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The Dual-Fuel (DF) combustion is a promising technology for efficient, low NOx and low exhaust particulate matter (PM) engine operation. To achieve equivalent performance to a DF engine with only the use of conventional liquid fuel, this study proposes the implementation of an on-board fuel reformation process by piston compression. For concept verification, DF combustion tests with representative reformed gas components were conducted. Based on the results, the controllability of the reformed gas composition by variations in the operating conditions of the reformer cylinder were discussed.

Time-resolved and local ambient gas entrainment processes in intermittent gas jets with a range of injection conditions were evaluated by a LIFA (Laser-Induced Fluorescence of Ambient gas) technique. The gas injection conditions tested were: mean discharge velocity, um; mean discharge turbulence intensity, u′m; kinematic viscosity of the gas jet, ν; specific gravity of the gas jet, ρj; and of the ambient gas, ρa. Experimental results showed that the entrainment of jets are enhanced with higher eddy kinematic viscosity, νt, measured by a hot wire anemometer. In conclusion, the mean jet concentration was approximated with only one parameter, (ρj/ρa)D2/[(ν+νt)Δt].

This study analyzes the factors influencing the thermal efficiency of a homogeneous charge spark-injection (SI) engine fuelled with hydrogen, focusing on the degree of constant volume and cooling loss. The cooling loss from the burning gas to the cylinder walls is quantitatively evaluated by analyzing the cylinder pressure diagram and exhaust gas composition. The degree of constant volume burning and constant volume cooling are also obtained by fitting the Wiebe function to the rate of heat release calculated using the cylinder pressure diagram. A comparison of combustion and cooling characteristics of hydrogen and methane combustion reveals that cooling loss in hydrogen combustion is higher than that of methane combustion due to the short quenching distance and rapid burning velocity during hydrogen combustion. It is also suggested that the high cooling loss observed during hydrogen combustion reduces thermal efficiency.

The oxidations of Crapped diesel soots containing catalytic metals such as Ca, Ba, Fe, or Ni were characterized through thermogravimetric analysis with a thermobalance. Soot particles were generated by a single cylinder IDI diesel engine with metallic fuel additives. A two-stage oxidation process was observed with the metalcontalning soots. It was found that the first stage of oxidation is catalytically promoted by metal additives resulting in an enhanced reaction rate and a reduced activation energy. Soot reduction in the rapid first stage increases with increases in metal content. Soots containing Ba and Ca are oxidized most rapidly due to the larger reduction during the first stage. The second stage of oxidation is also slightly promoted by metal addition. The ignition temperature of the collected soot is substantially reduced by the metal additives.

Experiments on a large number of soluble fuel additives were systematically conducted for diesel soot reduction. It was found that Ca and Ba were the most effective soot suppressors. The main determinants of soot reduction were: the metal mol-content of the fuel, the excess air factor, and the gas turbulence in the combustion chamber. The soot reduction ratio was expressed by an exponential function of the metal mol-content in the fuel, depending on the metal but independent of the metal compound. A rise in excess air factor or gas turbulence increased the value of a coefficient in the function, resulting in larger reductions in soot with the fuel additives. High-speed soot sampling from the cylinder showed that with the metal additive, the soot concentration in the combustion chamber was substantially reduced during the whole period of combustion. It is thought that the additive acts as a catalyst not only to improve soot oxidation but also to suppress soot formation.

The effects of intake dilution with various dilution gases including nitrogen, argon, and carbon dioxide on low temperature diesel combustion were investigated in a naturally aspirated DI diesel engine to understand the mechanism of the simultaneous reductions in smoke and NOx with ultra-high EGR. NOx almost completely disappears with the intake oxygen concentration diluted below 16% regardless of the kind of dilution gas. Smoke emissions decrease with increased heat capacity of the charged gas due to promotion of mixture homogeneity with longer ignition delays. Intake dilution with the 36% CO2 + 64% Ar mixture which has a similar specific heat capacity as N2 shows lower smoke emissions than with N2. Chemical kinetics analysis shows that carbon dioxide may help to reduce NOx and soot by lowering the reaction temperature as well as by changing the concentrations of some radicals or/and species related to soot and NOx formation.

To extend the operational range of premixed diesel combustion, fuel reformation by piston induced compression of rich homogeneous air-fuel mixtures was conducted in this study. Reformed gas compositions and chemical processes were first simulated with the chemistry dynamics simulation, CHEMKIN Pro, by changing the intake oxygen content, intake air temperature, and compression ratio. A single cylinder diesel engine was utilized to verify the simulation results. With the simulation and experiments, the characteristics of the reformed gas with respect to the reformer cylinder operating condition were obtained. Further, the thermal decomposition and partial oxidation reaction mechanisms of the fuel in extremely low oxygen concentrations were obtained with the characteristics of the gas production at the various reaction temperatures.

Reformed fuel from hydrocarbons or alcohol mainly consists of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. The composition of the reformed fuel can be varied to some extent with a combination of a thermal decomposition reaction and a water gas shift reaction. Methanol is known to decompose at a relatively low temperature. An application of the methanol reforming system to an internal combustion engine enables an exhaust heat recovery to increase the heating value of the reformed fuel. This research analyzed characteristics of combustion, exhaust emissions and cooling loss in an internal combustion engine fueled with several composition of model gases for methanol reformed fuels which consist of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Experiments were made with both a bottom view type optical access single cylinder research engine and a constant volume combustion chamber.

When fuel is vaporized and mixed well with air in the cylinder of premixed diesel engines, the mixture auto-ignites in one burst resulting in strong combustion noise, and combustion noise reduction is necessary to achieve high load premixed diesel engine operation. In this paper, an engine noise analysis was conducted by engine tests and simulations. The engine employed in the experiments was a supercharged single cylinder DI diesel engine with a high pressure common rail fuel injection system. The engine noise was sampled by two microphones and the sampled engine noise was averaged and analyzed by an FFT sound analyzer. The engine was equipped with a pressure transducer and the combustion noise was calculated from the power spectrum of the FFT analysis of the in-cylinder pressure wave data from the cross power spectrum of the sound pressure of the engine noise.

A new concept DISC engine equipped with a two-stage injection system was developed. The engine was modified from a single cylinder DI diesel engine with large cylinder diameter (135mm). Combustion characteristics and exhaust emissions with regular gasoline were examined, and the experiments were also made with gasoline-diesel fuel blends with higher boiling temperatures and lower octane numbers. To realize stratified mixture distribution in combustion chamber flexibly, the fuel was injected in two-stages: the first stage was before the compression stroke to create a uniform premixed lean mixture and the second stage was at the end of the compression stroke to maintain stable ignition and faster combustion. In this paper, the effect of the two-stage injection on combustion and exhaust emissions were analyzed under several operating conditions.

This research investigates the influences of the injection timing, injection pressure, and compression ratio on the combustion and exhaust emissions in a single cylinder 1.0 L DI diesel engine operating with ultra-high EGR. Longer ignition delays due to either advancing or retarding the injection timing reduced the smoke emissions, but advancing the injection timing has the advantages of maintaining the thermal efficiency and preventing misfiring. Smokeless combustion is realized with an intake oxygen content of only 9-10% regardless of the injection pressure. Reduction in the compression ratio is effective to reduce the in-cylinder temperature and increase the ignition delay as well as to expand the smokeless combustion range in terms of EGR and IMEP. However, the thermal efficiency deteriorates with excessively low compression ratios.

The effects of several fuel property variables on the emissions from a D.I. diesel engine were individually analyzed. The results showed that the smoke and dry soot increased with increased kinematic viscosity, shorter ignition lag, and higher aromatic content, especially at high equivalence ratios. Over the whole range of equivalence ratios, SOF depended on and increased with only ignition lag. The NOx improved slightly with increased kinematic viscosity, higher ignitability, and decreased aromatic content. The unburnt HC also improved with decreased kinematic viscosity and higher ignitability. The distribution shape of distillation curves had little influence on the emissions.

This paper presents the studies carried out on electrolysis of aqueous methanol for hydrogen production in a proton exchange membrane electrolyser with a novel porous flow field made of sintered metal powder. Results show that the use of porous flow field has a significant improvement in hydrogen production performance compared to a groove flow field. This could be attributed to an increase in effective electrode area and to a reduction in diffusion polarization by using the porous material which enables the flow field to supply reactants evenly to the electrode and also removes carbon dioxide smoothly. Influences of the operating conditions such as methanol concentration and cell temperature on hydrogen production are also discussed.

In a natural gas fueled engine ignited by diesel fuel, the addition of hydrogen to the engine could be a possible way to improve thermal efficiency and reduce unburned methane which has a warming potential many times that of carbon dioxide as it promotes a more rapid and complete combustion. This study carried out engine experiments using a single cylinder engine with natural gas and hydrogen delivered separately into the intake pipe, and with pilot-injection of diesel fuel. The percentages of hydrogen in the natural gas-hydrogen mixtures were varied from 0% to 50% of the heat value. The results showed that the hydrogen addition has an insignificant effect on the ignition delay of the diesel fuel and that it shortens the combustion duration. The increase in the hydrogen ratio decreased the unburned hydrocarbon emissions more than the reduction of the amount of natural gas that was replaced by the hydrogen.

A homogeneous-charge compression-ignition (HCCI) engine system that was fuelled with dimethyl ether (DME) and methanol-reformed gas (MRG) has been proposed in the previous research. Adjusting the proportion of DME and MRG can effectively control the ignition timing of the engine. In the system, both fuels are to be produced from methanol in onboard reformers utilizing the engine exhaust gas heat. While hydrogen contained in MRG has the main role of the ignition control, hydrogen increases with carbon dioxide in the methanol reforming. This paper investigates the influence of carbon dioxide on HCCI combustion engine with the ignition control by hydrogen. Both thermal and chemical effects of carbon dioxide are analyzed.

Adjusting the proportion of two fuels with different ignition properties is an effective technique for controlling ignition timing in homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion. One of the authors has proposed an HCCI combustion engine system fueled with dimethyl ether (DME) with a high cetane number and methanol reformed gas (MRG) with a high anti-knock property in the previous research. Both DME and MRG are to be produced from methanol by onboard reformers utilizing the exhaust heat from the engine in the system. The research has shown that adjusting the proportion of DME and MRG effectively controlled the ignition timing and load in HCCI combustion of the two fuels. High overall thermal efficiency has been shown over a wide operable range. While the MRG used in the research was the thermally decomposed methanol, which consists of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, methanol can be reformed into various compositions of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

Premixed diesel combustion blending high volatility fuels into diesel fuel were investigated in a modern diesel engine. First, various fractions of normal heptane and diesel fuel were examined to determine the influence of the blending of a highly ignitable and volatile fuel into diesel fuel. The indicated thermal efficiency improves almost linearly with increasing normal heptane fraction, particularly at advanced injection timings when the fuel is not injected directly into the piston cavity. This improvement is mainly due to decreases in the other losses, ϕother which are calculated with the following equation based on the energy balance. ηu: The combustion efficiency calculated from the exhaust gas compositions ηi: The indicated thermal efficiency ϕex: The exhaust loss calculated from the enthalpy difference between intake and exhaust gas The decreases in the other losses with normal heptane blends are due to a reduction in the unburned fuel which does not reach the gas analyzer.

The fundamental parameters related to engine combustion and performances, such as, heating value, theoretical air-fuel ratio, adiabatic flame temperature, carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitric oxide (NO) emissions, specific heat and engine thermal efficiency were investigated with computations for a wide range of oxygenated fuels. The computed results showed that almost all of the above combustion-related parameters are closely related to oxygen content in the fuels regardless of the kinds or chemical structures of oxygenated fuels. An interesting finding was that with the increase in oxygen content in the fuels NO emission decreased linearly, and the engine thermal efficiency was almost unchanged below oxygen content of 30 wt-% but gradually decreased above 30 wt-%.

Bioethanol is being used as an alternative fuel throughout the world based on considerations of reduction of CO2 emissions and sustainability. It is widely known that ethanol has an advantage of high anti-knock quality. In order to use the ethanol in ethanol-blended gasoline to control knocking, the research discussed in this paper sought to develop a fuel separation system that would separate ethanol-blended gasoline into a high-octane-number fuel (high-ethanol-concentration fuel) and a low-octane-number fuel (low-ethanol-concentration fuel) in the vehicle. The research developed a small fuel separation system, and employed a layout in which the system was fitted in the fuel tank based on considerations of reducing the effect on cabin space and maintaining safety in the event of a collision. The total volume of the components fitted in the fuel tank is 6.6 liters.

The effect of direct water injection into the combustion chamber on NOx reduction in an IDI diesel engine was investigated. The temperature distribution in the swirl chamber was analyzed quantitatively with high speed photography and the two color method. Direct water injection into a swirl chamber prior to fuel injection reduced NOx emission significantly over a wide output range without sacrifice of BSFC. Other emissions were almost unchanged or slightly decreased with water injection. Water injection reduced the flame temperature at the center of the swirl chamber, while the mean gas temperature in the cylinder and the rate of heat release changed little.