combustion concepts that apply port injection of low reactivity alcohol fuels to replace the diesel fuel partially or entirely. In this work, experiments have been conducted on a single cylinder research engine with diesel and ethanol fuels. The test platform is capable of independently controlling the intake boost, EGR rates, and fuelling events. Effects of these control variables are evaluated with diesel direct injection and a combination of diesel direct injection and ethanol port injection. Data analyses are performed to establish the control requirements for stable operation at different engine load levels with the use of one or two fuels. The sensitivity of the combustion modes is thereby analyzed with regard to the boost, EGR, fuel types and fueling strategies. Zero-dimensional cycle simulations have been conducted in parallel with the experiments to evaluate the operating requirements and operation zones of the LTC combustion modes. Correlations are generated between air-fuel ratio (λ), EGR rate, boost level, in-cylinder oxygen concentration and load level using the experimental data and simulation results. Development of a real-time boost-EGR set-point determination to sustain the LTC mode at the varying engine load levels and fueling strategies is proposed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 827-838 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oluwasujibomi Sogbesan ◽  
Colin P Garner ◽  
Martin H Davy

This article describes the effects of intake-port throttling on diesel low-temperature combustion at a low and medium load condition. These conditions were known for their characteristically high hydrocarbon emissions predominantly from over-mixed and under-mixed mixture zones, respectively. The investigation was carried out to supplement current findings in the literature with valuable information on the formation of high hydrocarbon emissions with increasing swirl levels generated by intake-port throttling. This was achieved through the use of cycle-resolved high hydrocarbon measurements in addition to cycle averaged emissions and in-cylinder pressure-derived metrics. While there was negligible overall effect at the moderately dilute low-load conditions, increasing swirl has been shown to be beneficial to premixing efficacy under highly dilute conditions with extended ignition delay. This potential advantage was found to be nullified by the swirl-induced confinement of fuel and combustion products to the central region of the cylinder leading to poor late cycle burn rates and increased smoke emissions. High hydrocarbon emissions from the squish and head quench regions were reduced by an increase in swirl ratio.


Author(s):  
W Park ◽  
S Lee ◽  
S Choi ◽  
K Min

It is difficult to decrease the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO x) and soot simultaneously in conventional diesel engines. Low-temperature combustion concepts have been studied in an effort to overcome this problem. Low-temperature combustion has the potential to reduce NO x and soot emissions, but it has many limitations, including narrow operating ranges, high carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions, and difficulties with ignition control. Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) stratification is another combustion concept used to reduce NO x and soot emissions simultaneously using the local non-uniformity of EGR gas instead of increasing the overall EGR rate. In this study, the EGR stratification concept was improved using computational fluid dynamics. First, a two-step piston was developed to maximize the stratified EGR effects by obtaining a favourable EGR distribution pattern and injecting fuel into the high-EGR region. Then, the possibility of combustion and emission control using stratified EGR was estimated. The ideally distributed EGR in the cylinder results showed that the region of locally high EGR effectively influences the combustion characteristics and, thus, horizontally and centrally stratified EGR has the potential to reduce the nitric oxide (NO x) and soot emissions at the same time. Engine simulation results also showed simultaneous reductions in the NO x and the soot emissions.


Author(s):  
Usman Asad ◽  
Arturo Mendoza ◽  
Kelvin Xie ◽  
Marko Jeftic ◽  
Meiping Wang ◽  
...  

The simultaneous reduction in engine-out NOx and soot emissions with diesel low temperature combustion (LTC) is generally accompanied by high levels of hydrocarbon (THC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions in the exhaust. To achieve clean diesel combustion in terms of low regulated emissions (NOx, soot, THC, and CO), the exhaust combustibles must be dealt with the exhaust aftertreatment (typically a diesel oxidation catalyst). In this work, engine tests were performed to realize LTC on a single-cylinder common-rail diesel engine up to 12 bar IMEP. A single-shot fuel injection strategy was employed to push the diesel cycles into LTC with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). The combustibles in the exhaust were generally found to increase with the LTC load and were observed to be a function of the overall equivalence ratio. A Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis of light hydrocarbon emissions found methane to constitute a significant component of the hydrocarbon emissions under the tested LTC conditions. The relative fraction of individual species in the hydrocarbons also changed, indicating a richer combustion zone and a reduction in engine-out THC reactivity. The hydrogen production was found to correlate consistently with the CO emissions, largely independent of the boost pressure or engine load under the tested LTC conditions. This research intends to identify the major constituents of the THC emissions and highlight the possible impact on exhaust aftertreatment.


Author(s):  
Tiegang Fang ◽  
Robert E. Coverdill ◽  
Chia-Fon F. Lee ◽  
Robert A. White

Low Temperature Compression Ignition (LTCI) combustion employing multiple injection strategies in an optical High-Speed Direct Injection (HSDI) diesel engine was investigated in this work. Heat release characteristics were analyzed through the measurement of in-cylinder pressure. The whole cycle combustion process was visualized with a high-speed digital video camera by imaging natural flame luminosity and three-dimensional-like combustion structures were obtained by taking flame images from both the bottom of the optical piston and the side window simultaneously. The NOx emissions were measured in the exhaust pipe. The effects of pilot injection timing, pilot fuel quantity, main injection timing, operating load, and injection pressure on the combustion and emissions were studied. Low temperature combustion mode was achieved by using a small pilot injection with an injection timing much earlier than TDC followed by a main injection after TDC. For comparison, experiment of a diffusion diesel combustion case was also conducted. Premixed-combustion-dominated heat release rate pattern was seen for all the low temperature combustion cases, while a typical diffusion flame combustion heat release rate was obtained for the conventional combustion case. Highly luminous flame was observed for the conventional combustion condition while much less luminous flame was seen for the low temperature combustion cases. For the higher load and lower injection pressure cases, liquid fuel being injected into low temperature premixed flame was observed for certain cases, which was different from the conventional diesel combustion with liquid fuel injected into hot premixed flame. Compared with the conventional diffusion diesel combustion, simultaneous reduction of soot and NOx was obtained for the low temperature combustion mode at both the same and increased injection pressure with similar operating load. For high load conditions, higher NOx emissions were obtained than the low load conditions with the same injection pressure due to a higher in-cylinder temperature under high load conditions with more fuel burned. However, compared with the diffusion combustion mode with a lower load at lower injection pressure, a significant reduction of soot was achieved for the high load conditions, which shows that increasing injection pressure greatly reduce soot emissions.


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