Search Results

Dedicated EGR (D-EGR) is an EGR strategy that uses in-cylinder reformation to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions. The entire exhaust of a sub-group of power cylinders (dedicated cylinders) is routed directly into the intake. These cylinders are run fuel-rich, producing H2 and CO (reformate), with the potential to improve combustion stability, knock tolerance and burn duration. A 2.0 L turbocharged D-EGR engine was packaged into a 2012 Buick Regal and evaluated on drive cycle performance. City and highway fuel consumption were reduced by 13% and 9%, respectively. NOx + NMOG were 31 mg/mile, well below the Tier 2 Bin 5 limit and just outside the Tier 3 Bin 30 limit (30 mg/mile).

The Dedicated EGR (D-EGR®) engine has shown improved efficiency and emissions while minimizing the challenges of traditional cooled EGR. The concept combines the benefits of cooled EGR with additional improvements resulting from in-cylinder fuel reformation. The fuel reformation takes place in the dedicated cylinder, which is also responsible for producing the diluents for the engine (EGR). The D-EGR system does present its own set of challenges. Because only one out of four cylinders is providing all of the dilution and reformate for the engine, there are three “missing” EGR pulses and problems with EGR distribution to all 4 cylinders exist. In testing, distribution problems were realized which led to poor engine operation. To address these spatial and temporal mixing challenges, a distribution mixer was developed and tested which improved cylinder-to-cylinder and cycle-to-cycle variation of EGR rate through improved EGR distribution.

Experiments were performed on a small displacement (< 2 L), high compression ratio, 4 cylinder, port injected gasoline engine equipped with Dedicated EGR® (D-EGR®) technology using fuels with varying anti-knock properties. Gasolines with anti-knock indices of 84, 89 and 93 anti-knock index (AKI) were tested. The engine was operated at a constant nominal EGR rate of ∼25% while varying the reformation ratio in the dedicated cylinder from a ϕD-EGR = 1.0 - 1.4. Testing was conducted at selected engine speeds and constant torque while operating at knock limited spark advance on the three fuels. The change in combustion phasing as a function of the level of overfuelling in the dedicated cylinder was documented for all three fuels to determine the tradeoff between the reformation ratio required to achieve a certain knock resistance and the fuel octane rating.

An investigation was performed to identify the benefits of cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) when applied to a potential ethanol flexible fuelled vehicle (eFFV) engine. The fuels investigated in this study represented the range a flex-fuel engine may be exposed to in the United States; from 85% ethanol/gasoline blend (E85) to regular gasoline. The test engine was a 2.0-L in-line 4 cylinder that was turbocharged and port fuel injected (PFI). Ethanol blended fuels, including E85, have a higher octane rating and produce lower exhaust temperatures compared to gasoline. EGR has also been shown to decrease engine knock tendency and decrease exhaust temperatures. A natural progression was to take advantage of the superior combustion characteristics of E85 (i.e. increase compression ratio), and then employ EGR to maintain performance with gasoline. When EGR alone could not provide the necessary knock margin, hydrogen (H2) was added to simulate an onboard fuel reformer.

A 13 L HD diesel engine was converted to run as a flame propagation engine using the HEDGE™ Dual-Fuel concept. This concept consists of pre-mixed gasoline ignited by a small amount of diesel fuel - i.e., a diesel micropilot. Due to the large bore size and relatively high compression ratio for a pre-mixed combustion engine, high levels of cooled EGR were used to suppress knock and reduce the engine-out emissions of the oxides of nitrogen and particulates. Previous work had indicated that the boosting of high dilution engines challenges most modern turbocharging systems, so phase I of the project consisted of extensive simulation efforts to identify an EGR configuration that would allow for high levels of EGR flow along the lug curve while minimizing pumping losses and combustion instabilities from excessive backpressure. A potential solution that provided adequate BTE potential was consisted of dual loop EGR systems to simultaneously flow high pressure and low pressure loop EGR.

This paper describes advances in variable speed supercharging, including benefits for both fuel economy and low speed torque improvement. This work is an extension of the work described in SAE Paper 2012-01-0704 [8]. Using test stand data and state-of-the-art vehicle simulation software, a NuVinci continuously variable planetary (CVP) transmission driving an Eaton R410 supercharger on a 2.2 liter diesel was compared to the same base engine/vehicle with a turbocharger to calculate vehicle fuel economy. The diesel engine was tuned for Tier 2 Bin 5 emissions. Results are presented using several standard drive cycles. A Ford Mustang equipped with a 4.6 liter SI engine and prototype variable speed supercharger has also been constructed and tested, showing low speed torque increases of up to 30%. Dynamometer test results from this effort are presented. The combined results illustrate the promise of variable speed supercharging as a viable option for the next generation of engines.

The primary focus of this investigation was to determine the hydrogen reformation, efficiency and knock mitigation benefits of methanol-fueled Dedicated EGR (D-EGR®) operation, when compared to other EGR types. A 2.0 L turbocharged port fuel injected engine was operated with internal EGR, high-pressure loop (HPL) EGR and D-EGR configurations. The internal, HPL-EGR, and D-EGR configurations were operated on neat methanol to demonstrate the relative benefit of D-EGR over other EGR types. The D-EGR configuration was also tested on high octane gasoline to highlight the differences to methanol. An additional sub-task of the work was to investigate the combustion response of these configurations. Methanol did not increase its H2 yield for a given D-EGR cylinder equivalence ratio, even though the H:C ratio of methanol is over twice typical gasoline.

Small (up to 1% by volume) amounts of hydrogen (H2) were added to the intake charge of a single-cylinder, stoichiometric spark ignited engine to determine the effect of H2 addition on EGR tolerance. Two types of tests were performed at 1500 rpm, two loads (3.1 bar and 5.5 bar IMEP), two compression ratios (11:1 and 14:1) and with two fuels (gasoline and natural gas). The first test involved holding EGR level constant and increasing the H2 concentration. The EGR level of the engine was increased until the CoV of IMEP was > 5% and then small amounts of hydrogen were added until the total was 1% by volume. The effect of increasing the amount of H2 on engine stability was measured along with combustion parameters and engine emissions. The results showed that only a very small amount of H2 was necessary to stabilize the engine. At amounts past that level, increasing the level of H2 had no or only a very small effect.

There are numerous off-road diesel engine applications. In some applications there is more focus on metrics such as initial cost, packaging and transient response and less emphasis on fuel economy. In this paper a combustion concept is presented that may be well suited to these applications. The novel combustion concept operates in two distinct operation modes: lean operation at light engine loads and stoichiometric operation at intermediate and high engine loads. One advantage to the two mode approach is the ability to simplify the aftertreatment and reduce cost. The simplified aftertreatment system utilizes a non-catalyzed diesel particulate filter (DPF) and a relatively small lean NOx trap (LNT). Under stoichiometric operation the LNT has the ability to act as a three way catalyst (TWC) for excellent control of hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx).

A series of tests using an open beam laser ignition system in an engine run on pre-mixed, gaseous fuels were performed. The ignition system for the engine was a 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser. A single cylinder research engine was run on pre-mixed iso-butane and propane to determine the lean limit of the engine using laser ignition. In addition, the effect of varying the energy density of the ignition kernel was investigated by changing the focal volume and by varying laser energy. The results indicate that for a fixed focal volume, there is a threshold beyond which increasing the energy density [kJ/m3] yields little or no benefit. In contrast, increasing the energy density by reducing the focal volume size decreases lean performance once the focal volume is reduced past a certain point. The effect of ignition location relative to different surfaces in the engine was also investigated. The results show a slight bias in favor of igniting closer to a surface with low thermal conductivity.

A combined, experimental and numerical program is presented. This work summarizes an internal research effort conducted at Southwest Research Institute. Meeting new, stringent emissions regulations for diesel engines requires a way to reduce NOx and soot emissions. Most emissions reduction strategies reduce one pollutant while increasing the other. Water injection is one of the few promising emissions reduction techniques with the potential to simultaneously reduce soot and NOx in diesel engines. While it is widely accepted that water reduces NOx via a thermal effect, the mechanisms behind the reduction of soot are not well understood. The water could reduce the soot via physical, thermal, or chemical effects. To aid in developing water injection strategies, this project's goal was to determine how water enters the soot formation chemistry.

SwRI has developed a new technology concept involving the use of high EGR rates coupled with a high-energy ignition system in a gasoline engine to improve fuel economy and emissions. Based on a single-cylinder study [1], this study extends the concept of a high compression ratio gasoline engine with EGR rates > 30% and a high-energy ignition system to a multi-cylinder engine. A 2000 MY Isuzu Duramax 6.6 L 8-cylinder engine was converted to run on gasoline with a diesel pilot ignition system. The engine was run at two compression ratios, 17.5:1 and 12.5:1 and with two different EGR systems - a low-pressure loop and a high pressure loop. A high cetane number (CN) diesel fuel (CN=76) was used as the ignition source and two different octane number (ON) gasolines were investigated - a pump grade 91 ON ((R+M)/2) and a 103 ON ((R+M)/2) racing fuel.

Swirl plane Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurements were performed in a single-cylinder optically accessible gasoline direct injection (DISI) engine using a borescope introduced through the spark plug hole. This allowed the use of a contoured piston and the visualization of the flow field in and around the piston bowl. The manifold absolute pressure (MAP) was fixed at 90 kPa and the engine speed was varied in increments of 250 rpm from 750 rpm to 2000 rpm. Images were taken from 270° to 320° bTDC of compression at 10° intervals to study the evolution of the velocity fluctuations. Measurements were performed with and without fuel injection to study its effect on the in-cylinder flow fields. Fuel was injected at 10 MPa and 5 MPa. The 2-D spatial mean velocities of individual flow fields and their decompositions were averaged over 100 cycles and used to investigate the effects of engine speed and image timing on the flow field.

Internal combustion engines (ICE) will be a part of personal transportation for the foreseeable future. One recent trend for engines has been downsizing which enables the engine to be run more efficiently over regulatory drive cycles. Due to downsizing, engine power density has increased which leads to problems with engine knock. Therefore, there is an increasing need to find a means to reduce the knock propensity of downsized engines. One of the ways of reducing knock propensity is by introducing Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) into the combustion chamber, however, volumetric efficiency also reduces with EGR which places challenges on the boosting system. The individual benefits of high-pressure (HP-EGR) and low-pressure (LP-EGR) loop EGR system to assist the boosting system of a 2.0 L Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) production engine are explored in this paper.

A gasoline direct injection engine was operated at elevated EGR levels over a significant portion of the performance map. The engine was modified to use both cooled and un-cooled EGR in high pressure loop and low pressure loop configurations. The addition of EGR at low and part load was shown to decrease NO and CO emissions and to reduce fuel consumption by up to 4%, primarily through the reduction in pumping losses. At high loads, the addition of EGR resulted in higher fuel consumption benefits of 10-20% as well as the expected NO and CO reductions. The fuel economy benefit at high loads resulted from a decrease in knock tendency and a subsequent improvement in combustion phasing as well as reductions in exhaust temperatures that eliminated the requirement for over-fuelling.

The dedicated exhaust gas recirculation (D-EGR®) concept developed by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has demonstrated a thermal efficiency increase on several spark-ignited engines at both low and high-load conditions. Syngas (H2+CO) is produced by the dedicated cylinder (D-cyl) which operates at a rich air-fuel ratio. The syngas helps to stabilize combustion under highly dilute conditions at low loads as well as mitigating knock at high loads. The D-cyl produces all the EGR for the engine at a fixed rate of approximately 25% EGR for a four-cylinder engine and 33% EGR for a six-cylinder engine. The D-cyl typically runs up to an equivalence ratio of 1.4 for gasoline-fueled engines, beyond which the combustion becomes unstable due to the decreasing laminar burning velocity caused by rich conditions. Conventional active-fueled and passive pre-chambers have benefits of inducing multi-site ignition and enhancing turbulence in the main chamber.

The size and distribution of a vehicle’s tailpipe particulate emissions can have a strong impact on human health, especially if the particles are small enough to enter the human respiratory system. Gasoline direct injection (GDI) has been adopted widely to meet stringent fuel economy and CO2 regulations across the globe for recent engine architectures. However, the introduction of GDI has led to challenges concerning the particulate matter (PM) and particle number (PN) emissions from such engines. This study aimed to compare the particulate emissions of three SI combustion strategies: conventional SI, conventional stoichiometric low-pressure exhaust gas recirculation (LP-EGR), and Dedicated-EGR (D-EGR) at four specific test conditions. It was shown that the engine-out PM/PN for both the EGR strategies was lower than the conventional SI combustion under normal operating conditions. The test conditions were chosen to represent the WLTC test conditions.

Southwest Research Institute has developed a passive, flow-through, membrane which separates carbon dioxide (CO2) from other exhaust gas species. Stoichiometric exhaust gas for 0% ethanol fuels contain approximately 14% CO2 by concentration. The membrane consists of a ceramic substrate impregnated with lithium zirconate (Li2ZrO3). In the presence of temperatures of 400-600 °C the CO2 reacts with lithium zirconate to form lithium carbonate (Li2CO3). The new compound moves from the inner surface of the membrane via partial pressure gradient to the outer wall of the membrane and desorbs into a low concentration CO2 environment, e.g. atmospheric air with 400 ppm CO2. SwRI has tested the membrane under engine-like conditions, comparable to 2000 rpm 10 bar BMEP operation, on a standalone burner rig (ECTO-lab burner). On the SwRI ECTO-lab burner rig temperature, flow-rate and exhaust gas products can be independently varied.

The use of high levels of EGR has been documented to increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions of spark ignition engines [1–5]. However, these engines typically face challenges in EGR control and tolerance, which can reduce the expected efficiency improvement. A concept developed by Southwest Research Institute explores the potential of an engine with individual cylinders dedicated to EGR production to overcome the challenges associated with EGR tolerance and control. In this study, a 4-cylinder engine was run with cylinder 1 exhausting directly to the intake manifold, leading to a constant 25% EGR level. The engine was run naturally aspirated over a large portion of the performance map at an ultra-high (14:1) compression ratio. As a part of the study, air-to-fuel ratio in cylinder 1 was varied from stoichiometric to rich to determine the effect of the products of partial combustion on EGR tolerance and fuel consumption.

Dedicated exhaust gas recirculation (D-EGR®) concept developed by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has demonstrated a thermal efficiency increase on many spark-ignited engines at both low and high load conditions. The syngas (H2+CO) produced in the dedicated cylinder (D-cyl) by rich combustion helps to stabilize combustion at highly dilute conditions at low loads and mitigate knock at high loads. The dedicated cylinder with 25% EGR can typically run up to equivalence ratio of 1.4, beyond which the combustion becomes unstable. By injecting fresh air near the spark plug gap at globally rich conditions, a locally lean or near-stoichiometric mixture can be achieved, thus facilitating the ignitability of the mixture and increasing combustion stability. With more stable combustion a richer global mixture can be introduced into the D-cyl to generate higher concentrations of syngas. This in turn can further improve the engine thermal efficiency.