Injection Parameter Effects on a Direct Injected, Pilot Ignited, Heavy Duty Natural Gas Engine with EGR 2003-01-3089

Pilot-ignited direct injection of natural gas fuelling of a heavy-duty compression ignition engine while using recirculated exhaust gas (EGR) has been shown to significantly reduce NO_x emissions. To further investigate emissions reductions, the combustion timing, injection pressure, and relative delay between the pilot and main fuel injections were varied over a range of EGR fractions while engine speed, net charge mass, and oxygen equivalence ratio were held constant. PM emissions were reduced by higher injection pressures without significantly affecting NO_x at all EGR conditions. By delaying the combustion, NO_x was reduced at the expense of increased PM for a given EGR fraction. By reducing the delay between the pilot and main fuel injections at high EGR, PM emissions were substantially reduced at the expense of increased total hydrocarbon (tHC) emissions. In this research, no attempt was made to optimize the injector or combustion chamber for natural gas fuelling with EGR.