The Impact of Advanced Fuels and Lubricants on Thermal Efficiency in a Highly Dilute Engine

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bunce ◽  
Nathan Peters ◽  
Sai Krishna Pothuraju Subramanyam ◽  
Hugh Blaxill ◽  
Jason Gao ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Hatem Mahmoud ◽  
Ayman Ragab

The density of building blocks and insufficient greenery in cities tend to contribute dramatically not only to increased heat stress in the built environment but also to higher energy demand for cooling. Urban planners should, therefore, be conscious of their responsibility to reduce energy usage of buildings along with improving outdoor thermal efficiency. This study examines the impact of numerous proposed urban geometry cases on the thermal efficiency of outer spaces as well as the energy consumption of adjacent buildings under various climate change scenarios as representative concentration pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 climate projections for New Aswan city in 2035. The investigation was performed at one of the most underutilized outdoor spaces on the new campus of Aswan University in New Aswan city. The potential reduction of heat stress was investigated so as to improve the thermal comfort of the investigated outdoor spaces, as well as energy savings based on the proposed strategies. Accordingly, the most appropriate scenario to be adopted to cope with the inevitable climate change was identified. The proposed scenarios were divided into four categories of parameters. In the first category, shelters partially (25–50% and 75%) covering the streets were used. The second category proposed dividing the space parallel or perpendicular to the existing buildings. The third category was a hybrid scenario of the first and second categories. In the fourth category, a green cover of grass was added. A coupling evaluation was applied utilizing ENVI-met v4.2 and Design-Builder v4.5 to measure and improve the thermal efficiency of the outdoor space and reduce the cooling energy. The results demonstrated that it is better to cover outdoor spaces with 50% of the overall area than transform outdoor spaces into canyons.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 789-802
Author(s):  
Tri Hieu Le ◽  
Minh Tuan Pham ◽  
H Hadiyanto ◽  
Van Viet Pham ◽  
Anh Tuan Hoang

Passive solar still is the simplest design for distilling seawater by harnessing solar energy. Although it is undeniable that solar still is a promising device to provide an additional freshwater source for global increasing water demand, low thermal efficiency along with daily distillate yield are its major disadvantages. A conventional solar still can produced 2 to 5 L/m2day. Various studies have been carried out to improve passive solar stills in terms of daily productivity, thermal efficiency, and economic effectiveness. Most of the researches that relate to the daily output improvement of passive solar still concentrates on enhancing evaporation or/and condensation processes. While the condensation process is influenced by wind velocity and characteristics of the condensed surface, the evaporation process is mainly affected by the temperature of basin water. Different parameters affect the brackish water temperature such as solar radiation, design parameters (for example water depth, insulators, basin liner absorptivity, reflectors, sun tracking system, etc). The inclined angle of the top cover is suggested to equal the latitude of the experimental place. Moreover, the decrease of water depth was obtained as a good operational parameter, however, the shallow water depth is required additional feed water for ensuring no dry spot existence. Reflectors and sun-tracking systems help solar still absorb as much solar intensity as possible. The internal reflector can enhance daily yield and efficiency of stepped solar still up to 75% and 56% respectively, whereas, passive solar still with the support of a sun-tracking system improved daily yield up to 22%. Despite large efforts to investigate the impact of the different parameters on passive solar distillation, the effect of the basin liner (including appropriate shapes and type of material), needs to be analyzed for improvement in practical utilization. The present work has reviewed the investigation of the solar still performance with various types of basin liner. The review of solar stills has been conducted critically with rectangular basin, fins basin, corrugated basin, wick type, steps shape, and cylindrical shape basin with variety of top cover shapes. The findings from this work conclude that the basin liner with a cylindrical shape had better performance in comparison with other metal types and provides higher freshwater output. Stepped type, inclined, fin absorber, and corrugated shapes had the efficient performance.  Further exploration revealed that copper is the best-used material for the productivity of passive solar still.


Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 2887 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvatore Ranieri ◽  
Gilberto Prado ◽  
Brendan MacDonald

Stirling engines have a high potential to produce renewable energy due to their ability to use a wide range of sustainable heat sources, such as concentrated solar thermal power and biomass, and also due to their high theoretical efficiencies. They have not yet achieved widespread use and commercial Stirling engines have had reduced efficiencies compared to their ideal values. In this work we show that a substantial amount of the reduction in efficiency is due to the operation of Stirling engines using sinusoidal motion and quantify this reduction. A discrete model was developed to perform an isothermal analysis of a 100cc alpha-type Stirling engine with a 90 ∘ phase angle offset, to demonstrate the impact of sinusoidal motion on the net work and thermal efficiency in comparison to the ideal cycle. For the specific engine analyzed, the maximum thermal efficiency of the sinusoidal cycle was found to have a limit of 34.4%, which is a reduction of 27.1% from Carnot efficiency. The net work of the sinusoidal cycle was found to be 65.9% of the net work from the ideal cycle. The model was adapted to analyze beta and gamma-type Stirling configurations, and the analysis revealed similar reductions due to sinusoidal motion.


2018 ◽  
Vol 141 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford K. Ho ◽  
Joshua M. Christian ◽  
Julius E. Yellowhair ◽  
Kenneth Armijo ◽  
William J. Kolb ◽  
...  

This paper evaluates the on-sun performance of a 1 MW falling particle receiver. Two particle receiver designs were investigated: obstructed flow particle receiver versus free-falling particle receiver. The intent of the tests was to investigate the impact of particle mass flow rate, irradiance, and particle temperature on the particle temperature rise and thermal efficiency of the receiver for each design. Results indicate that the obstructed flow design increased the residence time of the particles in the concentrated flux, thereby increasing the particle temperature and thermal efficiency for a given mass flow rate. The obstructions, a staggered array of chevron-shaped mesh structures, also provided more stability to the falling particles, which were prone to instabilities caused by convective currents in the free-fall design. Challenges encountered during the tests included nonuniform mass flow rates, wind impacts, and oxidation/deterioration of the mesh structures. Alternative materials, designs, and methods are presented to overcome these challenges.


2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koichi Nakata ◽  
Daisuke Uchida ◽  
Atsuharu Ota ◽  
Shintaro Utsumi ◽  
Katsunori Kawatake

Author(s):  
Reed Hanson ◽  
Andrew Ickes ◽  
Thomas Wallner

Dual-fuel combustion using port-injection of low reactivity fuel combined with direct injection (DI) of a higher reactivity fuel, otherwise known as reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI), has been shown as a method to achieve low-temperature combustion with moderate peak pressure rise rates, low engine-out soot and NOx emissions, and high indicated thermal efficiency. A key requirement for extending to high-load operation is moderating the reactivity of the premixed charge prior to the diesel injection. One way to accomplish this is to use a very low reactivity fuel such as natural gas. In this work, experimental testing was conducted on a 13 l multicylinder heavy-duty diesel engine modified to operate using RCCI combustion with port injection of natural gas and DI of diesel fuel. Engine testing was conducted at an engine speed of 1200 rpm over a wide variety of loads and injection conditions. The impact on dual-fuel engine performance and emissions with respect to varying the fuel injection parameters is quantified within this study. The injection strategies used in the work were found to affect the combustion process in similar ways to both conventional diesel combustion (CDC) and RCCI combustion for phasing control and emissions performance. As the load is increased, the port fuel injection (PFI) quantity was reduced to keep peak cylinder pressure (PCP) and maximum pressure rise rate (MPRR) under the imposed limits. Overall, the peak load using the new injection strategy was shown to reach 22 bar brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) with a peak brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of 47.6%.


Author(s):  
William Glewen ◽  
Chris Hoops ◽  
Joel Hiltner ◽  
Michael Flory

Industrial natural gas engines are used in a wide range of applications, each with unique requirements in terms of power density, initial cost, thermal efficiency, and other factors. As a result of these requirements, distinct engine designs have evolved to serve various applications. Heavy-duty spark-ignited engines can generally be divided into two broad categories based on their charge characteristics and method of emissions control. Stoichiometric engines are widely used in applications where first cost, absolute emissions and relative engine simplicity are more important than fuel consumption. In most of the developed world, stoichiometric engines are equipped with a three-way catalyst to control emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) as well as products of incomplete combustion and raw unburned fuel. Dilution of the charge mixture with excess air reduces the peak combustion gas temperature and associated heat rejection. As a result, lean burn engines are generally able to achieve higher efficiency and power density without inducing excessive component temperatures or end gas knock. NOx formation is mitigated by the reduced gas temperatures, such that most regulatory standards can currently be met in-cylinder. Significant obstacles exist to meeting more stringent future emissions regulations in this manner, however. Another possible strategy is to dilute the charge mixture with recirculated exhaust gas. This offers similar benefits as air dilution while maintaining the ability to use a three-way catalyst for emissions after-treatment. While similar principles apply in either case, the choice of diluent can have a significant impact on knock resistance, emissions formation, thermal efficiency, and other parameters of importance to engine developers and operators. This work aimed to examine the unique characteristics of EGR and air dilution from a thermodynamic and combustion perspective. A combination of cycle simulation tools and experimental data from a single-cylinder test engine was applied to demonstrate the impact of diluent properties on a fundamental level, and to illustrate departures from idealized behavior and practical considerations specific to the development of combustion systems for spark-ignited natural gas engines.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Yuanzhe Zhang ◽  
Pei Liu ◽  
Zheng Li

Inlet temperature is vital to the thermal efficiency of gas turbines, which is becoming increasingly important in the context of structural changes in power supplies with more intermittent renewable power sources. Blade cooling is a key method for gas turbines to maintain high inlet temperatures whilst also meeting material temperature limits. However, the implementation of blade cooling within a gas turbine—for instance, thermal barrier coatings (TBCs)—might also change its heat transfer characteristics and lead to challenges in calculating its internal temperature and thermal efficiency. Existing studies have mainly focused on the materials and mechanisms of TBCs and the impact of TBCs on turbine blades. However, these analyses are insufficient for measuring the overall impact of TBCs on turbines. In this study, the impact of TBC thickness on the performance of gas turbines is analyzed. An improved mathematical model for turbine flow passage is proposed, considering the impact of cooling with TBCs. This model has the function of analyzing the impact of TBCs on turbine geometry. By changing the TBCs’ thickness from 0.0005 m to 0.0013 m, its effects on turbine flow passage are quantitatively analyzed using the proposed model. The variation rules of the cooling air ratio, turbine inlet mass flow rate, and turbine flow passage structure within the range of 0.0005 m to 0.0013 m of TBC thicknesses are given.


Author(s):  
Aditya Prakash Singh ◽  
Gordon Patrick McTaggart-Cowan ◽  
Patrick Kirchen

Abstract Dilution of natural gas fuel with air for use in a pilot ignited direct injection natural gas engine was investigated to evaluate the impact of this strategy on emissions and engine performance. A representative heavy-duty mode (mid to high-load at medium speed) was considered and the equivalence ratio (Φ) and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rates were varied from this representative mode. Air dilution resulted in a significant reduction in several pollutants: 90 to 97% reductions in black carbon particulate matter, 45 to 95% reductions in carbon monoxide, 68 to 85% reductions in total unburnt hydrocarbons. NOx emissions were found to increase by between 1.5 and 2.5x, depending on Φ and EGR, for a fixed combustion phasing. Beyond the emissions improvements, the gross indicated thermal efficiency increased by 2.5 percentage points at both high and low EGR rates. At higher EGR rates, this improvement was due to improved combustion efficiency, while the mechanism for efficiency improvement at lower EGR rates was unclear. The application of air-fuel dilution requires compressed air (> 300 bar) to mix with natural gas at high pressures. A system level analysis considered the compression power required by an industrial 3-stage reciprocating compressor and indicated that the gross indicated thermal efficiency improvements could compensate for the compression requirements for engine operation at high Φ.


Author(s):  
P. Pillai ◽  
C. Meher-Homji ◽  
F. Meher-Homji

High thermal efficiency of LNG liquefaction plants is of importance in order to minimize feed usage and to reduce CO2 emissions. The need for high efficiency becomes important in gas constrained situations where savings in fuel auto consumption of the plant for liquefaction chilling and power generation can be converted into LNG production and also from the standpoint of CO2 reduction. This paper will provide a comprehensive overview of waste heat recovery approaches in LNG Liquefaction facilities as a measure to boost thermal efficiency and reduce fuel auto-consumption. The paper will cover types of heating media, the need and use of heat for process applications, the use of hot oil, steam and water for process applications and direct recovery of waste heat. Cogeneration and combined cycle approaches for LNG liquefaction will also be presented along with thermal designs. Parametric studies and cycle studies relating to waste heat recovery from gas turbines used in LNG liquefaction plants will be provided. The economic viability of waste heat recovery and the extent to which heat integration is deployed will depend on the magnitude of the accrual of operating cost savings, and their ability to counteract the initial capital outlay. Savings can be in the form of reduced fuel gas costs and reduced carbon dioxide taxes. Ultimately the impact of these savings will depend on the owner’s measurement of the value of fuel gas; whether fuel usage is accounted for as lost feed or lost product. The negative impacts include the reduction in nitrogen rejection that occurs with reduced fuel gas usage and the power restrictions imposed on gas turbine drivers due to the increased exhaust system back-pressure caused by the presence of the WHRU. When steam systems are acceptable, a cogeneration type liquefaction facility can be attractive. In addition to steam generation and hot oil heating, newer concepts such as the use of ORCs or supercritical CO2 cycles will also be addressed.


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