Impact of alternative fuel properties on fuel spray behavior and atomization

In order to verify and solve the problem of NOx and PM emissions, it is necessary to directly observe the internal combustion chamber of a diesel engine. Many studies have been performed in recent years to verify the macroscopic and microscopic behavior of the injected fuel spray because observing it is not easy due to the difficulties of the experiment. Researchers have investigated the spray characteristics for various diesel injector nozzles over a wide range of temperatures and pressure, but there is lack of evaluation for the spray characteristics for biodiesel. At a time when rapid rise of fuel prices and depleting hydrocarbon resources of the world have forced us to look for alternative fuels biodiesel produced by transesterification of non-edible vegetable oils is promising to be an important additive/substitute to petro diesel. Biodiesel being an oxygenated and sulfur-free fuel leads to more complete combustion and lower emissions. But, the energy content or net calorific value of biodiesel is less than that of diesel fuel; also it has higher viscosity and density, than diesel fuel. A considerable improvement in these properties can be obtained by mixing diesel and biodiesel and then using the blends. Biodiesel and biodiesel/petro diesel blends, with their higher lubricity levels, are increasingly being utilized as an alternative. Present paper analyzed the correlation of injection parameters that will affect the spray characteristics of biodiesel. Observations for analyzing the effect of injection parameters on spray cone angle, break up length and fuel penetration were made. Finally the performance and emissions tests were studied. Atomization and vaporization of fuel are greatly influenced by viscosity and density of fuel and these properties are temperature dependent. Thus fuel inlet temperature plays a very important role in fuel atomization process. At higher temperature viscosity of fuel decreases which enhances the atomization of biofuels.     

Combustion performance and emission reduction characteristics of automotive DME engine system

This article is a condensed overview of a dimethyl ether (DME) fuel application for a compression ignition diesel engine. In this review article, the spray, atomization, combustion and exhaust emissions characteristics from a DME-fueled engine are described, as well as the fundamental fuel properties including the vapor pressure, kinematic viscosity, cetane number, and the bulk modulus. DME fuel exists as gas phase at atmospheric state and it must be pressurized to supply the liquid DME to fuel injection system. In addition, DME-fueled engine needs the modification of fuel supply and injection system because the low viscosity of DME caused the leakage. Different fuel properties such as low density, viscosity and higher vapor pressure compared to diesel fuel induced the shorter spray tip penetration, wider cone angle, and smaller droplet size than diesel fuel. The ignition of DME fuel in combustion chamber starts in advance compared to diesel or biodiesel fueled compression ignition engine due to higher cetane number than diesel and biodiesel fuels. In addition, DME combustion is soot-free since it has no carbon–carbon bonds, and has lower HC and CO emissions than that of diesel combustion. The NO_x emission from DME-fueled combustion can be reduced by the application of EGR (exhaust gas recirculation). This article also describes various technologies to reduce NO_x emission from DME-fueled engines, such as the multiple injection strategy and premixed combustion. Finally, the development trends of DME-fueled vehicle are described with various experimental results and discussion for fuel properties, spray atomization characteristics, combustion performance, and exhaust emissions characteristics of DME fuel.     

Performance and emissions characteristics of Jatropha oil (preheated and blends) in a direct injection compression ignition engine

The scarce and rapidly depleting conventional petroleum resources have promoted research for alternative fuels for internal combustion engines. Among various possible options, fuels derived from triglycerides (vegetable oils/animal fats) present promising “greener” substitutes for fossil fuels. Vegetable oils, due to their agricultural origin, are able to reduce net CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere along with import substitution of petroleum products. However, several operational and durability problems of using straight vegetable oils in diesel engines reported in the literature, which are because of their higher viscosity and low volatility compared to mineral diesel fuel.In the present research, experiments were designed to study the effect of reducing Jatropha oil’s viscosity by increasing the fuel temperature (using waste heat of the exhaust gases) and thereby eliminating its effect on combustion and emission characteristics of the engine. Experiments were also conducted using various blends of Jatropha oil with mineral diesel to study the effect of reduced blend viscosity on emissions and performance of diesel engine. A single cylinder, four stroke, constant speed, water cooled, direct injection diesel engine typically used in agricultural sector was used for the experiments. The acquired data were analyzed for various parameters such as thermal efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), smoke opacity, CO₂, CO and HC emissions. While operating the engine on Jatropha oil (preheated and blends), performance and emission parameters were found to be very close to mineral diesel for lower blend concentrations. However, for higher blend concentrations, performance and emissions were observed to be marginally inferior.     

Progress in biodiesel processing

Biodiesel is a notable alternative to the widely used petroleum-derived diesel fuel since it can be generated by domestic natural sources such as soybeans, rapeseeds, coconuts, and even recycled cooking oil, and thus reduces dependence on diminishing petroleum fuel from foreign sources. The injection and atomization characteristics of the vegetable oils are significantly different than those of petroleum-derived diesel fuels, mainly as the result of their high viscosities. Modern diesel engines have fuel-injection system that is sensitive to viscosity change. One way to avoid these problems is to reduce fuel viscosity of vegetable oil in order to improve its performance. The conversion of vegetable oils into biodiesel is an effective way to overcome all the problems associated with the vegetable oils. Dilution, micro-emulsification, pyrolysis, and transesterification are the four techniques applied to solve the problems encountered with the high fuel viscosity. Transesterification is the most common method and leads to monoalkyl esters of vegetable oils and fats, now called biodiesel when used for fuel purposes. The methyl ester produced by transesterification of vegetable oil has a high cetane number, low viscosity and improved heating value compared to those of pure vegetable oil which results in shorter ignition delay and longer combustion duration and hence low particulate emissions.     

The effect of elevated fuel inlet temperature on performance of diesel engine running on neat vegetable oil at constant speed conditions

The concept that engine design is all important in the use of vegetable oils as a diesel fuel has been pointed out by many researchers. One hundred percent of vegetable oil can be used safely in an indirect injection engine, but not in a direct injection engine due to the high degree of atomization required for this type. This problem is related to increasing droplet size on injection into the cylinder that results in poor combustion. This in turn, causes the formation of deposits in the combustion chamber, together with oil dilution due to introduction of unburnt fuel into the crankcase. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of increasing fuel inlet temperature on viscosity and performance of a single cylinder, unmodified diesel engine. The overall results showed that fuel heating increased peak cylinder pressure and was also beneficial at low speed and under part-load operation. The high combustion temperature at high engine speed becomes the dominant factor, making both heated and unheated fuel to acquire the same temperature before fuel injection.     

An experimental investigation of fuel-injection-pressure and engine-speed effects on the performance and emission characteristics of a divided-chamber diesel engine

An experimental study is conducted to investigate the fuel-injection-pressure and engine-speed effects on the performance and exhaust emissions of a naturally aspirated four-stroke indirect-injection (IDI) diesel engine with a swirl combustion chamber. The influence of the injection pressure and the engine rotational speed on fuel consumption, exhaust-gas temperature, exhaust smokiness and exhaust-gas emissions (nitrogen oxides and unburned hydrocarbons) is examined, following a detailed experimental investigation. Empirical easy-to-use correlations are produced, expressing the variation of the various parameters with injection pressure, by applying a regression analysis on the curves fitting the relevant experimental data. Theoretical aspects of diesel fuel spray progress (atomization, evaporation and mixing), combustion and emissions formation are used for the interpretation of the observed engine behaviour.     

Bio-diesel as an alternative fuel for diesel engines—A review

The present review aims to study the prospects and opportunities of introducing vegetable oils and their derivatives as fuel in diesel engines. In our country the ratio of diesel to gasoline fuel is 7:1, depicting a highly skewed situation. Thus, it is necessary to replace fossil diesel fuel by alternative fuels. Vegetable oils present a very promising scenario of functioning as alternative fuels to fossil diesel fuel. The properties of these oils can be compared favorably with the characteristics required for internal combustion engine fuels. Fuel-related properties are reviewed and compared with those of conventional diesel fuel. Peak pressure development, heat release rate analysis, and vibration analysis of the engine are discussed in relation with the use of bio-diesel and conventional diesel fuel. Optimization of alkali-catalyzed transesterification of Pungamia pinnata oil for the production of bio-diesel is discussed. Use of bio-diesel in a conventional diesel engine results in substantial reduction in unburned hydrocarbon (UBHC), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matters (PM) emission and oxide of nitrogen. The suitability of injection timing for diesel engine operation with vegetable oils and its blends, environmental considerations are discussed. Teardown analysis of bio-diesel B20-operated vehicle are also discussed.     

Spray characteristics and controlling mechanism of fuel containing CO2

This paper presents studies of spray characteristics and controlling mechanism of fuel containing CO₂. Using diesel fuel containing CO₂ gas, experiments were conducted on diesel hole-type nozzles and simple nozzles. The steady spray and transient spray characteristics were observed and measured by instantaneous shadowgraphy, high-speed photography, phase Doppler anemometry (PDA) and LDSA respectively. The effects of CO₂ concentration in the fuel, the injection pressure, the nozzle L/D ratio, surrounding gas pressure and temperature on the atomization behavior and spray pattern were evaluated. The results show that the injection of fuel containing CO₂ can greatly improve the atomization and produce a parabolic-shaped spray; and the CO₂ gas concentration, surrounding gas pressure, temperature and nozzle configuration have dominant influences on spray characteristics of the fuel containing CO₂. New insight into the controlling mechanism of atomization of the fuel containing CO₂ was provided.     

Biodiesel and renewable diesel: A comparison

The search for alternatives to petroleum-based fuels has led to the development of fuels from various sources, including renewable feedstocks such as fats and oils. Several types of fuels can be derived from these triacylglycerol-containing feedstocks. One of them is biodiesel, which is defined as the mono-alkyl esters of vegetable oils or animal fats. Biodiesel is produced by transesterifying the oil or fat with an alcohol such as methanol under mild conditions in the presence of a base catalyst. Another kind of product that can be obtained from lipid feedstocks is a fuel whose composition simulates that of petroleum-derived diesel fuel. This kind of fuel, probably best termed “renewable diesel”, is produced from the fat or oil by a hydrodeoxygenation reaction at elevated temperature and pressure in the presence of a catalyst. This article discusses in a general and comparative fashion aspects such as fuel production and energy balance, fuel properties, environmental effects including exhaust emissions and co-products. Among the questions that are addressed are if these fuels compete with or complement each other and what the effect of production scale may be.     

溶气对不同燃油喷雾特性的影响

对溶有甲烷(CH4)的煤油和柴油稳态喷雾特性进行了试验研究,并对两者的试验结果进行了对比分析。结果表明,溶气对燃油的雾化有正反两方面的影响,它与CH4的浓度、喷嘴的L/D值、燃油的性质有关;柴油和煤油试验结果的规律相似,但促进雾化的临界浓度值不同;由于溶气的膨胀作用,在喷嘴出口处形成均匀的喷雾,喷雾锥角急剧增大;CH4的浓度较大时,燃油雾化粒子分布规律向小粒径方向移动,浓度较小时,向大粒径方向移动;低粘度的燃油有助于增强溶气对燃油雾化的促进作用。     

Nozzle flow and atomization characteristics of ethanol blended biodiesel fuel

This study was conducted to investigate the injection and atomization characteristics of biodiesel–ethanol blended fuel. The injection performance of biodiesel–ethanol blended fuel was analyzed from the injection rate characteristics using the injection rate measuring system, and the effective injection velocity and effective spray diameter using the nozzle flow model. Moreover, the atomization characteristics, such as local and overall SMD distributions, overall axial velocity and droplet arrival time were analyzed and compared with these from diesel and biodiesel fuels to obtain the atomization characteristics of biodiesel–ethanol blended fuel.It was revealed that ethanol fuel affects the decrease of the peak injection rate and the shortening of the injection delay due to the decrease of fuel properties, such as fuel density and dynamic viscosity. In addition, the ethanol addition improved the atomization performance of biodiesel fuel, because the ethanol blended fuel has a low kinematic viscosity and surface tension, then that has more active interaction with the ambient gas, compared to BD100.     

进气中氮气的体积分数对柴油机着火与燃烧影响的研究

在一台可以拍摄缸内混合气形成和燃烧过程的发动机上，用高速摄像机研究了在进气加入不同体积分数的N2后柴油机的油束发展，混合气形成，着火以及燃烧过程，同时还采用了三基色法对高速摄像机拍摄出的燃烧火焰的照片进行了温度场分布的计算分析，拍摄的图像和计算结果表明，加入N2后，对燃油束的喷雾及混合气体形成过程没有影响，对着火滞燃期的影响也不大，但对火焰的燃烧最高温度和燃烧室的平均温度影响很大，N2的加入量越大，燃烧温度下降越多，燃烧过程的结束也就越早。     

喷射时刻对柴油和汽油/柴油混合燃料低温燃烧的影响

使用纯柴油和一种汽油/柴油混合燃料在一台单缸柴油机上进行低温燃烧试验.通过调节燃油喷射时刻,研究了不同燃料的燃烧与排放性能.结果表明,这两种燃料的低温燃烧具有两阶段放热.在固定燃油喷射时刻的情况下,两种燃料具有类似的低温放热开始时刻,然而汽油/柴油混合燃料的高温放热开始时刻要迟于纯柴油燃料.主燃烧阶段的各个燃烧相位是线...     

Study the influence of pre-heating on atomization of straight vegetable oil through Ohnesorge number and Sauter mean diameter

Vegetable oil has been considered as one of the most promising alternative fuels for compression ignition engine in recent years. However, the atomization of vegetable oil seems to be different than that of diesel fuel because of having different properties. Atomization and vaporization of fuel are greatly influenced by physical properties of fuel and these properties are temperature dependent. Thus, impact of pre-heating on atomization of straight vegetable oil (SVO) needs to be examined. In the fluid mechanics literature, Ohnesorge jet disintegration classification is most commonly accepted to describe the atomization quality of water jet break-up. A water jet having higher Reynolds number in the atomization regime was considered to atomize quickly after discharge from downstream the nozzle as per this classification. This concept of Ohnesorge classification was used in the present work to study the atomization of SVO. The atomization quality of fuel is judged by the droplet diameter of fuel because it plays a vital role in a primary spray break up and formation process. The main objective of this study was to study the influence of pre-heating on atomization quality of non-edible karanj oil (Pongamia Pinnata) through Ohnesorge number and Sauter mean diameter (SMD). The focus was on atomization quality rather than atomization characteristics of fuel. In this study, effort was made to study atomization quality of SVO in a simplest, easiest and cost effective way by measuring only physical properties of fuel and fuel flow rate. The dimensionless Ohnesorge number and correlation given by Elkotb for SMD were used to predict the atomization quality of SVO with rise in temperature. The study showed that SMD of karanj oil decreases with increase in temperature which in turn improves the air-fuel mixing rate and thus atomization. The Ohnesorge classification showed improvement in atomization of karanj oil while moving from regime I to IV with pre-heating. It is concluded that smaller SMD and higher Reynolds number of karanj oil at 90 °C in regime IV leading to better atomization as compared to karanj oil at room temperature.     

燃料设计改善发动机燃烧和排放的研究(1)--燃料参数设计与喷雾特性研究

研究了通过含氧燃料与柴油相互掺混来改变燃料的成分与输运参数、改善燃料的喷雾特性，从而降低了柴油机的排放。选择了几种典型的含氧燃料一乙醇、碳酸二甲脂(DMC)、甲缩醛(DMM)，测量和分析了它们以不同比例与柴油互溶后燃料的输运参数变化。为了考察混合燃料的喷雾特性，以不同比例的DMM柴油混合燃料为例，运用激光相位多谱勒(PDA)技术测量它们的索特平均直径(SMD)，并与柴油进行了比较。研究结果表明：通过含氧燃料与柴油的互溶互混，重新设计了燃料的输运参数和成分后，显著改善了燃料的喷射雾化特性。     

进气氮气含量对柴油机混合气形成与燃烧过程的影响

在一台可以拍摄气缸内混合气形成和燃烧过程的发动机上，用高速摄像机研究了进气中加入不同浓度的氮气（N2）后柴油机的油束发展，混合气形成，着火以及燃烧过程， 同时还采用三基色法对高速摄像机拍摄的燃烧火焰的照片进行了温度场分布的计算分析。拍摄的图像和计算结果表明，加入了不同比例的N2，对燃油束的雾化及混合气的形成过程没有影响，对滞燃期的影响也不大，但对火焰的燃烧最高温度和燃烧室的平均温度降低影响很大。N2的加入量越大，燃烧温度下降越多，燃烧过程结束的也就越早。     

Experimental investigations of a four-stroke single cylinder direct injection diesel engine operated on dual fuel mode with producer gas as inducted fuel and Honge oil and its methyl ester (HOME) as injected fuels

In order to meet the energy requirements, there has been growing interest in alternative fuels like biodiesels, methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, biogas, hydrogen and producer gas to provide a suitable diesel oil substitute for internal combustion engines. Vegetable oils present a very promising alternative to diesel oil since they are renewable and have similar properties. Vegetable oils offer almost the same power output with slightly lower thermal efficiency when used in diesel engine [Srivastava A, Prasad R. Triglycerides-based diesel fuels. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2000;4:111–33. [1]; Vellguth G. Performance of vegetable oils and their monoesters as fuels for diesel engines. SAE 831358, 1983. [2]; Demirbas A. Biodiesel production from vegetable oils via catalytic and non-catalytic supercritical methanol transesterification methods. Int J Prog Energy Combust Sci 2005;31:466–87. [3]; Jajoo BN, Keoti RS. Evaluation of vegetable oils as supplementary fuels for diesel engines. In: Proceedings of the XV national conference on IC engines and combustion, Anna University Chennai, 1997. [4]; Altin R, Cetinkaya S, Yucesu HS. The potential of using vegetable oil fuels as fuel for diesel engines. Int J Energy Convers Manage 2000;42:529–38, 248. [5]; Gajendra Babu MK, Chandan Kumar Das LM. Experimental investigations on a Karanja oil methyl ester fuelled DI diesel engine. SAE 2006-01-0238, 2006. [6]; Agarwal D, Kumar Agarwal A. Performance and emission characteristics of a Jatropha oil (preheated and blends) in a direct injection compression ignition engine. Int J Appl Therm Eng 2007;27:2314–23. [7]]. Research in this direction with edible oils have yielded encouraging results, but their use as fuel for diesel engine has limited applications due to higher domestic requirement [Scholl Kyle W, Sorenson Spencer C. Combustion Analysis of soyabean oil methyl ester in a direct injection diesel engine. SAE 930934, 1993. [8]; Nwafor OMI. Effect of advanced injection timing on the performance of rapeseed oil in diesel engines. Int J Renew Energy 2000;21:433–44. [9]; Nwafor OMI. The effect of elevated fuel inlet temperature on performance of diesel engine running on neat vegetable oil at constant speed conditions. Renew Energy 2003;28:171–81. [10]]. In view of this, Honge oil (Pongamia Pinnata Linn) being non-edible oil could be regarded as an alternative fuel for CI engine applications. The viscosity of Honge oil is reduced by transesterification process to obtain Honge oil methyl ester (HOME).Gasification is a process in which solid biomass is converted into a mixture of combustible gases, which complete their combustion in an IC engine. Hence, producer gas can act as a promising alternative fuel, especially for diesel engines by substituting considerable amount of diesel fuels. Downdraft moving bed gasifiers coupled with IC engine are a good choice for moderate quantities of available biomass, up to 500 kW of electric power. Hence, bioderived gas and vegetable liquids appear more attractive in view of their friendly environmental nature. Since vegetable oils produce higher smoke emissions, dual fuel operation could be adopted for improving their performance.     

闪急沸腾喷雾速度场的LDA研究

为探索代用燃料液化石油气LPG和二甲醚DME的喷雾机理,采用LDA技术测量了喷雾粒子的速度分布。为安全起见,用制冷剂R12作试验液体,它与LPG和DME有相似的物理特性。为做比较,在相同试验条件下对传统柴油喷雾进行了测量。考察了喷雾模式对速度分布的影响。结果表明,R12喷雾的速度分布比传统柴油喷雾均匀得多,前者的平均径向速度远大于后者。这被认为归因于闪急沸腾大大改善了雾化和液气混合。     

非直喷式增压柴油机燃用生物柴油的性能与排放特性

研究了非直喷式增压柴油机燃用柴油一生物柴油混合燃料的性能和排放特性。未对原机作任何调整和改动，研究了不同生物柴油掺混比例的混合燃料对功率、油耗、烟度和NOx排放的影响。结果表明：非直喷式柴油机燃用生物柴油后柴油机功率略有下降，油耗有所上升，烟度大幅下降，NOx排放增加明显。油耗、烟度和NOx的变化均与生物柴油掺混比例呈线性关系，合适的生物柴油掺混比例即可以保持柴油机的性能，又可有效地降低碳烟排放，且不引起NOx排放的显著变化。对于该增压柴油机，掺混生物柴油对外特性下的排放影响最大，影响最小的为标定转速下的负荷特性。不论是全负荷还是部分负荷，燃用生物柴油时低速下的烟度降低和NOx上升幅度均比高速时大，而同转速下高负荷时烟度降低和NOx上升更为明显。     

Numerical study on flash‐boiling spray of multicomponent fuel

Flash‐boiling occurs when a fuel is injected into a combustion chamber where the ambient pressure is lower than the saturation pressure of the fuel. It has been known that flashing is a favorable mechanism for atomizing liquid fuels. On the other hand, alternative fuels, such as gaseous fuels and oxygenated fuels, are used to achieve low exhaust emissions in recent years. In general, most of these alternative fuels have high volatility and flash‐boiling takes place easily in the fuel spray when injected into the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine under high pressure. In addition the multicomponent mixture of high‐ and low‐volatility fuels has been proposed in the previous study in order to control the spray and combustion processes in an internal combustion engine. It was found that the multicomponent fuel produces flash‐boiling with an increase in the initial fuel temperature. Therefore, it is important to investigate these flash‐boiling processes in fuel spray. In the present study, the submodels of a flash‐boiling spray are constructed. These submodels consider the bubble nucleation, growth, and disruption in the nozzle orifice and injected fuel droplets. The model is implemented in KIVA3V and the spray characteristics of multicomponent fuel with and without flashing are numerically investigated. In addition, these numerical results are compared with experimental data obtained in the previous study using a constant volume vessel. The flashing spray characteristics from numerical simulation qualitatively show good agreement with the experimental results. In particular, it is confirmed from both the numerical and experimental data that flash‐boiling effectively accelerates the atomization and vaporization of fuel droplets. This means that a lean homogeneous mixture can be quickly formed using flash‐boiling in the combustion chamber. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 35(5): 369–385, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20117