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Low temperature combustion (LTC), is a promising alternative for combustion engines, because it combines the positive aspects of both CI and SI engines, high efficiency and low emissions. Another positive aspect of LTC is that it can operate with gasoline of different octane ratings. Still, higher octane gasolines prove to be difficult to operate at low load conditions leading to high combustion instability (COV) that leads also to high emissions. This drawback can be reduced by increasing the intake air temperature or increasing compression ratio, but it is not a viable strategy in conventional applications. For a diesel engine running under LTC conditions, a possibility is to use the existing hardware, glow plugs in this case, to increase the in-cylinder temperature at low loads and facilitate an improved combustion event.

CO2 is a greenhouse gas that is believed to be one of the main contributors to global warming. Recent studies show that a combination of methanol as a renewable fuel and advanced combustion concepts could be a promising future solution to alleviate this problem. However, high unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions can be stated as the main drawback in low load operations when using methanol under advanced combustion concepts. This issue can be mitigated by modifying the stratification of the local equivalence ratio to achieve a favorable level. The stratifications evolved, and the regimes that can simultaneously produce low emissions, and high combustion efficiency can be identified by sweeping the injection timing from homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) to partially premixed combustion (PPC). Understanding how the stratification of the local equivalence ratio for methanol evolves during the sweep is essential to gain these benefits.

In this study, tailpipe-sampling was used to sample the exhaust aerosol of a Stage IV tractor equipped with Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) aftertreatment systems. The particle emissions were characterized in terms of number concentration (particle size of > 2.5 nm), mass concentration (particle size of 6-612 nm) BC mass concentration and chemical composition (particle size of > 30 nm). The measurements were conducted on-road by setting a mobile laboratory on a trailer and pulling it with the tractor. In addition to driving, heavy-lift work cycles were tested, where separate lifts of a 1000 kg weight were conducted with the front fork of the tractor with two minutes of idling between consecutive lifts. Both a Porous Tube Diluter (PTD) with ambient temperature dilution air as well as an ejector diluter with hot dilution air were used to sample the exhaust aerosol.

Methanol is not a fuel typically used in compression ignition engines due to the high resistance to auto-ignition. However, conventional diesel combustion and PPC offer high engine efficiency along with low HC and CO emissions, albeit with the trade-off of increased NOx and PM emissions. This trade-off balance is mitigated in the case of methanol and other alcohol fuels, as they bring oxygen in the combustion chamber. Thus methanol compression ignition holds the potential for a clean and effective alternative fuel proposition. Most existing research on methanol is on SI engines and very little exists in the literature regarding methanol auto-ignition engine concepts. In this study, the spray characteristics of methanol inside the optically accessible cylinder of a DI-HD engine are investigated. The liquid penetration length at various injection timings is documented, ranging from typical PPC range down to conventional diesel combustion.

The focus has recently been directed towards the engine out soot from Diesel engines. Running an engine in PPC (Partially Premixed Combustion) mode has a proven tendency of reducing these emissions significantly. In addition to combustion strategy, several studies have suggested that using alcohol fuels aid in reducing soot emissions to ultra-low levels. This study analyzes and compares the characteristics of PM emissions from naphtha gasoline PPC, ethanol PPC, methanol PPC and methanol diffusion combustion in terms of soot mass concentration, number concentration and particle size distribution in a single cylinder Scania D13 engine, while varying the intake O2. Intake temperature and injection pressure sweeps were also conducted. The fuels emitting the highest mass concentration of particles (Micro Soot Sensor) were gasoline and methanol followed by ethanol. The two alcohols tested emitted nucleation mode particles only, whereas gasoline emitted accumulation mode particles as well.

The engine concept partially premixed combustion (PPC) has proved higher gross indicated efficiency compared to conventional diesel combustion engines. The relatively simple implementation of the concept is an advantage, however, high gas exchange losses has made its use challenging in multi-cylinder heavy duty engines. With high rates of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) to dilute the charge and hence limit the combustion rate, the resulting exhaust temperatures are low. The selected boost system must therefore be efficient which could lead to large, complex and costly solutions. In the presented work experiments and modelling were combined to evaluate different turbocharger configurations for the PPC concept. Experiments were performed on a multi-cylinder engine. The engine was modified to incorporate long route EGR and a single-stage turbocharger, however, with compressed air from the building being optionally supplied to the compressor.

Particle number emissions from an off-road diesel engine without exhaust after-treatment were studied by using five different heavy-duty lubricating oils in the engine. The study extends understanding on how the properties of lubricating oil affect the nanoparticle emissions from an off-road diesel engine. The lubricants were selected among the performance classes of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, at least one lubricant from each category intended for heavy-duty diesel engines. Particle size distributions were measured by the means of an engine exhaust particle sizer (EEPS), but soot emissions, gaseous emissions and the basic engine performance were also determined. During the non-road steady state cycle, the most of the differences were detected at the particle size range of 6-15 nm. In most cases, the lowest particle quantities were emitted when the highest performance category lubricant was used.

There is growing global interest in using renewable alcohols to reduce the greenhouse gases and the reliance on conventional fossil fuels. Recent studies show that methanol combined with partially premixed combustion provide clear performance and emission benefits compared to conventional diesel diffusion combustion. Nonetheless, high unburned hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions can be stated as the main PPC drawback in light load condition when using high octane fuel such as Methanol with single injection strategy. Thus, the present experimental study has been carried out to investigate the influence of multiple injection strategies on the performance and emissions with methanol fuel in partially premixed combustion. Specifically, the main objective is to reduce HC, CO and simultaneously increase the gross indicated efficiency compared to single injection strategy.

In order to further improve the energy conversion efficiency in reciprocating engines, detailed knowledge about the involved processes is required. One major loss source in internal combustion engines is heat loss through the cylinder walls. In order to increase the understanding of heat transfer processes and to validate and generate new heat transfer correlation models it is desirable, or even necessary, to have crank-angle resolved data on in-cylinder wall temperature. Laser-Induced Phosphorescence has proved to be a useful tool for surface thermometry also in such harsh environments as running engines. However, the ceramic structure of most phosphor coatings might introduce an error, due to its thermal insulation properties, when being exposed to rapidly changing temperatures. In this article the measurement technique is evaluated concerning the impact from the thickness of the phosphorescent layer on the measured temperature.

The effect of SCR on nanoparticle emissions has been a subject for some recent diesel particle emission related studies. In this study, the effect of after-treatment (DOC and SCR) on particle emissions was studied with a heavy-duty off-road diesel engine (emission level stage 3b with an SCR). A special “transient cold test cycle” (TCTC) was designed to describe the SCR system operation at low exhaust gas temperatures. The particle instrumentation made it possible to measure on-line the particle number concentration, particle size distribution and chemical composition of particles. The largest particle number concentrations were measured after the exhaust manifold. The exhaust after-treatment was observed to reduce the total particle number concentration by 82.5% with the DOC and 95.7% with the DOC+SCR.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the quantitative impact of fuel sulfur content on particulate oxidation catalyst (POC) functionality, focusing on soot emission reduction and the ability to regenerate. Studies were conducted on fuels containing three different levels of sulfur, covering the range of 6 to 340 parts per million, for a light-duty application. The data presented in this paper provide further insights into the specific issues associated with usage of a POC with fuels of higher sulfur content. A 48-hour loading phase was performed for each fuel, during which filter smoke number, temperature and back-pressure were all observed to vary depending on the fuel sulfur level. The Fuel Sulfur Content (FSC) affected also soot particle size distributions (particle number and size) so that with FSC 6 ppm the soot particle concentration was lower than with FSC 65 and 340, both upstream and downstream of the POC.

Diesel engines are one of the most important power generating units these days. Increasing greenhouse gas emission level and the need for energy security has prompted increasing research into alternative fuels for diesel engines. Biodiesel is the most popular among the alternatives for diesel fuel as it is biodegradable and renewable and can be produced domestically from vegetable oils. In recent years, hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) has also gained popularity due to some of its advantages over biodiesel such as higher cetane number, lower deposit formation, storage stability, etc. HVO is a renewable, paraffinic biobased alternative fuel for diesel engines similar to biodiesel. Unlike biodiesel, the production process for HVO involves hydrogen as catalyst instead of methanol which removes oxygen content from vegetable oil.

In one-dimensional engine simulation programs the simulation of engine performance is mostly done by parameter fitting in order to match simulations with experimental data. The extensive fitting procedure is especially needed for emissions formation - CO, HC, NO, soot - simulations. An alternative to this approach is, to calculate the emissions based on detailed kinetic models. This however demands that the in-cylinder combustion-flow interaction can be modeled accurately, and that the CPU time needed for the model is still acceptable. PDF based stochastic reactor models offer one possible solution. They usually introduce only one (time dependent) parameter - the mixing time - to model the influence of flow on the chemistry. They offer the prediction of the heat release, together with all emission formation, if the optimum mixing time is given.

The formation of exothermic centers was modeled with a Stochastic Reactor Model (SRM) to investigate their impact on HCCI combustion. By varying the exhaust valve temperature, and thus assigning more realistic wall temperatures, the formation of exothermic centers and the ignition timing was shifted in time. To be able to study the exothermic centers, their formation and their distribution, Scatter plots, standard deviation plots and Probability Density Function (PDF) plots were constructed on the basis of the data the SRM calculations provided. The standard deviation for the particle temperatures was found to be an useful indicator of the degree of homogeneity within the combustion chamber, and thus of how efficient the combustion process was. It was observed that when the standard deviation of the temperature was higher, the emissions of CO and of hydrocarbons present at the end of the closed cycle were higher.

The ability to predict cyclic variations is certainly useful in studying engine operating regimes, especially under unstable operating conditions where one single cycle may differ from another substantially and a single simulation may give rather misleading results. PDF based models such as Stochastic Reactor Models (SRM) are able to model cyclic variations, but these may be overpredicted if discretization is too coarse. The range of cyclic variations and the dependence of the ability to correctly assess their mean values on the number of cycles simulated were investigated. In most cases, the average values were assessed correctly on the basis of as few as 10 cycles, but assessing the complete range of cyclic variations could require a greater number of cycles. In studying average values, variations due too coarse discretization being employed are smaller than variations originating from changes in physical parameters, such as heat transfer and mixing parameters.

The main losses in internal combustion engines are the heat losses to the cylinder walls and to the exhaust gases. Adiabatic, or low heat rejection engines, have received interest and been studied in several periods in history. Typically, however, these attempts have had to be abandoned when problems with lubrication and overheating components could not be solved satisfactorily. The latest years have seen the emerging of low temperature combustion in engines as well as computational powers that provide new options for highly efficient engines with low heat rejection. Stochastic Reactor Models (SRM) are highly efficient in modeling the kinetics decided low temperature combustion in HCCI and PPC engines. Containing the means to define the variations within the cylinder while employing detailed chemistry, micro mixing and heat transfer modeling, the interaction between heat transfer, exhaust gas energy and the combustion process can be studied with the SRM.

Under on-road driving conditions, the engine load and speed and the cooling effect of ambient air may affect the functioning of exhaust aftertreatment devices. In this paper, we studied the effects of these parameters on the functioning of the combination of a Diesel Oxidation Catalyst and a Particle Oxidation Catalyst (DOC+POC). In the engine tests, the engine load and speed were observed to affect the nonvolatile particle reduction efficiency curve of the DOC+POC; while the nonvolatile core particle (Dp ≺ 15 nm) reduction was high (97-99%) in all the engine test modes, the reduction of soot varied from 57% at low load to 70% at high load. Because the change in engine load and speed affected both the exhaust temperature and flow velocity, the effects of these parameters were measured separately in an aerosol laboratory.

In order to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) and soot emissions while maintaining high thermal efficiency, more advanced combustion concepts have been developed over the years, such as Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) and Partially Premixed Combustion (PPC), as possible combustion processes in commercial engines. Compared to HCCI, PPC has advantages of lower unburned hydrocarbon (UHC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions; however, due to increased fuel stratifications, soot emissions can be a challenge when adding Exhaust-Gas Recirculation (EGR) gas. The current work presents particle size distribution measurements performed from HCCI-like combustion with very early (120 CAD BTDC) to PPC combustion with late injection timing (11 CAD BTDC) at two intake oxygen rates, 21% and 15% respectively. Particle size distributions were measured using a differential mobility spectrometer DMS500.

Alternative fuels have been proposed as a means for future energy-secure and environmentally sustainable transportation. This review and benchmarking show that several of the alternative fuels (e.g. methanol, ethanol, higher alcohols, RME, HVO, DME, and biogas/CNG) work well with several different engine concepts such as conventional SI, DICI, and dual fuel, and with the emerging concepts HCCI, RCCI, and PPC. Energy consumption is in most cases similar to that of diesel or gasoline, with the exception of methanol and ethanol that use less energy, especially in SI engines. Tailpipe emissions of CO2 with respect to engine work output (tank-to-output shaft) can be reduced by more than 15% compared to a highly efficient gasoline SI engine, and are the lowest with CNG / lean-burn SI and with alcohols in several engine concepts. Alternative fuels are considered safe and in most cases are associated with reduced risk with respect to cancer and other health and environmental issues.

Heavy-duty direct injection compression ignition (DICI) engine running on methanol is studied at a high compression ratio (CR) of 27. The fuel is injected with a common-rail injector close to the top-dead-center (TDC) with two injection pressures of 800 bar and 1600 bar. Numerical simulations using Reynold Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS), Lagrangian Particle Tracking (LPT), and Well-Stirred-Reactor (WSR) models are employed to investigate local conditions of injection and combustion process to identify the mechanism behind the trend of increasing nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions at higher injection pressures found in the experiments. It is shown that the numerical simulations successfully replicate the change of ignition delay time and capture variation of NOx emissions.