scholarly journals Costs to Reduce the Human Health Toxicity of Biogas Engine Emissions

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 6360
Author(s):  
Alberto Benato ◽  
Alarico Macor

The anaerobic digestion of biodegradable substrates and waste is a well-known process that can be used worldwide to produce a renewable fuel called biogas. At the time of writing, the most widespread way of using biogas is its direct usage in combined heat and power internal combustion engines (CHP-ICEs) to generate electricity and heat. However, the combustion process generates emissions, which in turn have an impact on human health. Therefore, there is a need to: (i) measure the ICE emissions (both regulated and unregulated), (ii) compute the impact on human health, (iii) identify the substances with the highest impact and (iv) calculate the avoided damage to human health per Euro of investment in technology able to abate the specific type of pollutant. To this end, the authors conducted an experimental campaign and selected as a test case a 999 kWel biogas internal combustion engine. Then, the collected data, which included both regulated and unregulated emissions, were used to calculate the harmfulness to human health and identify the more impactful compounds. Thus, combining the results of the impact analysis on human health and the outcomes of a market analysis, the avoided damage to human health per Euro of investment in an abatement technology was computed. In this manner, a single parameter, expressed in DALY -1, provided clear information on the costs to reduce each disability-adjusted life year (DALY). The impact analysis on human health, which was performed using the Health Impact Assessment, showed that NOx was the main contributor to damage to human health (approximately 91% of the total), followed by SOx (6.5%), volatile organic compounds (1.4%) and CO (0.7%). Starting from these outcomes, the performed investigation showed that the technology that guarantees the maximum damage reduction per unit of cost is the denitrification system or the oxidizing converter, depending on whether the considered plant is already in-operation or newly built. This is an unexpected conclusion considering that the most impacting emission is the NOx.

Author(s):  
Jiang Lu ◽  
Ashwani K. Gupta ◽  
Eugene L. Keating

Abstract Numerical simulation of flow, combustion, heat release rate and pollutants emission characteristics have been obtained using a single cylinder internal combustion engine operating with propane as the fuel. The data are compared with experimental results and show excellent agreement for peak pressure and the rate of pressure rise as a function of crank angle. The results obtained for NO and CO are also found to be in good agreement and are similar to those reported in the literature for the chosen combustion chamber geometry. The results have shown that both the combustion chamber geometry and engine operating parameters affects the flame growth within the combustion chamber which subsequently affects the pollutants emission levels. The code employed the time marching procedure and solves the governing partial differential equations of multi-component chemically reacting fluid flow by finite difference method. The numerical results provide a cost effective means of developing advanced internal combustion engine chamber geometry design that provides high efficiency and low pollution levels. It is expected that increased computational tools will be used in the future for enhancing our understanding of the detailed combustion process in internal combustion engines and all other energy conversion systems. Such detailed information is critical for the development of advanced methods for energy conservation and environmental pollution control.


2019 ◽  
Vol 178 (3) ◽  
pp. 182-186
Author(s):  
Zbigniew SROKA ◽  
Maciej DWORACZYŃSKI

The modification of the downsizing trend of internal combustion engines towards rightsizing is a new challenge for constructors. The change in the displacement volume of internal combustion engines accompanying the rightsizing idea may in fact mean a reduction or increase of the defining swept volume change factors and thus may affect the change in the operating characteristics as a result of changes in combustion process parameters - a research problem described in this publication. Incidents of changes in the displacement volume were considered along with the change of the compression space and at the change of the geometric degree of compression. The new form of the mathematical dependence describing the efficiency of the thermodynamic cycle makes it possible to evaluate the opera-tion indicators of the internal combustion engine along with the implementation of the rightsizing idea. The work demonstrated the in-variance of cycle efficiency with different forms of rightsizing.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146808742110442
Author(s):  
Sebastian Welscher ◽  
Mohammad Hossein Moradi ◽  
Antonino Vacca ◽  
Peter Bloch ◽  
Michael Grill ◽  
...  

Due to increasing climate awareness and the introduction of much stricter exhaust emission legislation the internal combustion engine technology faces major challenges. Although the development and state of technology of internal combustion engines generally reached a very high level over the last years those need to be improved even more. Combining water injection with a diesel engine, therefore, seems to be the next logical step in developing a highly efficient drive train for future mobility. To investigate these potentials, a comprehensive evaluation of water injection on the diesel engine was carried out. This study covers >560 individual operating points on the test bench. The tests were carried out on a single-cylinder derived from a Euro 6d four-cylinder passenger car with the port water injection. Furthermore, a detailed pressure trace analysis (PTA) was performed to evaluate various aspects regarding combustion, emission, etc. The results show no significant effects of water injection on the combustion process, but great potential for NOx reduction. It has been shown that with the use of water injection at water-to-fuel rates of 25%, 50%, and 100%, NOx reduction without deterioration of soot levels can be achieved in 62%, 40%, and 20% of the experiments, respectively. Furthermore, water injection in combination with EGR offers additional reduction in NOx emissions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 7048
Author(s):  
Alarico Macor ◽  
Alberto Benato

The aim of the work is to evaluate the damage to human health arising from emissions of in-operation internal combustion engines fed by biogas. The need of including also unregulated emissions like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), aldehydes and dioxins and furans is twofold: (i) to cover the lack in biogas engine emissions measurements and (ii) to complete the picture on biogas harmfulness to human health by identifying the substances with the highest impact. To this purpose, an experimental campaign is conducted on six biogas engines and one fed by natural gas all characterised by an electric power of 999 kWel. Collected data are used to perform an impact analysis on human health combining the Health Impact Assessment and the Risk Assessment. Measurements show that PAHs, aldehydes and diossin and furans are almost always below the detection limit, in both biogas and natural gas exhausts. The carcinogenic risk analysis of PAHs for the two fuels established their substantial equivalence. The analysis of equivalent toxicity of dioxins and furans reveals that biogas is, on average, 10 times more toxic than natural gas. Among regulated emissions, NOx in the biogas engines exhausts are three times higher than those of natural gas. They are the main contributors to human health damage, with approximately 90% of the total. SOx ranks second and accounts for about 6% of the total damage. Therefore, (i) the contribution to human health damage of unregulated emissions is limited compared to the damage from unregulated emissions, (ii) the damage per unit of electricity of biogas engines exhausts is about three times higher than that of natural gas and it is directly linked to NOx, (iii) obtaining a good estimation of the human health damage from both biogas and natural gas engines emissions is enough of a reason to consider NOx and SOx.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 6585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markiewicz ◽  
Muślewski

The application of fuels from renewable energy sources for combustion engine powering involves a great demand for this kind of energy while its production infrastructure remains underdeveloped. The use of this kind of fuel is supposed to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and the depletion of natural resources and to increase the share of renewable energy sources in total energy consumption and thus support sustainable development in Europe. This study presents the results of research on selected performance parameters of transport by internal combustion engines including: power, torque, the emission of sound generated by the engine, the content of exhaust components (oxygen O2, carbon monoxide CO, carbon dioxide CO2, nitrogen dioxide NO2), and the content of particulate matter (PM) in exhaust emission. Three self-ignition engines were tested. The fuel injection controllers of the tested internal combustion engines were additionally adjusted by increasing the fuel dose and the load of air. The material used in the tests were mixtures of diesel oil and fatty acid methyl esters of different concentration. A statistical analysis was performed based of the results. The purpose of the work was to develop a resulting model for assessing the operation of engines fueled with biofuel and diesel mixtures while changing the vehicle's computer software. A computer simulation algorithm was also developed for the needs of the tests which was used to prognose the state of the test results for variable input parameters.


Author(s):  
Xiaojian Yang ◽  
Guoming G. Zhu ◽  
Zongxuan Sun

The combustion mode transition between SI (spark ignited) and HCCI (Homogeneously Charged Compression Ignition) of an IC (Internal Combustion) engine is challenge due to the thermo inertia of residue gas; and model-based control becomes a necessity. This paper presents a control oriented two-zone model to describe the hybrid combustion that starts with SI combustion and ends with HCCI combustion. The gas respiration dynamics were modeled using mean-value approach and the combustion process was modeled using crank resolved method. The developed model was validated in an HIL (Hardware-In-the-Loop) simulation environment for both steady-state and transient operations in SI, HCCI, and SI-HCCI hybrid combustion modes through the exhaust valve timing control (recompression). Furthermore, cooled external EGR (exhaust gas re-circulation) was used to suppress engine knock and enhance the fuel efficiency. The simulation results also illustrates that the transient control parameters of hybrid combustion is quite different from these in steady state operation, indicating the need of a control oriented SI-HCCI hybrid combustion model for transient combustion control.


2019 ◽  
Vol 178 (3) ◽  
pp. 27-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denys STEPANENKO ◽  
Zbigniew KNEBA

The mathematical description of combustion process in the internal combustion engines is a very difficult task, due to the variety of phenomena that occurring in the engine from the moment when the fuel-air mixture ignites up to the moment when intake and exhaust valves beginning open. Modeling of the combustion process plays an important role in the engine simulation, which allows to predict in-cylinder pressure during the combustion, engine performance and environmental impact with high accuracy. The toxic emissions, which appears as a result of fuels combustion, are one of the main environmental problem and as a result the air pollutant regulations are increasingly stringent, what makes the investigation of the combustion process to be a relevant task.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Onder Altuntas

Purpose This study aims to present the impact of using leaded avgas in piston-prop aircraft, in Turkey. Design/methodology/approach Increasing air traffic directly increases the total amount of consumed aviation fuels (kerosene or avgas). The number of aircraft and traffic that will increase soon will further increase fuel consumption. For this reason, aircraft power generation methods (long term) must be changed or the fuel must be improved (short term). The avgas used in piston-prop aircraft is known to contain lead and as a result, the production or consumption of avgas has adverse effects on human health, the ecosystem quality and resources. Findings The overall human health impact, ecosystem quality impact and resource impact in Turkey were determined to be 2.83 disability-adjusted life years, 1.21 × 10−04 species.yr and $138, respectively. According to the results, although the normalized total effect of Turkey was calculated as 208.18 nkg, 43.89% of the total was observed in the Marmara region. Originality/value The originality is the use of real-time values for all calculations. For the purpose of showing the most impacted or damaged regions in Turkey via a life cycle analysis, a new definition, the normalized total effect in nkg, is defined in this study.


Author(s):  
Jiang Lu ◽  
Ashwani K. Gupta ◽  
Eugene L. Keating ◽  
Andrew A. Pouring

Abstract Numerical simulation of flow, combustion phenomena and pollutants emission characteristics have been obtained on an homogeneous-charged internal combustion engine having conventional flat piston and five other bowl-in-piston geometries. The code employed here uses the time marching procedure and solves the governing partial differential equations of multi-component chemically reactive flow by finite difference method. The transient solution is marched out in a sequence of time steps. The results show that the piston geometry affects the local flame properties which subsequently influences the pollutants emission level. The numerical results provide a cost effective means of developing advanced internal combustion engine chamber geometry design that provides high efficiency and low pollution. It is expected that increased computational tools will be used in the future for enhancing our understanding of the detailed combustion process in internal combustion engines and all other energy conversion systems. Such detailed information is critical for the development of advanced methods for energy conservation and environmental pollution control.


Author(s):  
Ashwani K. Gupta ◽  
Lu Jiang ◽  
Eugene L. Keating

Abstract Numerical simulation of flow, combustion phenomena and pollutants emission characteristics have been obtained on an internal combustion engine having conventional flat piston and advanced piston geometries. The code employed the time marching procedure that solves the governing partial differential equations of multi-component chemically reactive fluid flow by finite difference method. The transient solution is marched out in a sequence of time steps. The results show that both the piston geometry and inlet flow conditions affects the local flame properties which subsequently alters the pollutants emission levels. The numerical results provide a cost effective means of developing advanced internal combustion engine chamber geometry design that provides high efficiency and low pollution levels. It is expected that increased computational tools will be used in the future for enhancing our understanding of the detailed combustion process in internal combustion engines and all other energy conversion systems. Such detailed information is critical for energy conservation and environmental pollution control.


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