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Thermal efficiency comparisons are made between the low temperature combustion and the conventional diesel cycles on a common-rail diesel engine with a conventional diesel fuel. Empirical studies have been conducted under independently controlled exhaust gas recirculation, intake boost, and exhaust backpressure. Up to 8 fuel injection pulses per cylinder per cycle have been applied to modulate the homogeneity history of the early injection diesel low temperature combustion operations in order to improve the phasing of the combustion process. The impact of heat release phasing, duration, shaping, and splitting on the thermal efficiency has been analyzed with zero-dimensional engine cycle simulations. This paper intends to identify the major parameters that affect diesel low temperature combustion engine thermal efficiency.

The effects of hydrogen peroxide addition on iso-octane/air Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion have been investigated analytically. Particular attention was focused on the predications involving homogeneous gas-phase kinetics. Use was made of Peters' iso-octane mechanism in CHEMKIN and convective heat transfer was included in the analyses. This enabled the influences that H2O2 addition has on species concentration and ignition promotion and hence exhaust emissions to be determined. It was found that both CO and NOx emission levels could be ameliorated. The former effect is considered to be a result of the decomposition of H2O2 into OH intermediate species and hence reducing the time to ignition and the onset of combustion.

Conventionally, the diesel fuel ignites spontaneously following the injection event. The combustion and injection often overlap with a very short ignition delay. Diesel engines therefore offer superior combustion stability characterized by the low cycle-to-cycle variations. However, the enforcement of the stringent emission regulations necessitates the implementation of innovative diesel combustion concepts such as the low temperature combustion (LTC) to achieve ultra-low engine-out pollutants. In stark contrast to the conventional diesel combustion, the enabling of LTC requires enhanced air fuel mixing and hence a longer ignition delay is desired. Such a decoupling of the combustion events from the fuel injection can potentially cause ignition discrepancy and ultimately lead to combustion cyclic variations.

This study investigates neat n-butanol, as a cleaner power source, to directly replace conventional diesel fuels for enabling low temperature combustion on a modern common-rail diesel engine. Engine tests are performed at medium engine loads (6∼8 bar IMEP) with the single-shot injection strategy for both n-butanol and diesel fuels. As indicated by the experimental results, the combustion of neat n-butanol offers comparable engine efficiency to that of diesel while producing substantially lower NOx emissions even without the use of exhaust gas recirculation. The greater resistance to auto-ignition allows n-butanol to undergo a prolonged ignition delay for air-fuel mixing; the high volatility helps to enhance the cylinder charge homogeneity; the fuel-borne oxygen contributes to smoke reduction and, as a result, the smoke emissions of n-butanol combustion are generally at a near-zero level under the tested engine operating conditions.

The majority of transportation systems have continued to be powered by the internal combustion engine and fossil fuels. Heavy-duty applications especially are reliant on diesel engines for their high brake efficiency, power density, and robustness. Although engineering developments have advanced engines towards significantly fewer emissions and higher efficiency, the use of fossil-derived diesel as fuel sets a fundamental threshold in the achievable total net carbon reduction. Dimethyl ether can be produced from various renewable feedstocks and has a high chemical reactivity making it suitable for heavy-duty applications, namely compression ignition direct injection engines. Literature shows the successful use of DME fuels in diesel engines without significant hardware modifications.

Extensive experiments were conducted on a low emission DI diesel engine by using Dimethyl Carbonate (DMC) as an oxygenate fuel additive. The results indicated that smoke reduced almost linearly with fuel oxygen content. Accompanying noticeable reductions of HC and CO were attained, while a small increase in NOx was encountered. The effective reduction in smoke with DMC was maintained with intake charge CO2, which led to low NOx and smoke emissions by the combined use of oxygenated fuel and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). Further experiments were conducted on an optically accessible combustion bomb and a thermal cracking set-up to study the mechanisms of DMC addition on smoke reduction.

As a renewable energy source, the ethanol fuel was employed with a diesel fuel in this study to improve the cylinder charge homogeneity for high load operations, targeting on ultra-low nitrogen oxides (NOx) and smoke emissions. A light-duty diesel engine is configured to adapt intake port fuelling of the ethanol fuel while keeping all other original engine components intact. High load experiments are performed to investigate the combustion control and low emission enabling without sacrificing the high compression ratio (18.2:1). The intake boost, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and injection pressure are independently controlled, and thus their effects on combustion and emission characteristics of the high load operation are investigated individually. The low temperature combustion is accomplished at high engine load (16~17 bar IMEP) with regulation compatible NOx and soot emissions.

Diesel engines operating in the low-temperature combustion (LTC) mode generally tend to produce very low levels of NOx and soot. However, the implementation of LTC is challenged by the higher cycle-to-cycle variation with heavy EGR operation and the narrower operating corridors. The robustness and efficiency of LTC operation in diesel engines can be enhanced with improvements in the promptness and accuracy of combustion control. A set of field programmable gate array (FPGA) modules were coded and interlaced to suffice on-the-fly combustion event modulations. The cylinder pressure traces were analyzed to update the heat release rate concurrently as the combustion process proceeds prior to completing an engine cycle. Engine dynamometer tests demonstrated that such prompt heat release analysis was effective to optimize the LTC and the split combustion events for better fuel efficiency and exhaust emissions.

The pressure wave actions were investigated in the exhaust system of a single cylinder diesel engine through both experimental and simulation methods. The characteristics of the exhaust pressure waves under different engine operating conditions, such as engine load and exhaust backpressure, were examined. The results showed that the strength of the exhaust pressure wave was affected by both the in-cylinder pressure and the exhaust backpressure in the exhaust system during the period when the exhaust valves were open. The exhaust gas flow velocity was also estimated by the one dimensional simulation tool AVL BOOST™. The results suggested that the velocity of the exhaust gas fluctuated during the engine cycle, and followed trends similar to the exhaust pressure wave. The transient gas flow velocity was high when there was a strong compression wave, and it was reduced when the pressure fluctuations in the exhaust manifold were small.

Diesel engine exhausts commonly contain a high level of surplus oxygen and a significant amount of thermal energy. In this study the authors have theoretically investigated a way of utilizing the thermal energy and the surplus oxygen of exhaust gases to produce gaseous fuel in a rich combustor placed in an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) loop. In the rich combustor, a small amount of diesel fuel will be catalytically reformed on a palladium/platinum based catalyst to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Since the catalytic EGR reformer is incorporated in the EGR loop, it enables the partial recovery of exhaust heat. The gaseous fuel produced in the rich combustor can be brought back into the engine in a pre-mixed condition, potentially reducing soot formation. The preliminary energy efficiency analysis has been performed by using CHEMKIN and an in-house engine simulation software SAES.

The diesel fuel reforming process in an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) loop of a diesel engine is capable of utilizing the engine exhaust energy to support the endothermic process of hydrogen gas generation. However, the EGR stream commonly needs to be heated to enable the operation of the reformer and thus to sustain higher yield of hydrogen. A central-fuelling and flow-reversal embedment that is energy-efficient to raise the central temperatures of the catalytic flow-bed is therefore devised and tested to drastically reduce the supplemental heating to the EGR reformer. One-dimensional modeling analyses are conducted to evaluate the fuel delivery strategies and temperature profiles of the reformer at various reforming gas flow rates and engine-out exhaust temperatures and compositions. This research attempts to quantify the energy saving by the catalytic flow-reversal and central-fuelling embedment in comparison to a unidirectional flow EGR reformer.

In order to improve the fuel economy for future high-efficiency spark ignition engines, the applications of advanced combustion strategies are considered to be beneficial with an overall lean and/or exhaust gas recirculation diluted cylinder charge. Stronger and more reliable ignition sources become more favorable under extreme lean/EGR conditions. Existing research indicates that the frequency of plasma restrikes increases with increased flow velocity and decreased discharge current level, and a higher discharge current can reduce the gap resistance and maintain the stretched plasma for a longer duration under flow conditions. An in-house developed current boost control system provides flexible control of the discharge current level and discharge duration. The current boost ignition system is based on a multi-coil system with a discharge current level of 180mA.

Compression ignition internal combustion engines provide unmatched power density levels, making them suitable for numerous applications including heavy-duty freight trucks, marine shipping, and off-road construction vehicles. Fossil-derived diesel fuel has dominated the energy source for CI engines over the last century. To mitigate the dependency on fossil fuels and lessen anthropogenic carbon released into the atmosphere within the transportation sector, it is critical to establish a fuel source which is produced from renewable energy sources, all the while matching the high-power density demands of various applications. Dimethyl ether (DME) has been used in non-combustion applications for several decades and is an attractive fuel for CI engines because of its high reactivity, superior volatility to diesel, and low soot tendency. A range of feedstock sources can produce DME via the catalysis of syngas.

The push for environmental protection and sustainability has led to strict emission regulations for automotive manufacturers as evident in EURO VII and 2026 EPA requirements. The challenge lies in maintaining fuel efficiency and simultaneously reducing the carbon footprint while meeting future emission regulations. Alcohol (primarily methanol, ethanol, and butanol) and ether (dimethyl ether) fuels, owing to their comparable energy density to existing fuels, the comparative ease of handling, renewable production, and suitable emission characteristics may present an attractive drop-in replacement, fully or in part as an additive, to the gasoline/diesel fuels, without extensive modifications to the engine geometry. Additionally, lean and diluted combustion are well-researched pathways for efficiency improvement and reduction of engine-out emissions of modern engines.

Low temperature combustion (LTC) has been proved to overcome the trade-off between NOx and soot emissions in direct injection compression ignition engines. However, the lowered NOx emissions are accompanied by high hydrocarbon and CO emissions. Moreover, the NOx emissions under LTC has much higher NO2 concentrations compared with traditional high temperature combustion conditions. Experimental investigations have been carried out to show the hydrocarbon impact on NOx emissions and NO-NO2 conversion under various engine operation conditions, but the mechanism is less understood. The article includes numerical studies of the impact of hydrocarbons in the in-cylinder conversion of NO to NO2 during low temperature conditions in a compression ignition engine. In the present work, a stochastic reactor model with detailed chemical kinetics is utilized to investigate the reaction pathways during the NOx reduction and NO2 conversion processes.

A novel catalytic converter technology, employing periodical reversal of gas flow through the oxidation catalyst monolith, is being developed for treatment of exhaust gas from diesel engines fueled by natural gas in combination with diesel fuel. This technology allows to trap heat energy inside the monolith and thus efficiently destroy methane at converter inlet temperature as low as ambient. This paper describes the results of the initial stage of the converter development, including development of the mathematical model, computer simulation, and prototype testing. Simulation results indicate that dual fuel engine equipped with the reverse-flow converter could exceed the required destruction standards for hydrocarbons, including methane.

Engine performance and emission comparisons were made between the use of 100% soy, Canola and yellow grease derived biodiesel fuels and an ultra-low sulphur diesel fuel in the oxygen deficient regions, i.e. full or high load engine operations. Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) was extensively applied to initiate low temperature combustion. An intake throttling valve was implemented to increase the differential pressure between the intake and exhaust in order to increase and enhance the EGR. The intake temperature, pressure, and EGR levels were modulated to improve the engine fuel efficiency and exhaust emissions. Furthermore, a preliminary ignition delay correlation under the influence of EGR was developed. Preliminary low temperature combustion modelling of the biodiesel and diesel fuels was also conducted. The research intends to achieve simultaneous reductions of nitrogen oxides and soot emissions in modern production diesel engines when biodiesel is applied.

The dual-fuel application using ethanol and diesel fuels can substantially improve the classical trade-off between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and smoke, especially at moderate-to-high load conditions. However, at low engine load levels, the use of a low reactivity fuel in the dual-fuel application usually leads to increased incomplete combustion products that in turn result in a significant reduction of the engine thermal efficiency. In this work, engine tests are conducted on a high compression ratio, single cylinder dual-fuel engine that incorporates the diesel direct-injection and ethanol port-injection. Engine load levels are identified, at which, diesel combustion offers better efficiency than the dual-fuel combustion while attaining low NOx and smoke emissions. Thereafter, a cycle-to-cycle based closed-loop controller is implemented for the combustion phasing and engine load control in both the diesel and dual-fuel combustion regimes.

Taking advantages of high speed RGB video cameras, the two-color method can be implemented with a relatively simple setup to obtain the temporal development of the two dimensional temperature and soot (KL) distributions in a reacting diesel jet. However, several issues such as the selection of the two wavelengths, the role of bandpass filters, and the proper optical settings, etc. should be known to obtain a reliable measurement. This paper, at first, discusses about the uncertainties in the measurement of temperature and KL distributions in the diesel flame by the two-color method using the high speed RGB video camera. Since n-butanol, as an alternative renewable fuel, has the potential application in diesel engines, the characteristic of spray combustion of diesel-butanol blends under the diesel-like ambient conditions in a pre-burning constant-volume combustion chamber is studied.

The fatty acid alkyl esters derived from plants, rendered fats/oils and waste restaurant greases, commonly known as biodiesel, are renewable alternative fuels that may fulfill the demand gap caused by the depleting fossil diesel fuels. The combustion and emission characteristics of neat biodiesel fuels were investigated on a single cylinder of a 4-cylinder Ford common-rail direct injection diesel engine, which cylinder has been configured to have independent exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), boost and back pressures and exhaust gas sampling. The fatty acid methyl esters derived from Canola oil, soybean oil, tallow and yellow grease were first blended. Biodiesel engine tests were then conducted under the independent control of the fuel injection, EGR, boost and back pressure to achieve the low temperature combustion mode. Multi-pulse early-injections were employed to modulate the homogeneity history of the cylinder charge.