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A fundamental understanding of the relationship between chemical composition and combustion quality may provide an improved means of assessing fuel combustion characteristics. As such, a fuel parameter based on the average molecular structure of multi-component fuels, including petroleum-derived fuels and alternative fuels such as bio-fuel, is applied to predict both ignition and anti-knock quality. This parameter is derived from proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) analysis indicating hydrogen type distribution of fuel molecules. The predicted cetane number (PCN) calculated by the equation developed with 1H-NMR in this study shows a good correlation to the cetane number for a wide range of fuels.

Selected as an alternative diesel fuel based on consideration regarding the relationship between the fuel molecular structure and exhaust emission and criteria as alternative fuels, Dimethylacetal (DMA) was evaluated in both a direct injection (DI) diesel and a Direct Fuel Injection Impingement Diffusion Combustion Diesel (OSKA-D) engines. Since DMA with a 1% commercial-type cetane improver has 53 for the cetane number, no ignition-assist divice such as a spark plug is needed, unlike methanol. According to the DI diesel engine test, the NOx emission for DMA was almost equal to that for hydrocarbon diesel fuel, but smoke for DMA was much lower than that for diesel fuel. The OSKA-D engine test showed that NOx emission for DMA was much lower than that for diesel fuel and smoke emission for DMA was zero under all engine conditions.

A direct injection stratified charge engine using New Mixture Formation Technology (OSKA) has been developed. Experiments on a single cylinder engine, with methanol and gasoline fuels showed the following results: 1) With methanol, the maximum IMEP was 1.3 MPa and the best indicated thermal efficiency was 46 %. 2) With gasoline, the maximum IMEP was 1.16 MPa and the best indicated thermal efficiency was 43 %. Analysis of the cylinder pressure diagram showed the following results: 1) High indicated thermal efficiency was observed by low time loss. 2) A relatively short combustion duration was observed even if the engine was operated with an overall lean fuel-air mixture in the part-load condition. This fact suggests that a stratified charge was attained. 3) From observation of the heat release rate,it will be predicted that combustion is characterized by flame propagation.

The OSKA-DH diesel engine employed a unique system (hereafter called OSKA system) which is composed of a single-hole fuel injector, an impinging disk and a re-entrant type combustion chamber. This study is concerned with the combustion observation of both OSKA-DH diesel engine and conventional DI diesel engine by the high-speed photography and video system. This video system enables us to take combustion photographs under the warm-up condition of the engine. From the observation of those photographs, the OSKA-DH engine shows the shorter ignition delay compared with a DI diesel engine and the combustion flame of OSKA-DH diesel engine are concentrated in the center of the combustion chamber and a relatively monotonous flame intensity are observed. THE AUTHORS HAVE DEVELOPED a new type of Direct Injection Stratified Charge Engine called “Direct Fuel Injection Impingement Diffusion Stratified Charge System” (hereafter called OSKA System).

A new type of internal combustion engine has been developed. The new idea incorporates an impinging part in the central piston cavity. The fuel spray is injected against the impinging area, spreads and forms a fuel mixture. Since a comparatively rich fuel mixture always stays around the impinging part and ignition is acomplished at the center of the rich fuel mixture, steady, instantaneous and high-speed combustion is possible. As the fuel mixture is always formed in the cavity, there is little fuel in the squish area. Therefore, it is possible to prevent end-gas knocking, and in spite of the use of spark ignition, to operate the engine at higher compression ratio than a conventional premixed SI engine. Experiments with methanol fuel showed that BMEP was 1.1MPa and the maximum brake thermal efficiency was 42%. The combustion noise was lower than that of diesel engine. Brief tests with gasoline showed a maximum brake thermal effiency of 36%.

A feasibility study of an LPG DI diesel engine has been carried out to study the effectiveness of two selected cetane enhancing additives: Di-tertiary-butyl peroxide (DTBP) and 2-Ethylhexyl nitrate (EHN). When more than either 5 wt% DTBP or 3.5 wt% 2EHN was added to the base fuel (100 % butane), stable engine operation over a wide range of engine loads was possible (BMEPs of 0.03 to 0.60 MPa). The thermal efficiency of LPG fueled operation was found to be comparable to diesel fuel operation at DTBP levels over 5 wt%. Exhaust emissions measurements showed that NOx and smoke levels can be significantly reduced using the LPG+DTBP fuel blend compared to a light diesel fuel at the same experimental conditions. Correlations were derived for the measured ignition delay, BMEP, and either DTBP concentration or cetane number. When propane was added to a butane base fuel, the ignition delay became longer.