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Synthetic fuels (e-fuels) synthesized from H2 and CO by renewable electricity are expected as the next- generation diesel fuels and two types of e-fuels have received extensive attention: Fischer-Tropsch (FT) fuel and Oxymethylene dimethyl ether (OME). In this study the effects of OME blending ratios with 0 to 50 vol.% in FT fuels on combustion, emissions and spray characteristics in diesel engines are investigated. The results suggest that the OME blends to FT fuels suppressed the deterioration in combustion efficiency under low intake oxygen concentration conditions. The smoke emissions of FT fuels and OME blended fuels were both lower than those of diesel fuel and decreased with the increase in the OME blend ratio, and the soot-NOx trade-off relation in diesel engines can be improved.

Spark knock suppression with hydrogen addition was investigated at two engine speeds (2000 rpm and 4800 rpm). The experimental results showed that the spark knock is strongly suppressed with increasing hydrogen fraction at 2000 rpm while the effect is much smaller at 4800 rpm. To explain these results, chemical kinetic analyses with a two-zone combustion model were performed. The calculated results showed that the heat release in the end gas zone rises in two stages with a remarkable appearance of low temperature oxidation (LTO) at 2000 rpm, while a single stage heat release without apparent LTO process is presented at 4800 rpm due to the shorter residence time in the low temperature region.

The Dual-Fuel (DF) combustion is a promising technology for efficient, low NOx and low exhaust particulate matter (PM) engine operation. To achieve equivalent performance to a DF engine with only the use of conventional liquid fuel, this study proposes the implementation of an on-board fuel reformation process by piston compression. For concept verification, DF combustion tests with representative reformed gas components were conducted. Based on the results, the controllability of the reformed gas composition by variations in the operating conditions of the reformer cylinder were discussed.

To extend the operational range of premixed diesel combustion, fuel reformation by piston induced compression of rich homogeneous air-fuel mixtures was conducted in this study. Reformed gas compositions and chemical processes were first simulated with the chemistry dynamics simulation, CHEMKIN Pro, by changing the intake oxygen content, intake air temperature, and compression ratio. A single cylinder diesel engine was utilized to verify the simulation results. With the simulation and experiments, the characteristics of the reformed gas with respect to the reformer cylinder operating condition were obtained. Further, the thermal decomposition and partial oxidation reaction mechanisms of the fuel in extremely low oxygen concentrations were obtained with the characteristics of the gas production at the various reaction temperatures.

To monitor emission-related components/systems and to evaluate the presence of malfunctioning or failures that can affect emissions, current diesel engine regulations require the use of on-board diagnostics (OBD). For diesel particulate filters (DPF), the pressure drop across the DPF is monitored by the OBD as the pressure drop is approximately linear related to the soot mass deposited in a filter. However, sudden acceleration may cause a sudden decrease in DPF pressure drop under cold start conditions. This appears to be caused by water that has condensed in the exhaust pipe, but no detailed mechanism for this decrease has been established. The present study developed an experimental apparatus that reproduces rapid increases of the exhaust gas flow under cold start conditions and enables independent control of the amount of water as well as the gas flow rate supplied to the DPF.

Diesel particulate filters (DPF) are widely used in diesel engines, and forced regeneration is necessary to remove particulate matter (PM) accumulating on the DPF. This may be achieved with fuel injected after the main combustion is complete, the socalled “post fuel injection”, and supplied to the diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) upstream of the DPF. This increases the exhaust gas temperature in the DOC and the DPF is regenerated with the high temperature gas flow. In most cases, the post fuel injection takes place at 30-90CA ATDC, and fuel may impinge on and adhere to the cylinder liner wall in some cases. Buddie and Pischinger [1] have reported a lubricant oil dilution with the post fuel injection by engine tests and simulations, and adhering fuel is a cause of worsening fuel consumption. In this paper, the impingement and adhesion of post diesel fuel injections on the cylinder liner was investigated by an optical method with a high pressure constant volume chamber (ϕ110mm, 883cm3).

Premixed diesel combustion blending high volatility fuels into diesel fuel were investigated in a modern diesel engine. First, various fractions of normal heptane and diesel fuel were examined to determine the influence of the blending of a highly ignitable and volatile fuel into diesel fuel. The indicated thermal efficiency improves almost linearly with increasing normal heptane fraction, particularly at advanced injection timings when the fuel is not injected directly into the piston cavity. This improvement is mainly due to decreases in the other losses, ϕother which are calculated with the following equation based on the energy balance. ηu: The combustion efficiency calculated from the exhaust gas compositions ηi: The indicated thermal efficiency ϕex: The exhaust loss calculated from the enthalpy difference between intake and exhaust gas The decreases in the other losses with normal heptane blends are due to a reduction in the unburned fuel which does not reach the gas analyzer.

Diesel-like combustion of an emulsified blend of water and diesel fuel in a constant volume chamber vessel was visualized with high speed color video, further analyzing with a 2-D two color method and shadowgraph images. When the temperature at the fuel injection is 900 K, here while the combustion with unblended diesel fuel in the vessel is similar to ordinary diesel combustion with diffusive combustion, combustion with the emulsified fuel is similar to premixed diesel combustion with a large premixed combustion and very little diffusive combustion. With the emulsified fuel the flame luminosity and temperature are lower, the luminous flame and high temperature regions are smaller, and the duration of the luminous flame is shorter than with diesel fuel. This is due to promotion of premixing with increases in the ignition delay and decreases in the combustion temperature with the water vaporization.

The influence of fuel properties on the operational range and the thermal efficiency of premixed diesel combustion was evaluated with an ordinary diesel fuel, a primary reference fuel for cetane numbers, three primary reference fuels for octane numbers, and two normal heptane-toluene blend fuels in a single-cylinder DI diesel engine. The fuel injection timing was set at 25°CA BTDC and the maximum rate of pressure rise was maintained below 1.0 MPa/°CA when lowering the intake oxygen concentration by cooled EGR. With increasing octane numbers, the higher intake oxygen concentration can be used, resulting in higher indicated thermal efficiency due to a higher combustion efficiency. The best thermal efficiency at the optimum intake oxygen concentration with the ordinary diesel fuel is lower than with the primary reference fuels with the similar ignitability but higher volatility.

Low NOx and soot free premixed diesel combustion can be realized by increasing ignition delays in low oxygen atmospheres, as well as the combustion here also depends on fuel ignitability. In this report single intermittent spray combustion with primary reference fuels and a normal heptane-toluene blend fuel under several oxygen concentrations in a constant volume combustion vessel was analyzed with high-speed color video and pressure data. Temperature and KL factor distributions are displayed with a 2-D two-color method. The results show that premixing is promoted with a decrease in oxygen concentration, and the local high temperature regions, above 2200 K, as well as the duration of their appearance decreases with the oxygen concentration. With normal heptane, mild premixed diesel combustion can be realized at 15 vol% oxygen and there is little luminous flame.

This study makes use of the detailed mechanisms of n-heptane combustion, from gas reactions to soot particle formation and oxidation, and a two-stage model based on the CHEMKIN reactor network is developed and used to investigate the trade-off between soot and NOx emissions. The effects of the equivalence ratio, EGR, ambient pressure and temperature, and initial particle diameter are observed for various residence times. The results show that high rates of NOx formation are unavoidable under conditions where high reduction rates of soot particles are obtained. This suggests that suppression of the amount of soot during the formation stage is essential for simultaneous reductions in engine-out soot and NOx emissions.

Port injection of ethanol addition as an ignition inhibitor was implemented to control ignition timing and expand the operating range in DME fueled HCCI combustion. The ethanol reduced the rate of low-temperature oxidation and consequently delayed the onset of the high-temperature reaction with ultra-low NOx over a wide operating range. Along with the ethanol addition, changes in intake temperature, overall equivalence ratio, and engine speed are investigated and shown to be effective in HCCI combustion control and to enable an extension of operation range. A chemical reaction analysis was performed to elucidate details of the ignition inhibition on low-temperature oxidation of DME-HCCI combustion.

The effect of after-injection on exhaust gas emissions from a DI diesel engine with a common rail injection system was experimentally investigated for a range of operating conditions. The results showed that over the whole of the operating range, some reduction in smoke emissions can be achieved with after-injection, without deterioration in thermal efficiency and other emission characteristics. The optimum quantity of after-injection for smoke reduction is 20% of the total fuel supply, and the optimum timing is just after the main injection. Visualization in a bottom view type engine showed that with after-injection, soot formation in the main-injection decrease more due to a smaller quantity of fuel than without after-injection, and soot formation with after-injection is insignificant.

Unregulated emissions from a DI diesel engine with ultra-high EGR low temperature combustion were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and the reduction characteristics of both regulated and unregulated emissions by two exhaust catalysts were investigated. With ultra-high EGR suppressing the in-cylinder soot and Nox formation as well as with the exhaust catalysts removing the engine-out THC and CO emissions, clean diesel operation in terms of ultra-low regulated emissions (Nox, PM, THC, and CO) is established in an operating range up to 50% load. To realize smokeless low temperature combustion at higher loads, EGR has to be increased to a rate with the overall (average) excess air ratio less than the stoichiometric ratio.

The effects of intake dilution with various dilution gases including nitrogen, argon, and carbon dioxide on low temperature diesel combustion were investigated in a naturally aspirated DI diesel engine to understand the mechanism of the simultaneous reductions in smoke and NOx with ultra-high EGR. NOx almost completely disappears with the intake oxygen concentration diluted below 16% regardless of the kind of dilution gas. Smoke emissions decrease with increased heat capacity of the charged gas due to promotion of mixture homogeneity with longer ignition delays. Intake dilution with the 36% CO2 + 64% Ar mixture which has a similar specific heat capacity as N2 shows lower smoke emissions than with N2. Chemical kinetics analysis shows that carbon dioxide may help to reduce NOx and soot by lowering the reaction temperature as well as by changing the concentrations of some radicals or/and species related to soot and NOx formation.

To evaluate the relation between the intake air temperature (Tair-in), low temperature heat release (LTHR) and high temperature heat release (HTHR), a supercharged 4-cylinder engine with intake air heating, high compression pistons and a pressure transducer in each cylinder was introduced Eleven pure hydrocarbon components were blended into 23 different model fuels, labeled BASE MC01-MC11, and K01-K11. BASE is a mixture of equal proportion of each of the 11 pure hydrocarbons. The difference between MC series and K series fuels is in the amount of pure hydrocarbon added to the BASE: 6.5vol% for MC series fuels and 17.5vol% for K series fuels. Engine tests were performed with BASE and MC01-MC11 fuels at Tair-in=50°C (IMEP 530kPa), 80°C (IMEP 420kPa), and 100°C (IMEP 380kPa).

Ultra-low NOx and smokeless operation at higher loads up to half of the rated torque is attempted with large ratios of cold EGR. NOx decreases below 6 ppm (0.05 g/(kW·h)) and soot significantly increases when first decreasing the oxygen concentration to 16% with cold EGR, but after peaking at 12-14% oxygen, soot then deceases sharply to essentially zero at 9-10% oxygen while maintaining ultra low NOx and regardless of fuel injection quantity. However, at higher loads, with the oxygen concentration below 9-10%, the air/fuel ratio has to be over-rich to exceed half of rated torque, and thermal efficiency, CO, and THC deteriorate significantly. As EGR rate increases, exhaust gas emissions and thermal efficiency vary with the intake oxygen content rather than with the excess air ratio.

Low temperature heat release (LTHR) in HCCI combustion changes according to fuel chemical composition and engine test conditions. In this study 11 pure hydrocarbon components were blended into 12 different model fuels to evaluate the effects of fuel composition on LTHR heating value, LTHR CA50 (crank angle at 50% completion of LTHR), high temperature heat release (HTHR), and engine performance. From the heat release analysis of the test data from a supercharged 4-cylinder engine, it was determined that the HTHR CA50 (crank angle at 50% completion of HTHR) was strongly indicative of combustion stability and maximum rate of pressure rise. Moreover, the functional dependence of HTHR CA50 on LTHR heating value and LTHR CA50 was quantified. Test fuels denoted MD05, Base, MC05 and MX05 were prepared by adding 5.2vol%, 9.3vol%, 15.0vol%, and 18.2vol% of n-hexane, respectively, to a blend of 10 pure hydrocarbons.

The thermal cracking and polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) formation processes of dimethyl ether (DME), ethanol, and ethane were investigated with chemical kinetics to determine the soot formation mechanism of oxygenated fuels. The modeling analyzed three processes, an isothermal constant pressure condition, a temperature rising condition under a constant pressure, and an unsteady condition approximating diesel combustion. With the same mole number of oxygen atoms, the DME rich mixtures form much carbon monoxide and methane and very little non-methane HC and PAH, in comparison with ethanol or ethane mixtures. This suggests that the existence of the C-C bond promotes the formation of PAH and soot.

Light naphtha, which exhibits two-stage ignition, was induced from the intake manifold for ignition enhancement and a low ignitability fuel or water, which does not exhibit low temperature oxidation, was directly injected early in the compression stroke for ignition suppression in an HCCI engine. Their quantitative balance was flexibly controlled to optimize ignition timing according to operating condition. Ultra-low NOx and smokeless combustion without knocking or misfiring was realized over a wide operating range. Alcohols inhibit low temperature oxidation more strongly than other oxygenated or unoxygenated hydrocarbons, water, and hydrogen. Chemical kinetic modeling for methanol showed a reduction of OH radical concentration before the onset of low temperature oxidation, and this may be the main mechanism by which alcohols inhibit low temperature oxidation.