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Application of biodiesel fuel (BDF) to diesel engine is very effective to reduce CO2 emission, because bio-diesel is carbon neutral in principle. However, when biodiesel was applied to conventional diesel engines without modification for biodiesel, NOx emission was increased by the change in fuel characteristics. It is necessary to introduce some strategies into diesel engines fuelled with biodiesel for lower NOx emission than conventional diesel fuel case. The purpose of this study is to reveal that exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is one of the solutions for the reduction of NOx emission and meeting the future emission regulations when using biodiesel. Neat Rapeseed oil methyl ester (RME) as a biodiesel (B100) was applied to diesel engines equipped with high pressure loop (HPL) EGR system and low pressure loop (LPL) EGR system. Cooled HPL EGR was increased during steady-state operations and JE05 transient mode tests.

Application of biodiesel fuel (BDF) to diesel engine is very effective to reduce CO2 emission, because biodiesel is carbon neutral in principle. However, biodiesels yield an increase in NOx emission from conventional diesel engine, compared with diesel fuel case. Therefore, some strategies are needed for meeting the future emission regulations when using biodiesel. In this study, rapeseed oil methyl ester (RME) was applied to diesel engine equipped with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system and NOx storage reduction (NSR) catalyst. NOx reduction rate of NSR catalyst was drastically decreased by using RME, even if injection quantity of RME for rich spike was enhanced. However, an increase in EGR rate could reduce NOx emission without the deterioration in smoke and PM emissions.

The emission reduction from diesel engines is one of major issues in heavy duty diesel engines. Super Clean Diesel (SCD) Engine for heavy-duty trucks has also been researched and developed since 2002. The main specifications of the SCD Engine are six cylinders in-line and 10.5 l with a turbo-intercooled and cooled EGR system. The common rail system, of which the maximum injection pressure is 200 MPa, is adopted. The turbocharger is capable of increasing boost pressure up to 501.3 kPa. The EGR system consists of both a high-pressure loop (HP) EGR system and a low-pressure loop (LP) EGR system. The combination of these EGR systems reduces NOx and PM emissions effectively in both steady-state and transient conditions. The emissions of the SCD Engine reach NOx=0.2 g/kWh and PM=0.01 g/kWh with aftertreatment system. The adopted aftertreatment system includes a Lean NOx Trap (LNT) and Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF).

The bore scope system can visualize not only diesel combustion in the research engine but also in actual diesel combustion in a multi-cylinder engine. The experimental engine has 2.0-liter displacement and has an external supercharger with up to two times the boost pressure of the naturally aspirated engine condition. The video camera used for this study is nac GX-1. From observed data under the several experimental conditions such as increased injection pressures, swirl ratios, and EGR rates, the flame temperature and KL factor were obtained by two-color method analysis. The diesel combustion processes are understood well by analyzing high-speed movies of the diesel flame motion and its temperature. NOx and smoke are mutually related to maximum flame temperature even in an engine with low NOx emission and lean smoke. It is reconfirmed as necessary to maintain a maximum flame temperature of 2,000–2,200K to reduce emissions of NOx and smoke simultaneously.

Lean NOx trap (LNT) and Urea-SCR system are effective aftertreatment systems as NOx reduction device in diesel engines. On the other hand, DPF has already been developed as PM reduction device and it has been used in various vehicles. LNT can absorb and reduce NOx emission in wide range exhaust temperatures, from 150°C to 400°C, and the size of LNT component can be compact in comparison with Urea-SCR system because LNT uses the diesel fuel as a reducing agent and it is needless to install the reducing agent tank in the vehicle. In this study, authors have shown that the NOx conversion rate of LNT is high in the case of extremely low NOx concentration from the engine. Also, the effects of LNT and DPF were examined using the Super Clean Diesel (SCD) Engine, which has low NOx level before aftertreatment and has been finished as Japanese national project.

For reducing NOx emissions, EGR is effective, but an excessive EGR rate causes the deterioration of smoke emission. Here, we have defined the EGR rate before the smoke emission deterioration while the EGR rate is increasing as the limiting EGR rate. In this study, the high rate of EGR is demonstrated to reduce BSNOx. The adapted methods are a high fuel injection pressure such as 200 MPa, a high boost pressure as 451.3 kPa at 2 MPa BMEP, and the air intake port that maintains a high air flow rate so as to achieve low exhaust emissions. Furthermore, for withstanding 2 MPa BMEP of engine load and high boosting, a ductile cast iron (FCD) piston was used. As the final effect, the installations of the new air intake port increased the limiting EGR rate by 5%, and fuel injection pressure of 200 MPa raised the limiting EGR rate by an additional 5%. By the demonstration of increasing boost pressure to 450 kPa from 400 kPa, the limiting EGR rate was achieved to 50%.

HCCI (Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition) combustion results in very low NOx emissions, however, it is not without problems. One of them is that the heavy load operation range is limited by knock, due to an exceptionally high heat release rate. Knock increases the heat loss to the cylinder walls and piston, reducing thermal efficiency. To help solve these problems, direct (in-cylinder) water injection has been suggested to lower the local temperatures that seem to cause knock in HCCI. Water injection was adapted in an HCCI engine fueled with DME and Propane. Results showed that the indicated thermal efficiency was improved by about 2% (λ = 3.0, NA), and the operation range was expanded from 460kPa to 700kPa (NA) maintaining a low NOx level.

This paper describes the experimental studies of turbocharged and intercooled diesel engines with particular emphasis on combustion characteristics following increase of boost pressure. Through these studies, it has become possible to determine the optimum air quantity for minimizing fuel consumption at each engine speed range under the restrictive conditions of NOx emission, exhaust smoke and maximum cylinder pressure. Discussed also is the lack of air quantity in the low engine speed range of high-boost turbocharged diesel engines. Various turbocharging systems to improve air quantity in this speed range are introduced herein. Practically the engine performance of conventional turbocharging, waste gate control turbocharging and variable geometry turbocharging are discussed from the viewpoint of torque recovery in the low engine speed range.

Reduction of exhaust emissions and BSFC was studied for high pressure, wide range, and high EGR rates in a Super-clean Diesel six-cylinder heavy duty engine. The GVW 25-ton vehicle has 10.52 L engine displacement, with maximum power of 300 kW and maximum torque of 1842 Nm. The engine is equipped with high-pressure fuel injection of a 200 MPa level common-rail system. A variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) was newly designed. The maximum pressure ratio of the compressor is about twice that of the previous design: 2.5. Additionally, wide range and a high EGR rate are achieved by high pressure-loop EGR (HP-EGR) and low pressure-loop EGR (LP-EGR) with described VGT and high-pressure fuel injection. The HP-EGR can reduce NOx concentrations in the exhaust pipe, but the high EGR rate worsens smoke. The HP-EGR system layout has an important shortcoming: it has great differences of the intake EGR gas amount into each cylinder, worsens smoke.

Reduction of exhaust emissions and BSFC has been studied using a high boost, a wide range and high-rate EGR in a Super Clean Diesel, six-cylinder heavy duty engine. In the previous single-turbocharging system, the turbocharger was selected to yield maximum torque and power. The selected turbocharger was designed for high boosting, with maximum pressure of about twice that of the current one, using a titanium compressor. However, an important issue arose in this system: avoidance of high boosting at low engine speed. A sequential and series turbo system was proposed to improve the torque at low engine speeds. This turbo system has two turbochargers of different sizes with variable geometry turbines. At low engine speed, the small turbocharger performs most of the work. At medium engine speed, the small turbocharger and large turbocharger mainly work in series.

For reducing exhaust emissions of heavy-duty diesel engines, the authors made an experimental study of diesel combustion using a single cylinder engine. The engine performance and exhaust emissions have been measured using a wide range and high EGR rate under the conditions of high boost intake pressure. The engine test cell has been equipped the external supercharger that is able to raise the boost pressure to 500 kPa, and also equipped the EGR system to increase the EGR rate until 50% under the 500 kPa boost condition. In various test conditions of load and engine speeds the authors have obtained the results, that is, NOx has been reduced drastically without increasing Particulate Matter (PM).

The 1997 Kyoto protocol came into effect in February, 2005 to reduce greenhouse gases within the period 2008-2012 by at least 5 % with respect to 1990 levels. Application of biodiesel fuel (BDF) to diesel engine is very effective to reduce CO2 emission, because BDF is carbon neutral in principle. The purpose of this project is to produce a light-duty biodiesel truck which can be suitable for emission regulation in next generation. The effect of BDF on the performance and emissions of modern diesel engine which was equipped with the aftertreatment for PM and NOx emissions was investigated without modifications of engine components and parameters, as a first step for research and development of biodiesel engine. Rapeseed oil methyl ester (RME) was selected in behalf of BDF, and combustion characteristics, engine performance and exhaust emissions were made a comparison between RME and petroleum diesel fuel by steady operation and Japan transient mode (JE05) tests.

The purpose of this study is to improve low-temperature flow-properties of biodiesel fuels (BDF) by blending with ethanol and to analyze the combustion characteristics in a diesel engine fueled with BDF/ethanol blended fuel. Because ethanol has a lower solidifying temperature, higher oxygen content, lower cetane number, and higher volatility than BDF, ethanol blending would have a large effect on cold flow performance, mixture formation, ignition, combustion, and exhaust emissions. The engine experiments in the study were performed with a diesel engine and blends of BDF and ethanol at different blending ratios. The cold flow performance of the blended fuels was evaluated by determining the fuel cloud point. The experimental results show that the ethanol blending lowers the cloud point of the blended fuel and significantly reduces smoke emissions from the engine without deteriorating other emissions or thermal efficiency.

To find more effective lean mixture preparation methods for smokeless and low NOx combustion, a numerical study of the effects of in-cylinder flow field before injection on mixture formation in a premixed compression ignition engine was conducted. Premixed compression ignition combustion is a very attractive method to reduce both NOx and soot emissions, but it still has some problems, such as high HC and CO emissions. In case of early direct injection, it is important to avoid wall wetting by spray impingement, which can cause higher HC and CO emissions. Since it is not easy to examine the effects of initial flow and injection parameters on mixture formation over the wide range by practical engine tests, a computer program named “GTT (Generalized Tank and Tube)” code was used to simulate the in-cylinder phenomena before autoignition.