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Gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines have become very attractive in transportation due to several benefits over preceding engine technologies. However, GDI engines are associated with higher levels of particulate matter (PM) emissions, which is a major concern for human health. The aim of this work is to broaden the understanding of the effect of hydrogen combustion and the influence of the three way catalytic converter (TWC) on PM emission characteristics. The presence of hydrogen in GDI engines has been reported to reduce fuel consumption and improve the combustion process, making it possible to induce higher rates of EGR. A prototype exhaust fuel reformer build for on-board vehicle hydrogen-rich gas (reformate) production has been integrated within the engine operation and studied in this work.

The lubricating properties of two sustainable alternative diesels blended with ultra low sulphur diesel (ULSD) were investigated. The candidate fuels were a biodiesel consisting of fatty acid methyl esters derived from rapeseed (RME) and gas-to-liquid (GTL). Lubricity tests were conducted on a high frequency reciprocating rig (HFRR). The mating specimen surfaces were analysed using optical microscopy and profilometery for wear scar diameters and profiles respectively. Microscopic surface topography and deposit composition was evaluated using a scanning electronic microscope (SEM) with an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). Like all modern zero sulphur diesel fuel (ZSD), GTL fuels need a lubricity agent to meet modern lubricity specifications. It has been proven that GTL responds well to typical lubricity additives in the marketplace.

Control of NOx and Particulate Matter (PM) emissions from diesel engines remains a significant challenge. One approach to reduce both emissions simultaneously without fuel economy penalty is the reformed exhaust gas recirculation (REGR) technique, where part of the fuel is catalytically reacted with hot engine exhaust gas to produce a hydrogen-rich combustible gas that is then fed to the engine. On the contrary to fuel cell technology where the reforming requirements are to produce a reformate with maximized H2 concentration and minimized (virtually zero) CO concentration, the key requirement of the application of the exhaust gas fuel reforming technique in engines is the efficient on-demand generation of a reformate with only a relatively low concentration of hydrogen (typically up to 20%).

The paper presents analysis of performance and emission characteristics of a common rail diesel engine operating with RME, with and without EGR. In both cases, the RME fuel was pre-heated in a heat exchanger to control its temperature before being pumped to the common rail. The studied parameters include the in-cylinder pressure history, rate of heat release, mass fraction burned, and exhaust emissions. The results show that when the fuel temperature increases and the engine is operated without EGR, the brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc) decreases, engine efficiency increases and NOx emission slightly decreases. However, when EGR is used while fuel temperature is increased, the bsfc and engine efficiency is independent of fuel temperature while NOx slightly increases.

The effects of variable intake-valve-timing on the gas exchange process and performance of a 4-valve direct-injection HCCI engine were computationally investigated using a 1D gas dynamics engine cycle simulation code. A non-typical strategy to actuate the pair of intake valves was examined; whereby each valve was assumed to be actuated independently at different timing. Using such an intake valves strategy, the obtained results showed a considerable improvement of the engine parameters such as load and charging efficiency as compared with the typical identical intake valve pair timings case. Additional benefits of minimizing pumping losses and improving the fuel economy were demonstrated with the use of the non-simultaneous actuation of the intake valve pair having the opening timing of the early intake valve coupled with a symmetric degree of crank angle for the timing of exhaust valve closing.

With the high auto ignition temperature of natural gas, various approaches such as high compression ratios and/or intake charge heating are required for auto ignition. Another approach utilizes the trapping of internal residual gas (as used before in gasoline controlled auto ignition engines), to lower the thermal requirements for the auto ignition process in natural gas. In the present work, the achievable engine load range is controlled by the degree of internal trapping of exhaust gas supplemented by intake charge heating. Special valve strategies were used to control the internal retention of exhaust gas. Significant differences in the degree of valve overlap were necessary when compared to gasoline operation at the same speeds and loads, resulting in lower amounts of residual gas observed. The dilution effect of residual gas trapping is hence reduced, resulting in higher NOx emissions for the stoichiometric air/fuel ratio operation as compared to gasoline.

The purpose of this study is to improve the carbon monoxide (CO) and total hydrocarbons (THC) conversion efficiency of a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) by enhancing the monolith thermal behaviour through modification of the substrate cell density and wall thickness. The optimisation is based on catalyst properties (light off performance, conversion efficiency, pressure drop and mechanical durability). These properties were first estimated using theoretical equations derived from literature in order to select commercially available substrates for further modelling studies. The thermal behaviour and conversion efficiency of the selected catalysts under diesel exhaust gas conditions were numerically studied using data from an EU5 diesel engine operating a New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). This simulation was carried out on a commercial exhaust aftertreatment modelling program, AXISUITE. The predictions were compared to a reference coated 400/4 catalyst.

Exhaust Gas Fuel Reforming has potential to be used for on-board generation of hydrogen rich gas, reformate, and to act as an energy recovery system allowing the capture of waste exhaust heat. High exhaust gas temperature drives endothermic reforming reactions that convert hydrocarbon fuel into gaseous fuel when combined with exhaust gas over a catalyst - the result is an increase in overall fuel energy that is proportional to waste energy capture. The paper demonstrates how the combustion of reformate in a direct injection gasoline (GDI) engine via Reformed Exhaust Gas Recirculation (REGR) can be beneficial to engine performance and emissions. Bottled reformate was inducted into a single cylinder GDI engine at a range of engine loads to compare REGR to conventional EGR. The reformate composition was selected to approximate reformate produced by exhaust gas fuel reforming at typical gasoline engine exhaust temperatures.

Natural gas has a high auto-ignition temperature, requiring high compression ratios and/or intake charge heating to achieve HCCI (homogeneous charge compression ignition) engine operation. Previous work by the authors has shown that hydrogen addition improves combustion stability in various difficult combustion conditions. It is shown here that hydrogen, together with residual gas trapping, helps also in lowering the intake temperature required for HCCI. It has been argued in literature that the addition of hydrogen advances the start of combustion in the cylinder. This would translate into the lowering of the minimum intake temperature required for auto-ignition to occur during the compression stroke. The experimental results of this work show that, with hydrogen replacing part of the fuel, a decrease in intake air temperature requirement is observed for a range of engine loads, with larger reductions in temperature noted at lower loads.

The Reformed EGR (REGR) technique involves the injection of hydrocarbon fuel (e.g., diesel) into a catalytic reformer fitted into the engine EGR system, so that the produced hydrogen containing gas mixture is fed back to the engine as REGR. Thus, in effect the engine operates in a similar way to a dual fuelled engine with standard EGR. Depending on the reforming conditions, the composition and the calorific value of the REGR may vary and this affects the engine performance and emissions. In the present study, simulated REGR with different H2/CO ratios has been examined. The combustion of REGR with maximum H2 and minimum CO contents resulted in the highest reduction of NOx emissions. This case simulated the reformer operation where the CO is fully converted to H2 by promoting the exothermic water gas shift reaction (WGSR). The highest reductions of both smoke and fuel consumption were achieved in the case of simulating the reformer operation where the CO is not fully converted to H2.

Due to the emission benefits of the oxygen in the fuel molecule, the interest for the use of ethanol as fuel blend components in compression ignition engines has been increased. However the use of fuel blends with high percentage of ethanol can lead to poor fuel blend quality (e.g. fuel miscibility, cetane number, viscosity and lubricity). An approach which can be used to improve these properties is the addition of biodiesel forming ternary blends (ethanol-biodiesel-diesel). The addition of castor oil-derived biodiesel (COME) containing a high proportion of methyl ricinoleate (C18:1 OH) is an attractive approach in order to i) reduce the use of first generation biodiesel derived from edible sources, ii) balance the reduction in viscosity and lubricity of ethanol-diesel blends due to the high viscosity and excellent lubricity of methyl ricinoleate.

Recent developments in diesel engines lead to increased fuel efficiency and reduced exhaust gas temperature. Therefore more energy efficient aftertreatment systems are required to comply with tight emission regulations. In this study, a computational fluid dynamics package was used to investigate the thermal behaviour of a diesel aftertreatment system. A parametric study was carried out to identify the most influential pipework material and insulation characteristics in terms of thermal performance. In the case of the aftertreatment pipework and canning material effect, an array of different potential materials was selected and their effects on the emission conversion efficiency of a Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) were numerically investigated over a driving cycle. Results indicate that although the pipework material's volumetric heat capacity was decreased by a factor of four, the total emission reduction was only considerable during the cold start.