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Engines with gasoline direct injection promise an increase in efficiency mainly due to the overall lean mixture and reduced pumping losses at part load. But the near stoichiometric combustion of the stratified mixture with high combustion temperature leads to high NOx emissions. The need for expensive lean NOx catalysts in combination with complex operation strategies may reduce the advantages in efficiency significantly. The Bowl-Prechamber-Ignition (BPI) concept with flame jet ignition was developed to ignite premixed lean mixtures in DISI engines. The mainly homogeneous lean mixture leads to low combustion temperatures and subsequently to low NOx emissions. By additional EGR a further reduction of the combustion temperature is achievable. The BPI concept is realized by a prechamber spark plug and a piston bowl. The main feature of the concept is its dual injection strategy.

Charge dilution by lean-burn is one way to increase the efficiency of spark ignition engines while reducing NOx emissions. This work focuses on increasing the flammability of lean mixtures inside a passive pre-chamber spark plug by elevating its temperature with the help of a controllable hot surface integrated into the pre-chamber. Thus, an extension of the lean limit under part load is aimed for. A pre-chamber spark plug prototype with an integrated, controllable glow plug was developed, called Hot Surface Assisted Spark Ignition (HSASI). Experimental investigations were conducted on a single-cylinder engine at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences. Operating modes with an active glow plug (HSASI) and a non-active glow plug were compared. The lean limit for both operation modes were determined under part load. NOx, CO and THC emissions were measured for different air-fuel equivalence ratios λ. The lean limit is extended by more than 0.1 in λ at low loads with HSASI operation.

Small natural gas cogeneration engines usually operate with lean mixture and late combustion phasing to comply with NOx emission standards, leading to significant losses in engine efficiency. Owing to water evaporation heat and high specific heat capacity of the water vapor, leads the water injection to cooling the combustion chamber charge, which enables earlier combustion phasing, higher compression ratio and thus higher engine efficiency. Therefore, water injection enables mitigating the tradeoff between NOx emissions and engine performance, without loss in engine efficiency. The intake port injection represents, because of the low required injection pressure and the simple injector integration, a cost-effective way to introduce water into the engine. Hence, the purpose of this work is to adapt the intake port water injection timing to the charge mixture flow conditions in the intake port.

Lean burn operation allows small cogeneration engines to achieve both high efficiency and low NOx emissions. While further mixture dilution enables future emission standards to be met, it leads to retarded combustion phasing and losses in indicated engine efficiency. In the case of naturally aspirated engines, IMEP drops due to lower fuel fraction, increasing brake specific fuel consumption. In this work, an alternative engine configuration was investigated that improves the trade-off between engine efficiency, NOx emissions and IMEP. It combines well-established means such as Miller/Atkinson valve timing and optimised intake system for a single-cylinder cogeneration engine, operating with homogenous lean air-natural gas mixture. First, the engine configuration was analysed using a detailed 1D CFD model, implying a significant potential in reaching the project target.

Electrical power and efficiency are decisive factors to minimise payoff time of cogeneration units and thus increase their profitability. In the case of (small-scale) cogeneration engines, low-NOx operation and high engine efficiency are frequently achieved through lean burn operation. Whereas higher diluted mixture enables future emission standards to be met, it reduces engine power. It further leads to poor combustion phasing, reducing engine efficiency. In this work, an engine concept that improves the trade-off between engine efficiency, NOx emissions and engine power, was investigated numerically. It combines individual measures such as lean burn operation, overexpanded cycle as well as a power- and efficiency-optimised intake system. Miller and Atkinson valve timings were examined using a detailed 1D model (AVL BOOST). Indicated specific fuel consumption (ISFC) was improved while maintaining effective compression ratio constant.

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) in natural gas fueled engines is thought to achieve high efficiency and low NOx emissions. While automotive applications require various load and speed regions, the operation range of stationary cogeneration engines is narrower. Hence, HCCI operation is easier to reach and more applicable to comply with future emission standards. This study presents computationally investigations of the auto-ignition ranges of a stationary natural gas HCCI engine. Starting from a detailed 1D engine cycle simulation model, a reduced engine model was developed and coupled to chemical kinetics using AVL Boost. Compression ratio, air-fuel ratio, internal EGR rate (iEGR) and intake temperature were varied for three different speeds, namely 1200, 1700 and 2200 rpm. Each examination includes a full factorial design study of 375 configurations. In the first step, the combustion was calculated using the GRI-mechanism 3.0 and a single zone combustion model.

Spark ignited engines with direct injection (DISI) in fuel stratified mode promise an increase in efficiency mainly due to reduced pumping losses at part load. However, the need for expensive lean NOx catalysts may reduce this advantage. Therefore, a Bowl-Prechamber-Ignition (BPI) concept with flame jet ignition was developed to ignite premixed lean mixtures in DISI engines. It is characterised by a combination of a prechamber spark plug and a piston bowl. An important feature of the concept is its dual injection strategy. A pre injection in the inlet stroke produces a homogeneous lean mixture with an air fuel ratio of λ = 1.5 to λ = 1.7. A second injection with a small quantity of fuel is directed towards the piston bowl during the compression stroke. The enriched air fuel mixture of the piston bowl is transported by the pressure difference between main combustion chamber and prechamber into the prechamber.

Small natural gas cogeneration engines frequently operate with lean mixture and late ignition timing to comply with NOx emission standards. Late combustion phasing is the consequence, leading to significant losses in engine efficiency. When substituting a part of the excess air with exhaust gas, heat capacity increases, thus reducing NOx emissions. Combustion phasing can be advanced, resulting in a thermodynamically more favourable heat release without increasing NOx but improving engine efficiency. In this work, the effect of replacing a part of excess air with exhaust gas was investigated first in a constant volume combustion chamber. It enabled to analyse the influence of the exhaust gas under motionless initial conditions for several relative air-fuel ratios (λ = 1.3 to 1.7). Starting from the initial value of λ, the amount of CH4 was maintained constant as a part of the excess air was replaced by exhaust gas.