scholarly journals Effect of alternative fuels on diesel low temperature combustion

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1057-1065

<div> <p>A set of experiments have been carried out in a heavy duty single cylinder engine using high <em>EGR</em> rates and different start of injection angles (<em>SOI</em>). Three different fuels (conventional diesel fuel, a diesel-ethanol mixture (e-diesel) and a Fischer-Tropsch fuel (GTL)) have been tested in order to evaluate their potential to achieve Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) conditions. Diesel and e-diesel have shown poor repeatability for the most delayed angle (4 deg aTDC) due to significant cycle-to-cycle variations. GTL has shown a heat release rate pattern typical of conventional diesel combustion for all the <em>SOI</em> values, while diesel and e-diesel show fully premixed combustion for delayed <em>SOI </em>(from 4 deg bTDC). A delay of <em>SOI</em> causes a decrease in the brake thermal efficiency and an increase in THC and CO emissions, the latter being more important when e-diesel is used. While late injection seems to considerably improve NOx emissions, no benefits have been obtained for diesel particles, maybe due to the low engine torque tested (which causes the soot production rate to be more significant than the oxidation rate). The low autoignition tendency together with the high volatility of ethanol makes e-diesel as a promising fuel to achieve LTC conditions while keeping acceptable fuel consumption and CO/THC emissions.</p> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p>

Author(s):  
Amit Jhalani ◽  
Dilip Sharma ◽  
Pushpendra Kumar Sharma ◽  
Digambar Singh ◽  
Sumit Jhalani ◽  
...  

Diesel engines are lean burn engines; hence CO and HC emissions in the exhaust are less likely to occur in substantial amounts. The emissions of serious concern in compression ignition engines are particulate matter and nitrogen oxides because of elevated temperature conditions of combustion. Hence the researchers have strived continuously to lower down the temperature of combustion in order to bring down the emissions from CI engines. This has been tried through premixed charge compression ignition, homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI), gasoline compression ignition and reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI). In this study, an attempt has been made to critically review the literature on low-temperature combustion conditions using various conventional and alternative fuels. The problems and challenges augmented with the strategies have also been described. Water-in-diesel emulsion technology has been discussed in detail. Most of the authors agree over the positive outcomes of water-diesel emulsion for both performance and emissions simultaneously.


2020 ◽  
pp. 146808742096085
Author(s):  
Anand Krishnasamy ◽  
Saurabh K Gupta ◽  
Rolf D Reitz

Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) strategies are most promising to simultaneously reduce oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and soot emissions from diesel engines along with offering higher thermal efficiency. Commercial wide spread implementation of diesel LTC strategies requires several challenges to be addressed, including lack of precise ignition timing control, widening the narrow operating load ranges and reducing high unburned fuel emissions. These challenges can be addressed through modifications in the engine or fuel design or both. The timing and rate of combustion in several LTC strategies are controlled primarily by the chemical kinetics of the fuel. Since, diesel fuel reactivity and volatility are tailor-made to perform well under conventional diesel combustion conditions, its application in LTC poses several problems, as highlighted in this paper. Hence, it is important to identify suitable alternative fuels for the different diesel LTC strategies. The published literature on LTC over the past 25 years is critically analyzed to discuss the evolution of the different diesel LTC strategies, their operability limits, the challenges and the controlling parameters for each strategy. This is followed by in-depth analysis of the role of the fuel and the fuel requirements for each strategy. Further, the importance of adopting a hybrid surrogate modeling approach to enable numerical simulation of diesel LTC is highlighted. A novel attempt of relating various diesel low temperature combustion (LTC) strategies based on the approach followed to achieve positive ignition dwell through different injection strategies, utilizing high exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), and dual fuels is presented. The need for replacing diesel with alternative liquid fuels in LTC strategies is presented by highlighting the fundamental problems associated with diesel fuel characteristics. The review concludes by suggesting potential alternative fuels for various diesel LTC strategies and provides directions for future work to address the challenges facing compression ignition LTC operation.


Author(s):  
A. Gharehghani ◽  
M. Mirsalim ◽  
A. Jazayeri ◽  
R. Hosseini

Low Temperature combustion (LTC) strategies are capable of simultaneous reduction in NOx and particulate matter (PM) emissions. However, this combustion process generally leads to higher HC and CO emissions together with more cyclic variation (unstable combustion) especially at light engine loads. These emissions could drastically be reduced using certain alternative fuels like natural gas and biodiesel in LTC or PCI combustion engines. In the present research, a single cylinder compression ignition engine has been modified to operate in dual fuel mode with natural gas injection into the intake manifold as the main fuel and biodiesel as the pilot fuel to ignite the gas/air mixture. The combustion characteristics, engine performance and exhaust emissions of the reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) dual fueled CNG/biodiesel engine are investigated and compared with the conventional diesel engine mode at various load conditions. The analysis of the results revealed that biodiesel as the high reactivity fuel in RCCI mode leads to higher in-cylinder pressure together with shorter heat release rate duration, compared to the common diesel engine. Experimental results indicated that combining the low temperature combustion concept and alternative fuels (e.g. biodiesel and naturals gas) causes lower levels of unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) and carbon monoxide (CO) as well as nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.


Author(s):  
Stephen M. Walton ◽  
Carlos Perez ◽  
Margaret S. Wooldridge

Ignition studies of two small esters were performed using a rapid compression facility (RCF). The esters (methyl butanoate and butyl methanoate) were chosen to have matching molecular weights, and C:H:O ratios, while varying the lengths of the constituent alkyl chains. The effect of functional group size on ignition delay time was investigated using pressure time-histories and high speed digital imaging. The mixtures studied covered a range of conditions relevant to oxygenated fuels and fuel additives, including bio-derived fuels. Low temperature and moderate pressure conditions were selected for study due to their relevance to advanced low temperature combustion strategies, and internal combustion engine conditions. The results are discussed in terms of the reaction pathways affecting the ignition properties.


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