scholarly journals Implementing Natural Gas in a Compression Ignition Cycle Using Noble Gas Addition

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martia Shahsavan ◽  
Mohammadrasool Morovatiyan ◽  
Mammadbaghir Baghirzade ◽  
John Hunter Mack

Natural gas is known as a relatively clean fossil fuel due to its low carbon to hydrogen ratio compared to other transportation fuels, which yields a reduction of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and unburned hydrocarbons emissions. However, it has a low cetane number, which makes it a difficult fuel for use in compression ignition engines. A potential solution for this issue can be adding small amounts of argon, as a noble gas with a low specific heat to modify the intake conditions. In this numerical study, a commercial compression ignition engine has been modeled to evaluate the auto-ignition of natural gas with the modified intake conditions. Different amounts of argon added to the intake air are examined in order to attain the optimal operating conditions. A detailed chemistry solver is implemented on a 53-species chemical kinetics mechanism to calculate the rate constants. The results show that compression ignition of natural gas can be achieved by adding small amounts of argon to the intake air. It drastically increases the in-cylinder temperature and pressure near TDC, which enables the auto-ignition of the injected natural gas. Moreover, it leads to the reduction in ignition delay and heat release rate, and expands the combustion duration. Emissions analysis indicates that NOx and CO2 can be significantly diminished by increasing the amount of argon in the intake composition. This study introduces an efficient and clean compression ignition engine fueled with natural gas running in optimal operating conditions using argon addition to the intake.

Author(s):  
Martia Shahsavan ◽  
Mohammadrasool Morovatiyan ◽  
Mammadbaghir Baghirzade ◽  
J. Hunter Mack

Abstract Natural gas is known as a relatively clean fossil fuel due to its low carbon to hydrogen ratio compared to other transportation fuels, which yields a reduction of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and unburned hydrocarbons emissions. However, it has a low cetane number, which makes it a difficult fuel for use in compression ignition engines. A potential solution for this issue can be adding small amounts of argon, as a noble gas with a low specific heat to modify the intake conditions. In this numerical study, a commercial compression ignition engine has been modeled to evaluate the auto-ignition of natural gas with the modified intake conditions. Different amounts of argon added to the intake air are examined in order to attain the optimal operating conditions. A detailed chemistry solver is implemented on a 53-species chemical kinetics mechanism to calculate the rate constants. The results show that compression ignition of natural gas can be achieved by adding small amounts of argon to the intake air. It drastically increases the in-cylinder temperature and pressure near TDC, which enables the auto-ignition of the injected natural gas. Moreover, it leads to the reduction in ignition delay and heat release rate, and expands the combustion duration. Emissions analysis indicates that NOx and CO2 can be significantly diminished by increasing the amount of argon in the intake composition. This study introduces an efficient and clean compression ignition engine fueled with natural gas running in optimal operating conditions using argon addition to the intake.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinlong Liu ◽  
Hemanth Kumar Bommisetty ◽  
Cosmin Emil Dumitrescu

Heavy-duty compression-ignition (CI) engines converted to natural gas (NG) operation can reduce the dependence on petroleum-based fuels and curtail greenhouse gas emissions. Such an engine was converted to premixed NG spark-ignition (SI) operation through the addition of a gas injector in the intake manifold and of a spark plug in place of the diesel injector. Engine performance and combustion characteristics were investigated at several lean-burn operating conditions that changed fuel composition, spark timing, equivalence ratio, and engine speed. While the engine operation was stable, the reentrant bowl-in-piston (a characteristic of a CI engine) influenced the combustion event such as producing a significant late combustion, particularly for advanced spark timing. This was due to an important fraction of the fuel burning late in the squish region, which affected the end of combustion, the combustion duration, and the cycle-to-cycle variation. However, the lower cycle-to-cycle variation, stable combustion event, and the lack of knocking suggest a successful conversion of conventional diesel engines to NG SI operation using the approach described here.


Author(s):  
Hu Tiegang ◽  
Liu Shenghua ◽  
Zhou Longbao ◽  
Zhu Chi

Dimethyl ether (DME) is a kind of fuel with high cetane number and low evaporating temperature, which is suitable for a homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine. The combustion and emission characteristics of an HCCI engine fuelled with DME were investigated on a modified single-cylinder engine. The experimental results indicate that the HCCI engine combustion is a two-stage heat release process. The engine load or air-fuel ratio has significant effects on the maximum cylinder pressure and its position, the shape of the pressure rise rate and the heat release rate. The engine speed has little effect. A DME HCCI engine is smoke free, with zero NOx and low hydrocarbon and CO emissions under the operating conditions of 0.25–0.30 MPa brake mean effective pressure.


Author(s):  
Liu Shenghua ◽  
Wang Ziyan ◽  
Ren Jiang

A natural gas and diesel dual-fuel turbocharged compression ignition (CI) engine is developed to reduce emissions of a heavy-duty diesel engine. The compressed natural gas (CNG) pressure regulator is specially designed to feed back the boost pressure to simplify the fuel metering system. The natural gas bypass improves the engine response to acceleration. The modes of diesel injection are set according to the engine operating conditions. The application of honeycomb mixers changes the flowrate shape of natural gas and reduces hydrocarbon (HC) emission under low-load and lowspeed conditions. The cylinder pressures of a CI engine fuelled with diesel and dual fuel are analysed. The introduction of natural gas makes the ignition delay change with engine load. Under the same operating conditions, the emissions of smoke and NOx from the dual-fuel engine are both reduced. The HC and CO emissions for the dual-fuel engine remain within the range of regulation.


Mechanika ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 492-497
Author(s):  
Dariusz SZPICA ◽  
Marcin DZIEWIĄTKOWSKI

Further restrictions on the use of compression-ignition engines in transportation are prompting the search for adaptations to run on other fuels. One of the most popular alternative fuels is Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), which due to its low carbon content can be competitive with classical fuels. This paper presents the results of testing a Cummins 6BT compression ignition engine that has undergone numerous modifications to convert to CNG power. The sequential gas injection system and the ignition system were installed in this engine. The compression ratio was also lowered from 16.5 to 11.5 by replacing the pistons. Tests conducted on an engine dynamometer were to show the differences in emission and conversion in the catalyst of hydrocarbons contained in the exhaust gases. Two structurally different catalysts operating at different exhaust temperatures (400 and 500)±2.5°C were used. The catalyst operating at 500±2.5°C showed a 23.5% higher conversion rate than the catalyst operating at a lower temperature in the range of the speed range tested. Also the external indicators, such as power and torque for the case of higher operating temperature took values over 70% higher. The research is one of the stages of a comprehensive assessment of the possibility of adaptation of compression ignition engines to CNG-only fueling.


2016 ◽  
Vol 78 (6-10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nik Muhammad Hafiz ◽  
Mohd Radzi Abu Mansor ◽  
Wan Mohd Faizal Wan Mahmood ◽  
Fadzli Ibrahim ◽  
Shahrir Abdullah ◽  
...  

Gas emissions from automobiles are one of the major causes of air pollution in our environment today. In fact, emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), a product of complete combustion, has become a significant factor of the global warming effect. Hydrogen, which is a renewable energy, is regarded as a promising energy to solve this problem since the final product of hydrogen (H2) combustion, is water (H2O). However, the reaction of hydrogen fuels in the air under high temperature conditions produces a high volume of harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx). Furthermore, the high auto-ignition temperature of H2 makes it difficult to ignite in a compression ignition engine in normal air. In this research, argon (Ar) is used to replace nitrogen (N2), in order to eliminate NOx and enhance combustion. Simulation for this research was conducted using Converge, computational fluid dynamics software that is based on Yanmar TF90M compression ignition engine parameters. The simulation process was initially conducted with normal air (N2-O2) as the medium of combustion; but later it was replaced with an argon-oxygen (Ar-O2) atmosphere to investigate the ignition possibility of hydrogen fuel. Hydrogen was injected at 9.95 MPa at the start of injection (SOI) at 18º BTDC. The results show that, by employing the same parameters for both simulations in normal air and argon-oxygen mediums, the combustion of hydrogen only occurred in the argon-oxygen medium. However, no combustion took place in normal air. It is therefore concluded that an argon-oxygen medium is applicable for direct hydrogen injection in a compression ignition engine.


Author(s):  
M Yao ◽  
J Qin ◽  
Z Zheng

The auto-ignition and combustion mechanisms of dimethyl ether (DME) in a fourstroke homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine were investigated using a zero-dimensional thermodynamic model coupled with a detailed chemical kinetics model. The results indicate that DME displays two-stage auto-ignition, and heat release with a low-temperature reaction and a high-temperature reaction (HTR). Heat release with the HTR can be separated into two stages: blue flame and hot flame. HCCI ignition is controlled by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) decomposition, and OH plays a very important role in HCCI combustion. Formaldehyde (CH2O) is the main source of H2O2. Based on the sensitivity analysis of chemical reactions, the major paths of the DME reaction occurring in the engine cylinder are clarified. The major paths of the DME reaction is H-atom abstraction from DME, followed by the first addition of O2 and second addition of O2, and then oxidation to formaldehyde (CH2O), the formyl radical (HCO), and finally carbon monoxide (CO). CO oxidation occurs at the hot flame by the elementary reaction CO + OH = CO2 + H. At leaner DME concentrations, CO cannot be completely converted to carbon dioxide (CO2), and the process will result in high CO emissions.


Author(s):  
Anita I. Ramírez ◽  
Sibendu Som ◽  
Lisa A. LaRocco ◽  
Timothy P. Rutter ◽  
Douglas E. Longman

There has been an extensive worldwide search for alternate fuels that fit with the existing infrastructure and would thus displace fossil-based resources. In metabolic engineering work at Argonne National Laboratory, strains of fuel have been designed that can be produced in large quantities by photosynthetic bacteria, eventually producing a heavy alcohol called phytol (C20H40O). Phytol’s physical and chemical properties (cetane number, heat of combustion, heat of vaporization, density, surface tension, vapor pressure, etc.) correspond in magnitude to those of diesel fuel, suggesting that phytol might be a good blending agent in compression ignition (CI) engine applications. The main reason for this study was to investigate the feasibility of using phytol as a blending agent with diesel; this was done by comparing the performance and emission characteristics of different blends of phytol (5%, 10%, 20% by volume) with diesel. The experimental research was performed on a single-cylinder engine under conventional operating conditions. Since phytol’s viscosity is much higher than that of diesel, higher-injection-pressure cases were investigated to ensure the delivery of fuel into the combustion chamber was sufficient. The influence of the fuel’s chemical composition on performance and emission characteristics was captured by doing an injection timing sweep. Combustion characteristics as shown in the cylinder pressure trace were comparable for the diesel and all the blends of phytol at each of the injection timings. The 5% and 10% blends show lower CO and similar NOx values. However, the 20% blend shows higher NOx and CO emissions, indicating that the chemical and physical properties have been altered substantially at this higher percentage. The combustion event was depicted by performing high-speed natural luminosity imaging using endoscopy. This revealed that the higher in-cylinder temperatures for the 20% blend are the cause for its higher NOx emissions. In addition, three-dimensional simulations of transient, turbulent nozzle flow were performed to compare the injection and cavitation characteristics of phytol and its blends. Specifically, area and discharge coefficients and mass flow rates of diesel and phytol blends were compared under corresponding engine operating conditions. The conclusion is that phytol may be a suitable blending agent with diesel fuel for CI applications.


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