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This paper focusses on the application of bioalcohols (ethanol and butanol) derived from seaweed in Heavy-Duty (HD) Compression Ignition (CI) combustion engines. Seaweed-based fuels do not claim land and are not in competition with the food chain. Currently, the application of high octane bioalcohols is limited to Spark Ignition (SI) engines. The Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) combustion concept allows the use of these low carbon fuels in CI engines which have higher efficiencies associated with them than SI engines. This contributes to the reduction of tailpipe CO2 emissions as required by (future) legislation and reducing fuel consumption, i.e. Total-Cost-of-Ownership (TCO). Furthermore, it opens the HD transport market for these low carbon bioalcohol fuels from a novel sustainable biomass source. In this paper, both the production of seaweed-based fuels and the application of these fuels in CI engines is discussed.

Green zones are challenging problems for the thermal management systems of hybrid vehicles. This is because within the green zone the engine is turned off, and the only way to keep the aftertreatment system warm is lost. This means that there is a risk of leaving the green zone with a cold and ineffective aftertreatment system, resulting in high emissions. A thermal management strategy that heats the aftertreatment system prior to turning off the engine, in an optimal way, to reduce the NOx emissions when the engine is restarted, is developed. The strategy is also used to evaluate under what conditions pre-heating is a suitable strategy, by evaluating the performance in simulations using a model of a heavy-duty diesel powertrain and scenario designed for this purpose.

Butanol is an attractive alternative fuel by virtue of its renewable source and low sooting tendency. In this paper, three butanol isomers (n-butanol, isobutanol, and tert-butanol) were induced via port injection respectively and n-heptane was directly injected into the cylinder to investigate reactivity controlled compression ignition in a heavy-duty diesel engine. This work evaluates the potential of applying butanol as low reactivity fuel and the effects of reactivity gradient on combustion and emission characteristics. The experiments were performed from low load to medium-high load. Due to the different reactivities among the butanol isomers, the exhaust gas recirculation rate and the direct injection strategy were varied for a specific butanol isomer and testing load. Particularly, isobutanol/n-heptane can be operated with single direct injection and no exhaust gas recirculation up to medium load due to the high octane rating.

Multiple injection strategies are commonly used in conventional Diesel engines due to the flexibility for optimizing heat-release timing with a consequent improvement in fuel economy and engine-out emissions. This is also desirable in low-temperature combustion (LTC) engines since it offers the potential to reduce unburned hydrocarbon and CO emissions. To better utilize these benefits and find optimal calibrations of split injection strategies, it is imperative that the fundamental processes of multiple injection combustion are understood and computational fluid dynamics models accurately describe the flow dynamics and combustion characteristics between different injection events. To this end, this work is dedicated to the identification of suitable methodologies to predict the multiple injection combustion process.

CO2 regulations on heavy-duty transport are introduced in essentially all markets within the next decade, in most cases in several phases of increasing stringency. To cope with these mandates, developers of engines and related equipment are aiming to break new ground in the fields of combustion, fuel and hardware technologies. In this work, a novel diesel fuel injector, Delphi’s DFI7, is utilized to experimentally investigate and compare the performance of ramped injection rates versus traditional square fueling profiles. The aim is specifically to shift the efficiency and NOx tradeoff to a more favorable position. The design of experiments methodology is used in the tests, along with statistical techniques to analyze the data. Results show that ramped and square rates - after optimization of fueling parameters - produce comparable gross indicated efficiencies.

N-butanol, as a biomass-based renewable fuel, has many superior fuel properties. It has a higher energy content and cetane number than its alcohol competitors, methanol and ethanol. Previous studies have proved that n-butanol has the capability to achieve lower emissions without sacrifice on thermal efficiency when blended with diesel. However, most studies on n-butanol are limited to low blending ratios, which restricts the improvement of emissions. In this paper, 80% by volume of n-butanol was blended with 20% by volume of n-heptane (namely BH80). The influences of various engine parameters (combustion phasing, EGR ratio, injection timing and intake pressure, respectively) on its combustion and emission characteristics are tested at different loads. The results showed that when BH80 uses more than 40% EGR, the emitted soot and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions are below the EURO VI legislation.

The accepted model of conventional diesel combustion [1] assumes a rich premixed flame slightly downstream of the maximum liquid penetration. The soot generated by this rich premixed flame is burnt out by a subsequent diffusion flame at the head of the jet. Even in situations in which the centre of combustion (CA50) is phased optimally to maximize efficiency, slow late stage combustion can still have a significant detrimental impact on thermal efficiency. Data is presented on potential late-stage combustion improvers in a EURO VI compliant HD engine at a range of speed and load points. The operating conditions (e.g. injection timings, EGR levels) were based on a EURO VI calibration which targets 3 g/kWh of engine-out NOx. Rates of heat release were determined from the pressure sensor data. To investigate late stage combustion, focus was made on the position in the cycle at which 90% of the fuel had combusted (CA90). An EN590 compliant fuel was tested.

Premixed Charge Compression Ignition concepts are promising to reduce NOx and soot simultaneously and keeping a high thermal efficiency. Partially premixed combustion is a single fuel variant of this new combustion concepts applying a fuel with a low cetane number to achieve the necessary long ignition delay. In this study, multiple injection strategies are studied in the partially premixed combustion approach to reach stable combustion and ultra-low NOx and soot emission at 15.5 bar gross indicated mean effective pressure. Three different injection strategies (single injection, pilot-main injection, main-post injection) are experimentally investigated on a heavy duty compression ignition engine. A fuel blend (70 vol% n-butanol and 30 vol% n-heptane) was tested. The effects of different pilot and post-injection timing, as well as Exhaust-gas Recirculation rate on different injection strategies investigated.

Post-injection strategies prove to be a valuable option for reducing soot emission, but experimental results often differ from publication to publication. These discrepancies are likely caused by the selected operating conditions and engine hardware in separate studies. Efforts to optimize not only engine-out soot, but simultaneously fuel economy and emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) complicate the understanding of post-injection effects even more. Still, the large amount of published work on the topic is gradually forming a consensus. In the current work, a Design-of-Experiments (DoE) procedure and regression analysis are used to investigate the influence of various operating conditions on post-injection scheduling and efficacy. The study targets emission reductions of soot and NOx, as well as fuel economy improvements. Experiments are conducted on a heavy-duty compression ignition engine at three load-speed combinations.

In-cylinder visualization, combustion stratification, and engine-out particulate matter (PM) emissions were investigated in an optical engine fueled with Haltermann straight-run naphtha fuel and corresponding surrogate fuel. The combustion mode was transited from homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) to conventional compression ignition (CI) via partially premixed combustion (PPC). Single injection strategy with the change of start of injection (SOI) from early to late injections was employed. The high-speed color camera was used to capture the in-cylinder combustion images. The combustion stratification was analyzed based on the natural luminosity of the combustion images. The regulated emission of unburned hydrocarbon (UHC), carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) were measured to evaluate the combustion efficiency together with the in-cylinder rate of heat release.

Second generation biomass is an attractive renewable feedstock for transport fuels. Its sulfur content is generally negligible and the carbon cycle is reduced from millions to tens of years. One hitherto non-valorized feedstock are so-called humins, a residual product formed in the conversion of sugars to platform chemicals, such as hydroxymethylfurfural and methoxymethylfurfural, intermediates in the production of FDCA, a building block used to produce the polyethylene furanoate (PEF) bottle by Avantium. The focus of this study is to investigate the spray combustion behavior of humins as a renewable alternative for heavy fuel oil (HFO) under large two-stroke engine-like conditions in an optically accessible constant volume chamber.

Recently introduced sulfur caps on marine fuels in so-called sulfur emission control areas (SECAs) are forcing shipping companies to sail on more or less automotive grade diesel in lieu of the considerably less expensive, but sulfur-laden heavy fuel oil (HFO) to which they were accustomed. This development is an opportunity for a bio-based substitute, given that most biomass is sulfur free by default. Moreover, given that biomass is typically solid to start with, cracking it to an HFO grade, which is highly viscous in nature, will involve fewer and/or less harsh process steps than would be the case if an automotive grade fuel were to be targeted. In this study, a renewable low sulfur heavy fuel oil (LSHFO) has been produced by means of subcritical water assisted lignin depolymerization in the presence of a short length surfactant, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether (EGBE).

The interactions between automatic controls, physics, and driver is an important step towards highly automated driving. This study investigates the dynamical interactions between human-selected driving modes, vehicle controller and physical plant parameters, to determine how to optimally adapt powertrain control to different human-like driving requirements. A cyber-physical system (CPS) based framework is proposed for co-design optimization of the physical plant parameters and controller variables for an electric powertrain, in view of vehicle’s dynamic performance, ride comfort, and energy efficiency under different driving modes. System structure, performance requirements and constraints, optimization goals and methodology are investigated. Intelligent powertrain control algorithms are synthesized for three driving modes, namely sport, eco, and normal modes, with appropriate protocol selections. The performance exploration methodology is presented.

Partially premixed compression ignition combustion is one of the low temperature combustion techniques which is being actively investigated. This approach provides a significant reduction of both soot and NOx emissions. Comparing to the homogeneous charge compression ignition mode, PPCI combustion provides better control on ignition timing and noise reduction through air-fuel mixture stratification which lowers heat release rate compared to other advanced combustion modes. In this work, CFD simulations were conducted for a low and a high air-fuel mixture stratification cases on a light-duty optical engine operating in PPCI mode. Such conditions for PRF70 as fuel were experimentally achieved by injection timing and spray targeting at similar thermodynamic conditions.

Gasoline-ethanol-methanol (GEM) blends, with constant stoichiometric air-to-fuel ratio (iso-stoichiometric blending rule) and equivalent to binary gasoline-ethanol blends (E2, E5, E10 and E15 in % vol.), were defined to investigate the effect of methanol and combined mixtures of ethanol and methanol when blended with three FACE (Fuels for Advanced Combustion Engines) Gasolines, I, J and A corresponding to RON 70.2, 73.8 and 83.9, respectively, and their corresponding Primary Reference Fuels (PRFs). A Cooperative Fuel Research (CFR) engine was used under Spark Ignition and Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignited modes. An ignition quality tester was utilized in the Compression Ignition mode. One of the promising properties of GEM blends, which are derived using the iso-stoichiometric blending rule, is that they maintain a constant octane number, which has led to the introduction of methanol as a drop-in fuel to supplement bio-derived ethanol.

The modeling of fuel sprays under well-characterized conditions relevant for heavy-duty Diesel engine applications, allows for detailed analyses of individual phenomena aimed at improving emission formation and fuel consumption. However, the complexity of a reacting fuel spray under heavy-duty conditions currently prohibits direct simulation. Using a systematic approach, we extrapolate available spray models to the desired conditions without inclusion of chemical reactions. For validation, experimental techniques are utilized to characterize inert sprays of n-dodecane in a high-pressure, high-temperature (900 K) constant volume vessel with full optical access. The liquid fuel spray is studied using high-speed diffused back-illumination for conditions with different densities (22.8 and 40 kg/m3) and injection pressures (150, 80 and 160 MPa), using a 0.205-mm orifice diameter nozzle.

Cylinder pressure-based combustion control is widely introduced for passenger cars. Benefits include enhanced emission robustness to fuel quality variation, reduced fuel consumption due to more accurate (multi-pulse) fuel injection, and minimized after treatment size. In addition, it enables the introduction of advanced, high-efficient combustion concepts. The application in truck engines is foreseen, but challenges need to be overcome related to durability, increased system costs, and impact on the cylinder head. In this paper, a new single cylinder pressure sensor concept for heavy-duty Diesel engines is presented. Compared to previous studies, this work focuses on heavy-duty Diesel powertrains, which are characterized by a relatively flexible crank shaft in contrast to the existing passenger car applications.

Owing to environmental and health concerns, tetraethyl lead was gradually phased out from the early 1970's to mid-1990's in most developed countries. Advances in refining, leading to more aromatics (via reformate) and iso-paraffins such as iso-octane, along with the introduction of (bio) oxygenates such as MTBE, ETBE and ethanol, facilitated the removal of lead without sacrificing RON and MON. In recent years, however, legislation has been moving in the direction of curbing aromatic and olefin content in gasoline, owing to similar concerns as was the case for lead. Meanwhile, concerns over global warming and energy security have motivated research into renewable fuels. Amongst which are those derived from biomass. The feedstock of interest in this study is lignin, which, together with hemicellulose and cellulose, is amongst the most abundant organic compounds on the planet.

For natural gas (NG)-diesel RCCI, a multi-zonal, detailed chemistry modeling approach is presented. This dual fuel combustion process requires further understanding of the ignition and combustion processes to maximize thermal efficiency and minimize (partially) unburned fuel emissions. The introduction of two fuels with different physical and chemical properties makes the combustion process complicated and challenging to model. In this study, a multi-zone approach is applied to NG-diesel RCCI combustion in a heavy-duty engine. Auto-ignition chemistry is believed to be the key process in RCCI. Starting from a multi-zone model that can describe auto-ignition dominated processes, such as HCCI and PCCI, this model is adapted by including reaction mechanisms for natural gas and NOx and by improving the in-cylinder pressure prediction. The model is validated using NG-diesel RCCI measurements that are performed on a 6 cylinder heavy-duty engine.

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion technology has demonstrated a profound potential to decrease both emissions and fuel consumption. In this way, the significance of the 2-stroke HCCI engine has been underestimated as it can provide more power stroke in comparison to a 4-stroke engine. Moreover, the mass of trapped residual gases is much larger in a 2-stroke engine, causing higher initial charge temperatures, which leads to easier auto-ignition. For controlling 2-stroke HCCI engines, it is vital to find optimized simulation approaches of HCCI combustion with a focus on ignition timing. In this study, a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model for a 2-stroke gasoline engine was developed coupled to a semi-detailed chemical mechanism of iso-octane to investigate the simulation capability of the considered chemical mechanism and the effects of different simulation parameters such as the turbulence model, grid density and time step size.