Search

A number of studies have been carried out examining the impact of biodiesel blend ratio on vehicle performance and emissions, however there is relatively little data available on the interaction between blend ratio and reduced ambient temperatures over the New European Drive Cycle (NEDC). This study examines the effects of increasing the blend ratio of Rapeseed Methyl Ester (RME) on the NEDC fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions of a vehicle equipped with a 2.0 litre common rail diesel engine, tested on a chassis dynamometer at ambient temperatures of 25, 10 & -5°C. This study found that under low temperature ambient conditions increasing blend ratios had a significant detrimental effect on vehicle particulate emissions reversing the benefits observed at higher ambient temperatures. Blend ratio was found to have minimal impact on hydrocarbon emissions regardless of ambient temperature while carbon monoxide and NOx emissions were found to increase by up to 20% and 5.5% respectively. Fuel consumption rose by 5% for a B50 blend - a larger than expected increase when considering differences in calorific values alone.

Vegetable oils have energy content suitable to be used as compression ignition (CI) engine fuel. However, several operational and durability problems of using straight vegetable oils in CI engines are reported in the literature, which are primarily caused by their higher viscosity and low volatility compared to mineral diesel. The viscosity can be brought in acceptable range by (i) chemical process of transesterification, (ii) blending of oil with mineral diesel or (iii) by heating the vegetable oil using exhaust gas waste heat. Reduction of viscosity by blending or exhaust gas heating saves the chemical processing cost of transesterification. Present experimental investigations were carried out for evaluating combustion, performance and emission behavior of Jatropha oil blends in unheated conditions in a direct injection CI engine at different load and constant engine speed (1500 rpm). Analysis of in-cylinder pressure rise, instantaneous heat release and cumulative heat release was carried out. All test blends exhibited similar combustion stages as mineral diesel; however, Jatropha oil blends showed earlier start of combustion but lower heat release rate during premixed combustion phase for all engine loads. The crank angle position of peak cylinder pressure for vegetable oil blends shifts towards top dead center compared to baseline diesel. Combustion duration was found to be comparable with diesel up to 20% concentration of Jatropha oil in the fuel. HC, CO and NO emissions were found to slightly increase with increase in Jatropha oil content in the fuel blends.

This study investigated the effects of soybean- and coconut-derived biodiesel fuels on combustion characteristics in a 1.7-liter direct injection, common rail diesel engine. Five sets of fuels were studied: 2007 ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD), 5% and 20% volumetric blends of soybean biodiesel with ULSD (soybean B5 and B20), and 5% and 20% volumetric blends of coconut biodiesel with ULSD (coconut B5 and B20). In conventional diesel combustion mode, particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NO/dx) emissions were similar for all fuels studied except soybean B20. Soybean B20 produced the lowest PM but the highest NO/dx emissions. Compared with conventional diesel combustion mode, high efficiency clean combustion (HECC) mode, achieved by increased EGR and combustion phasing, significantly reduced both PM and NO/dx emissions for all fuels studied at the expense of higher hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions and an increase in fuel consumption (less than 4%). ULSD, soybean B5, and coconut B5 showed no difference in exhaust emissions. However, PM emissions increased slightly for soybean B20 and coconut B20. NO/dx emissions increased significantly for soybean B20, while those for coconut B20 were comparable to ULSD. Differences in the chemical and physical properties of soybean and coconut biodiesel fuels comparedmore » with ULSD, such as higher fuel-borne oxygen, greater viscosity, and higher boiling temperatures, play a key role in combustion processes and, therefore, exhaust emissions. Furthermore, the highly unsaturated ester composition in soybean biodiesel can be another factor in the increase of NO/dx emissions.« less

Methyl esters obtained from the most interesting Spanish oleaginous crops for energy use -sunflower and cynara cardunculus- were both used as diesel fuels in this work, pure and in 25% blends with a reference commercial fuel which was also used pure. A stationary engine test bed, together with the appropriate instrumentation for chemical and morphological analysis, allowed to evaluate the effect of these fuels on the engine emissions, particularly in the main particulate matter characteristics, such as soluble organic fraction, origin of adsorbed hydrocarbons, sulphate content, particle number per unit filter surface, and mean particle diameter. Both the consideration of the main thermochemical properties of the tested fuels and the computations of a chemical equilibrium model were helpful for the analysis of the experimental results. These results proved that the use of these vegetable esters provides a significant reduction on particulate emissions, mainly due to reduced soot and sulphate formation. On the contrary, no increases on NOx emissions nor reductions on mean particle size were found.

he use of lean or ultra-lean ratios is an efficient and proven strategy to reduce fuel consumption and pollutant emissions. However, the lower fuel concentration in the cylinder hinders the mixture ignition, requiring greater energy to start the combustion. The prechamber is an efficient method to provide high energy favoring the ignition process. It presents the potential to reduce the emission levels and the fuel consumption, operating with lean burn mixtures and expressive combustion stability. In this paper the analysis of the combustion process of SI engines equipped with an innovative architecture and operating in different injection modes was described. In particular, the effect of the prechamber ignition on the engine stability and the efficiency was investigated in stoichiometric and leanburn operation conditions. The activity was carried out in two parts. In the first part the investigation was performed in a research small direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engine, running at 2000 rpm WOT, and fueled with Methane. The combustion process was studied using optical diagnostics. Methane was injected both in the prechamber and in the main chamber through the port fuel injection (PFI) mode. The ignition was obtained with a properly designed fueled prechamber prototype. It was equipped with a gas direct injector, used to inject the fuel into the prechamber, and a spark plug used to ignite the mixture. The gaseous fuel in the main chamber was ignited by the plasma jets coming from the prechamber. The combustion of the prechamber mixture generates four plasma jets that quickly ignite the mixture into the combustion chamber, and the flame speed is much faster than the traditional ignition. The optical data were correlated with the engine performance and indicated measurements that showed an increase of the Indicated Mean Effective Pressure (IMEP) and the reduction of the Coefficient of Variation (CoV). In the second part, the optimization of the gasoline combustion by means of a passive prechamber was performed. The investigation was carried out in a commercial small SI engine at 2000 rpm, fueled with gasoline in PFI mode and equipped with the same prechamber used in the first part of the activity. But in this case the prechamber works in passive mode.

This paper reports a numerical and experimental analysis on a twin-cylinder turbocharged Spark Ignition engine carried out to investigate the cylinder-to-cylinder variability in terms of performance, combustion evolution and exhaust emissions. The engine was tested at 3000 rpm in 20 different steady-state operating conditions, selected with the purpose of observing the influence of cylinder-by-cylinder A/F ratio variations and the EGR effects on the combustion process and exhaust emissions for low to medium/high loads. The experimental outcomes showed relevant differences in the combustion evolution (characteristic combustion angles) between cylinders and not negligible variations in the emissions of the single cylinder exhaust and the overall engine one. This misalignment resulted to be due to differences in the injected fuel amount by the port injectors in the two cylinders, mainly deriving from the specific fuel rail geometry. The experimental data were then used to validate a 1D engine model, integrated with refined sub-models of turbulence, combustion, heat transfer and emissions. The model takes into account the in-cylinder production of noxious species, and their propagation in the exhaust system, up to the three-way catalytic converter. A satisfactory accuracy was reached in reproducing the overall engine performance and the combustion process in the two cylinders. In particular, the emission sub-models confirmed that the variations of the cylinder-out exhaust emissions (NOx, HC and CO) were mainly due to the non-uniform effective in-cylinder A/F ratio. The proposed numerical methodology has the potential to highlight unexpected combustion non-uniformities among different cylinders and represents a powerful support to the engine design and development. It also allows for the prediction of the overall exhaust emissions at different engine operating conditions up to the entire domain, thus assisting the engine calibration phase and reducing the experimental efforts.

In the modern GDI systems, the optimization of the fuel injection process is essential to prepare an air-fuel mixture capable to promote efficient combustion and reduce fuel consumption and pollutant emissions. A key feature for a better atomization is the fuel injection pressure. The increasing of the injection pressure is considered a good way for particle number (PN) reduction due to improved spray atomization, faster evaporation and better mixture formation. In this paper, a multi-hole GDI injector was tested to investigate the effects of very high injection pressures (IVHP), in addition to different ambient densities and temperatures, on the fuel spray morphology, in a cycle-resolved images analysis. Commercial gasoline was injected at the pressures ranging between 40.0 to 70.0 MPa, at gas densities varying between 1.12 to 11.5 kg/m3, and gas temperature up to 200°C. Sequences of liquid and vapor images of the injected fuel were captured by Mie-scattering and shadowgraph optical techniques on a high-speed C-Mos camera and the characteristic parameters of the jets, tip penetrations, cone-angles, and fuel spread were extracted for both the phases by a customized image-processing procedure developed in C#. The effects of the single parameters affecting the spray evolutions, remaining constant the residual parameters, are reported and analyzed

Phosphorus, originating from Che commonly used engine oil additive zinc dialkyldithio-phosphate (ZDP), contributed to the deteriora tion in the performance of a stoichiometric emissions control system. Data obtained from a series of 200-hour engine-dynamometer tests suggest two separate means for phosphorus-induced system deterioration: reduced CO, N0x, and HC conversion efficiencies due to catalyst poisoning; increased oxygen sensor rich-to-lean response time and altered oxygen sensor output voltage due to sensor contamination. The presence of an alkaline metal detergent in the ZDP-contalning engine oil resulted in less deterioration of converter HC efficiency, but had no effect on the other system performance parameters.

A normally aspirated, four-stroke diesel engine was tested under operation with two alcohol containing fuel blends. The fuels contained ethanol, butanol, heavy virgin distillate, diesel Nos. 2 and 4, and a cetane improver. The proportions of the components were selected to give blends with properties within the range of diesel No. 2. The final blends contained 25 and 43.7 percent alcohols. Test results showed a loss in power due to the reduced heating value of the blends, and some deterioration of performance at light loads. At intermediate to heavy loads, satisfactory performance was obtained.

Borderline oil-pumpability temperatures (BPT's) were determined for U.S. Army diesel engines by cranking experiments conducted in a cold box. The variables investigated included: four different diesel engine types; four different oil viscosity grades; and three different viscosity index improver chemical types. In general, for a given oil, the decreasing order of engine severity (i.e., highest BPT) was: the Continental LDT-465-1C and the Cummins VTA-903T were the most severe, and were approximately equivalent. The GM 6.2L engine was the next least severe with the DDC 6V-53T engine being the overall least severe. The different viscosity index improver chemistries of specially blended test oils included: olefin copolymer (OCP), styrene-isoprene polymer (SI), aNd polymethacrylate (PMA). The PMA-containing 15W-40 oils had superior low-temperature oil pumpability performance in each engine in which they were evaluated.

The engine performance and durability effects of a barium smoke suppressant additive, Lubrizol 565, and an ashless polymeric additive, Lubrizol 552, in a 25-75 blend (v/v) of alkali refined sunflower oil with diesel fuel were investigated. The study was performed on a direct injected, turbocharged, and intercooled diesel engine. These additives were tested in an attempt to reduce carbon buildup problems observed while using an untreated 25-75 blend of sunflower oil and diesel fuel. Compared to the engine tests on the untreated 25-75 mixture, the barium smoke suppressant additive proved effective in cleaning the inside of injection nozzles (no needle sticking, no carbon build-up inside the orifices), reducing diesel exhaust smoke, and increasing engine power output. However, there was increased residue accumulation in the combustion chamber and on the exterior of the injection nozzle tips. The ashless dispersant additive also improved nozzle cleanliness but did not demonstrate any effect on engine power or cause excessive carbon buildup on the nozzle tips, top of the pistons, and cylinder head. The Lubrizol 552 dispersant looks very promising as an additive for vegetable oil diesel fuel blends for controlling excessive carbon and lacquer deposits.

A study has been done to determine the effect of changes in diesel injection timing on engine performance using a multicylinder, turbocharged diesel engine fumigated with ethanol. Tests at half load with engine speeds of 2000 and 2400 rpm indicated that a 4% increase in thermal efficiency could be obtained by advancing the diesel injection timing from 18 to 29/sup 0/BTDC. The effect of changes in diesel timing was much more pronounced at 2400 rpm. Advancing the diesel timing decreased CO and unburned HC levels significantly. The increase in NO levels due to advances in diesel timing was offset by the decrease in NO due to ethanol addition.

The effect of both soluble gum and insoluble particulate gum from the ageing of automotive diesel oil (ado) has been investigated. The standard experimental procedure has been shown to be a limiting factor in the precision with which soluble gum in diesel fuels may be measured. Greater reproducibility was obtained by extending the steam jet bath heating period to two hours. Filtration characteristics were determined for both laboratory and automotive filtration media with particulate gum from naturally aged fuel and inorganic particulate matter from ac fine test dust. The filtration characteristics were shown to be dependent both on the type of filtration medium and the properties of the particulate matter (a).