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New internal combustion engines (ICE) are characterized by increasing maximum efficiency, thanks to the adoption of strategies like Atkinson cycle, downsizing, cylinder deactivation, waste heat recovery and so on. However, the best performance is confined to a limited portion of the engine map. Moreover, electric driving in urban areas is an increasingly pressing request, but battery electric vehicles use cannot be easily spread, due to limited vehicle autonomy and recharging issues. Therefore, hybrid propulsion systems are under development, in order to reduce vehicle fuel consumption, by decoupling the ICE running from road load, as well as to permit energy recovery and electric driving. This paper analyses a new-patented solution for power split hybrid propulsion system with gearbox. The system comprises an auxiliary power unit, adapted to store and/or release energy, and a planetary gear set, which is interposed between the ICE and the gearbox.

Internal combustion engines for vehicle propulsion are more and more sophisticated due to increasingly restrictive environmental regulations. In case of heavy-duty engines, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fueling coupled with Three-Way Catalyst (TWC) and Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) can help in meeting the imposed emission limits and preventing from thermal stress of engine components. To cope with the new issues associated with the more complex hardware and to improve powertrain performance and reliability and after-treatment efficiency, the engine control strategies must be reformulated. The paper focuses on the steady-state optimization of control parameters for a heavy-duty engine fueled by CNG and equipped with turbocharger and EGR. The optimization analysis is carried out to design EGR, spark timing and wastegate control, aimed at increasing fuel economy while reducing in-cylinder temperature to prevent from thermal stress of engine components.

In recent years the use of alternative fuels for internal combustion engines has had a strong push coming from both technical and economic-environmental aspects. Among these, gaseous fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and natural gas have occupied a segment no longer negligible in the automotive industry, thanks to their adaptability, anti-knock capacity, lower toxicity of pollutants, reduced CO2 emissions and cost effectiveness. On the other hand, diesel engines still represent the reference category among the internal combustion engines in terms of fuel consumptions. The possibility offered by the dual fuel systems, to combine the efficiency and performance of a diesel engine with the environmental advantages of gaseous fuels, has been long investigated. However the simple replacement of diesel fuel with natural gas does not allow to optimize the performance of the engine due to the high THC emissions particularly at lower loads.

Hydrogen (H₂) added to natural gas (NG), improves the combustion process of the air-fuel mixture. This gives the potentiality to develop engines with better performance and lower environmental impact. In any case how hydrogen is produced represents a crucial aspect. In general, if H₂ is produced utilizing fossil fuels and not renewable or nuclear sources, the environmental benefit of CO₂ reduction could be reduced. In this paper two engines, a light-duty (LD) and a heavy-duty (HD), were tested in stoichiometric conditions. The engines were fuelled with NG and with two blends of NG with a 20% and a 40% by volume of H₂, respectively named NG/H₂ 20% and NG/H₂ 40%. The light-duty engine was tested at different loads and speeds, with spark advance set by the electronic control unit (ECU). The ECU actuated a retarded ignition, especially at low load. With the heavy-duty engine, the tests were carried out only at high load.

The improvement in engines efficiency and reduction of emissions is the permanent aim of engine industry in order to meet European standards regulation. To optimize small internal combustion engines it is necessary to improve the basic knowledge of thermo-fluid dynamic phenomena occurring during the combustion. This paper describes the combustion process in an optically accessible two-stroke spark-ignition engine used in a commercial 43 cm3 chainsaw. Two different feeding systems were tested: standard and CWI one. The engine head was modified in order to allow the visualization of the combustion using endoscopic system coupled with a high spatial resolution ICCD camera. Flame front propagation was evaluated through an image processing procedure. The image visualization and chemiluminence allowed to follow the combustion process from the spark ignition to the exhaust phase at high engine speed. All the optical data were correlated with engine parameters and exhaust emissions.

The paper deals with experimental testing of a natural gas fueled engine. Break Specific fuel Consumption (BSFC), Average Mass Flow Rate, Instantaneous Cylinder Pressure and some wall temperatures have been measured at some full and part load operating conditions. The results of this experimental activity, still in progress, have been used to calibrate a 1D-flow engine's model. Then the effects of some VVA strategies have been theoretically studied through the validated model. With the aim of maximizing the full load engine's torque, a genetic algorithm was used to calculate the optimized intake and exhaust valves timing angles. Various VVA strategies were compared at part-load in order to reduce brake specific fuel consumption.

This paper presents an experimental study on a 2-stroke SI engine, used on small portable tools for gardening or agriculture, aimed to identify possible correlations between parameters related to ionization current and air/fuel mixture richness, considering different fuels and spark plug wear. This, to realize a simple system to control the engine parameters and adapt them to engine aging and fuel type changing. The engine was fed with commercial gasoline, low octane number gasoline, alkylate gasoline and a blend of 80% gasoline and 20% ethanol. In all tests carried out with varying engine speed and spark advance the ionization signal was characterized by a single peak, resulting in the impossibility of distinguishing chemical and thermal ionization. All data collected were analyzed looking for correlations between all the available data of CO emissions and several characteristic parameters obtained from the ionization signal.

Increasingly stringent regulations in the field of pollutant are forcing engine manufacturers to adopt new solutions to contain exhaust emissions, such as Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) or Full Electric Vehicles (FEV). Still far from the wide diffusion of FEV limited from electrochemical storage systems together with the difficulty of creating adequate infrastructure distributed throughout the territory to recharging batteries, the HEV seems to be actually a better solution. The hybrid vehicle is already able to guarantee satisfactory autonomy and low pollution levels by combining the advantages offered by the two technologies of thermal and electric propulsion. Currently on the market there are several types of hybrid vehicles, with different degree of hybridization (electric motor power versus propulsion total power), capacity to store electricity and type of scheme constructive adopted for the integration between the thermal engine and the electric machine.

The transport of goods and people by sea, today, must meet the need to reduce the consumption of fuel oil. In addition, it has to ensure operational reliability and vessel availability, to reduce maintenance costs and comply with emission legislation. To this end, it is necessary to apply a marine engine combustion control system already widely used in engines for land transport. This will allow the ship's engines to operate reliably and in compliance with the best performance for which it was designed. The combustion control could also ensure a more balanced operation of the cylinders and reduce the torsional vibrations of the entire engine, as well as the management of the engine according to the adopted fuel: diesel, dual fuel, methanol, ammonia. Generally, the control of combustion in engines is carried out through the use of pressure sensors that face directly into the combustion chamber.

The need for a quick reduction in greenhouse gasses and noxious emissions is pushing maritime transportation to increase the use of alternative fuels. Natural Gas (NG) is well recognized as an effective solution to limit the use of marine diesel oil in the short/mid-term. In this scenario, dual-fuel technology is used to enable a conventional diesel engine to operate with a share of gaseous fuel while retaining the capability to run in full diesel mode. Dual-fuel (DF) engines allow the use of natural gas, or biomethane from renewable sources, as the main fuel, with advantages over CO2, SOx and PM emissions with the same levels of NOx. This paper presents an experimental study investigating the effects of the diesel injection strategy on performance and emissions of a dual-fuel, single-cylinder, large bore, 4-stroke engine for marine applications.