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Fuel lean combustion and exhaust gas dilution are known to increase the thermal efficiency and reduce NOx emissions. In this study, experiments are performed to understand the effect of equivalence ratio on flame kernel formation and flame propagation around the spark plug for different low turbulent velocities. A series of experiments are carried out for propane-air mixtures to simulate engine-like conditions. For these experiments, equivalence ratios of 0.7 and 0.9 are tested with 20 percent mass-based exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). Turbulence is generated by a shrouded fan design in the vicinity of J-spark plug. A closed loop feedback control system is used for the fan to generate a consistent flow field. The flow profile is characterized by using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique. High-speed Schlieren visualization is used for the spark formation and flame propagation.

In order to extend the operability limit of the gasoline compression ignition (GCI) engine, as an avenue for low temperature combustion (LTC) regime, the effects of parametric variations of engine operating conditions on the performance of six-stroke GCI (6S-GCI) engine cycle are numerically investigated, using an in-house 3D CFD code coupled with high-fidelity physical sub-models along with the Chemkin library. The combustion and emissions were calculated using a skeletal chemical kinetics mechanism for a 14-component gasoline surrogate fuel. Authors’ previous study highlighted the effects of the variation of injection timing and split ratio on the overall performance of 6S-GCI engine and the unique mixing-controlled burning mode of the charge mixtures during the two additional strokes. As a continuing effort, the present study details the parametric studies of initial gas temperature, boost pressure, fuel injection pressure, compression ratio, and EGR ratio.

Past experimental studies conducted by the current authors on a 13 liter 16.7:1 compression ratio heavy-duty diesel engine have shown that diesel-Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) combustion targeting low NOx emissions becomes progressively difficult to control as the engine load is increased. This is mainly due to difficulty in controlling reactivity levels at higher loads. For the current study, CFD investigations were conducted in CONVERGE using the SAGE combustion solver with the application of the Rahimi mechanism. Studies were conducted at a load of 5 bar BMEP to validate the simulation results against RCCI experimental data. In the low load study, it was found that the Rahimi mechanism was not able to predict the RCCI combustion behavior for diesel injection timings advanced beyond 30 degCA bTDC. This poor prediction was found at multiple engine speed and load points.

Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) technology shows the potential to obtain high thermal efficiencies while maintaining low soot and NOx emissions in light-duty engine applications. Recent experimental studies and numerical simulations have indicated that high reactivity gasoline-like fuels can further enable the benefits of GCI combustion. However, there is limited empirical data in the literature studying the gasoline compression ignition process at relevant in-cylinder conditions, which are required for further optimizing combustion system designs. This study investigates the temporal and spatial evolution of the compression ignition process of various high reactivity gasoline fuels with research octane numbers (RON) of 71, 74 and 82, as well as a conventional RON 97 E10 gasoline fuel. A ten-hole prototype gasoline injector specifically designed for GCI applications capable of injection pressures up to 450 bar was used.

In this paper, a model-based linear estimator and a non-linear control law for an Fe-zeolite urea-selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst for heavy duty diesel engine applications is presented. The novel aspect of this work is that the relevant species, NO, NO2 and NH3 are estimated and controlled independently. The ability to target NH3 slip is important not only to minimize urea consumption, but also to reduce this unregulated emission. Being able to discriminate between NO and NO2 is important for two reasons. First, recent Fe-zeolite catalyst studies suggest that NOx reduction is highly favored by the NO 2 based reactions. Second, NO2 is more toxic than NO to both the environment and human health. The estimator and control law are based on a 4-state model of the urea-SCR plant. A linearized version of the model is used for state estimation while the full nonlinear model is used for control design.

Because of domestic production from renewable sources and their clean burning nature, alcohols, especially ethanol, have seen growing use as a blending agent and replacement for basic hydrocarbons in gasoline. The increasing use of alcohol in fuels raises questions on the safety of these fuels under certain non-operational situations. Modern vehicles use evaporative emission control systems to minimize environmental emissions of fuel. These systems must be relatively leak-free to function properly and are self-diagnosed by the vehicle On-Board Diagnostic system. When service is required, the service leak testing procedures may involve forcing test gases into the “evap” system and also exposure of the fuel vapors normally contained in the system to atmosphere. Previous work has discussed the hazards involved when performing shop leak testing activities for vehicles fuelled with conventional hydrocarbon gasoline [1, 2].

Further improvement in fuel consumption is needed for diesel engines to address regulatory requirement particularly for heavy duty diesel in Japan enforced in 2015, in addition to the compliance to the regulatory requirements for exhaust emission, which seems to be more stringent in future. The authors have participated in the project of “Comprehensive Technological Development of Innovative, Next-Generation, Low-Pollution Vehicles” organized by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), and innovative devices such as multi stage boosting system, ultra high-pressure fuel injection system and variable valve actuation (camless) system had been developed in this project from a standpoint of simultaneous improvement of fuel consumption and exhaust emission. In camless system, intake and exhaust valves are driven by hydraulic pressure. So, fully flexible setting of opening and closure timings and lift of the intake and exhaust valves is possible.

Hydrogen can be produced by electrolyzation with renewable electricity and the combustion products of hydrogen mixture include no CO, CO2 and hydrocarbons. In this study, engine performance with hydrogen / diesel dual fuel (hydrogen DDF) operation in a multi-cylinder diesel engine is investigated due to clarify advantages and disadvantages of hydrogen DDF operation. Hydrogen DDF operation under several brake power conditions are evaluated by changing a rate of hydrogen to total input energy (H2 rate). As H2 rate is increased, an amount of diesel fuel is decreased to keep a given torque constant. When the hydrogen DDF engine is operated with EGR, Exhaust gas components including carbon are improved or suppressed to same level as conventional diesel combustion. In addition, brake thermal efficiency is improved to 40% by increase in H2 rate that advances combustion phasing under higher power condition. On the other hand, NOx emission is much higher than one of conventional diesel engine.

Fuels in the gasoline auto-ignition range (Research Octane Number (RON) > 60) have been demonstrated to be effective alternatives to diesel fuel in compression ignition engines. Such fuels allow more time for mixing with oxygen before combustion starts, owing to longer ignition delay. Moreover, by controlling fuel injection timing, it can be ensured that the in-cylinder mixture is “premixed enough” before combustion occurs to prevent soot formation while remaining “sufficiently inhomogeneous” in order to avoid excessive heat release rates. Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) has the potential to offer diesel-like efficiency at a lower cost and can be achieved with fuels such as low-octane straight run gasoline which require significantly less processing in the refinery compared to today’s fuels.

In order to clarify future automobile technologies and fuel qualities to improve air quality, second phase of Japan Clean Air Program (JCAPII) had been conducted from 2002 to 2007. Predicting improvement in air quality that might be attained by introducing new emission control technologies and determining fuel qualities required for the technologies is one of the main issues of this program. Unregulated material WG of JCAPII had studied unregulated emissions from gasoline and diesel engines. Eight gaseous hydrocarbons (HC), four Aldehydes and three polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were evaluated as unregulated emissions. Specifically, emissions of the following components were measured: 1,3-Butadiene, Benzene, Toluene, Xylene, Ethylbenzene, 1,3,5-Trimethyl-benzene, n-Hexane, Styrene as gaseous HCs, Formaldehyde, Acetaldehyde, Acrolein, Benzaldehyde as Aldehydes, and Benzo(a)pyrene, Benzo(b)fluoranthene, Benzo(k)fluoranthene as PAHs.

A previously developed CFD-based optimization tool is utilized to find optimal engine operating conditions with respect to fuel consumption and emissions. The optimization algorithm employed is based on the steepest descent method where an adaptive cost function is minimized along each line search using an effective backtracking strategy. The adaptive cost function is based on the penalty method, where the penalty coefficient is increased after every line search. The parameter space is normalized and, thus, the optimization occurs over the unit cube in higher-dimensional space. The application of this optimization tool is demonstrated for the Sulzer S20, a central-injection, non-road DI diesel engine. The optimization parameters are the start of injection of the two pulses of a split injection system, the duration of each pulse, the exhaust gas recirculation rate, the boost pressure and the compression ratio.

The combination of on-board diagnostics and evaporative emission control (EVAP) systems has led to a growing need to identify and repair leaks in automotive EVAP systems. The normal leakfinding method involves purging the system with a smoke fluid, usually air or nitrogen containing an oil aerosol and then looking for a visual indication of the leak. The purge flow used to distribute smoke through the system displaces substantial amounts of fuel vapor from the tank vapor space and can also raise the oxygen level inside the fuel system. If any ignition source is present, the formation of flammable mixtures both inside and outside the vehicle systems can lead to a flash fire hazard associated with leak finding procedures. Currently available fire statistics (such as NFPA) are not sufficiently detailed to attribute service shop fires to specific testing procedures.

An experimental and modeling study was conducted to study the passive regeneration of a catalyzed particulate filter (CPF) by the oxidation of particulate matter (PM) via thermal and Nitrogen dioxide/temperature-assisted means. Emissions data in the exhaust of a John Deere 6.8 liter, turbocharged and after-cooled engine with a low-pressure loop EGR and a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) - catalyzed particulate filter (CPF) in the exhaust system was measured and used for this study. A series of experiments was conducted to evaluate the performance of the DOC, CPF and DOC+CPF configurations at various engine speeds and loads.

Despite progressive implementation of stringent emission regulations, vehicle tailpipe emissions remain the major source of air pollution problems in most urban areas. To control and reduce tailpipe pollutants, it is critical to understand in-use emissions as a basis for any future emission controls. At present, emission factors are mainly studied by chassis dynamometer methods. However, concerns have been raised about the extent to which emissions produced by on-road vehicles can be predicted using emission factors developed based on standardized dynamometer test procedures. This paper describes an on-board, in-use vehicle emissions measurement system which measures tailpipe emission rates while the vehicle is in real service experiencing complex traffic conditions, driver behavior and weather.

With concerns continuing to grow with respect to global warming from greenhouse gases, further regulations are being examined, developed and are expected for the emission of CO2 as an automobile exhaust. Renewable alternate fuels offer the potential to significantly reduce the CO2 impact of transportation. Hydrogen as a spark - ignition (SI) engine fuel provides this potential for significant CO2 reduction when generated from renewable resources. In addition, hydrogen has advantageous combustion properties including a wide flammable mixture range which facilitates lean burning and high dilution, fast combustion energy release and zero CO2 emissions. However, the high burning rates and fast energy release can lead to excessive in-cylinder pressures and temperatures resulting in combustion knock and high NOx emissions at stoichiometric operation.

Steady-state particulate loading experiments were conducted on an advanced production catalyzed particulate filter (CPF), both with and without a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC). A heavy-duty diesel engine was used for this study with the experiments conducted at 20, 40, 60 and 75 % of full load (1120 Nm) at rated speed (2100 rpm). The data obtained from these experiments were used and are necessary for calibrating the MTU 1-D 2-Layer CPF model. These experimental and modeling results were compared to previous research conducted at MTU that used the same engine but an earlier development version of the combination of DOC and CPF. The motivation for the comparison of the two systems was to determine whether the reformulated production catalysts performed as good or better than the early development catalysts. The results were compared to understand the filtration and oxidation differences between the two DOC+CPF and the CPF-only aftertreatment systems.

Model-based control strategies are important for meeting the dual objective of maximizing NOx reduction and minimizing NH3 slip in urea-SCR catalysts. To be implementable on the vehicle, the models should capture the essential behavior of the system, while not being computationally intensive. This paper discusses the adequacy of two different reduced order SCR catalyst models and compares their performance with a higher order model. The higher order model assumes that the catalyst has both diffusion and reaction kinetics, whereas the reduced order models contain only reaction kinetics. After describing each model, its parameter identification and model validation based on experiments on a Navistar I6 7.6L engine are presented. The adequacy of reduced order models is demonstrated by comparing the NO, NO2 and NH3 concentrations predicted by the models to their concentrations from the test data.

Natural gas is a challenging fuel for HCCI engines because its single-stage ignition and rapid combustion make it difficult to optimize combustion timing over a significant load range. This study investigates direct injection of a pilot quantity of high-cetane fuel near TDC as a range extension and combustion control mechanism for natural gas HCCI engines. The EGR and load range is studied in a supercharged natural gas HCCI engine equipped with external EGR, intake heating and a direct injection system for n-heptane pilot fuel. The operating range and emissions are of primary interest and are compared between both the baseline HCCI engine with variable intake temperature and the direct injected HCCI (DI-HCCI) engine with constant intake temperature. Test results show the EGR and load range at fixed intake temperature can be extended using pilot direct injection.

A one-dimensional model simulating the oxidation of CO, HC, and NO was developed to predict the gaseous emissions downstream of a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC). The model is based on the conservation of mass, species, and energy inside the DOC and draws on past research literature. Steady-state experiments covering a wide range of operating conditions (exhaust temperatures, flow rates and gaseous emissions) were performed, and the data were used to calibrate and validate the model. NO conversion efficiencies of 50% or higher were obtained at temperatures between 300°C and 350°C. CO conversion efficiencies of 85% or higher and HC conversion efficiencies of 75% or higher were found at every steady state condition above 200°C. The model agrees well with the experimental results at temperatures from 200°C to 500°C, and volumetric flow rates from 8 to 42 actual m3/min.

Automotive tailpipe emissions are a significant contribution to urban air quality problems.(1) However, it is difficult to quantify the extent of that contribution and to quantify any progress in solving the problem. Emissions inventories are commonly based on vehicle registrations, assumed mileage and a set of emission factors. The emission factors are based on dynamometer testing of selected vehicles undertightly controlled conditions. Actual vehicle operation in any urban area encompasses a wider range of vehicles, operating conditions and ambient conditions. Given the highly tuned nature of current engine management systems, the actual in-use emissions levels can be highly sensitive to non-standard ambient and operating situations.(2,3,4,5) This paper describes an on-board system used to record ambient conditions, driving behavior, vehicle operating parameters, fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.