An experimental investigation on engine performance and emissions of a supercharged H2-diesel dual-fuel engine

This study investigated the engine performance and emissions of a supercharged engine fueled by hydrogen and ignited by a pilot amount of diesel fuel in dual-fuel mode. The engine was tested for use as a cogeneration engine, so power output while maintaining a reasonable thermal efficiency was important. Experiments were carried out at a constant pilot injection pressure and pilot quantity for different fuel-air equivalence ratios and at various injection timings without and with charge dilution. The experimental strategy was to optimize the injection timing to maximize engine power at different fuel-air equivalence ratios without knocking and within the limit of the maximum cylinder pressure. The engine was tested first with hydrogen-operation condition up to the maximum possible fuel-air equivalence ratio of 0.3. A maximum IMEP of 908 kPa and a thermal efficiency of about 42% were obtained. Equivalence ratio could not be further increased due to knocking of the engine. The emission of CO was only about 5 ppm, and that of HC was about 15 ppm. However, the NOx emissions were high, 100–200 ppm or more. The charge dilution by N₂ was then performed to obtain lower NOx emissions. The 100% reduction of NOx was achieved. Due to the dilution by N₂ gas, higher amount of energy could be supplied from hydrogen without knocking, and about 13% higher IMEP was produced than without charge dilution.     

Comparison of performance and emissions of a supercharged dual-fuel engine fueled by hydrogen and hydrogen-containing gaseous fuels

This study investigated the engine performance and emissions of a supercharged engine fueled by hydrogen (H₂), and three other hydrogen-containing gaseous fuels such as primary fuels, and diesel as pilot fuel in dual-fuel mode. The energy share of primary fuels was about 90% or more, and the rest of the energy was supplied by diesel fuel. The hydrogen-containing fuels tested in this study were 13.7% H₂-content producer gas, 20% H₂-content producer gas and 56.8% H₂-content coke oven gas (COG). Experiments were carried out at a constant pilot injection pressure and pilot quantity for different fuel-air equivalence ratios and at various injection timings. The experimental strategy was to optimize the pilot injection timing to maximize engine power at different fuel-air equivalence ratios without knocking and within the limit of the maximum cylinder pressure. Better thermal efficiency was obtained with the increase in H₂ content in the fuels, and neat H₂ as a primary fuel produced the highest thermal efficiency. The fuel-air equivalence ratio was decreased with the increase in H₂ content in the fuels to avoid knocking. Thus, neat H₂-operation produced less maximum power than other fuels, because of much leaner operations. Two-stage combustion was obtained; this is an indicator of maximum power output conditions and a precursor of knocking combustion. The emissions of CO and HC with neat H₂-operation were 98-99.9% and NOx about 85-90% less than other fuels.     

Performance and emission comparison of a supercharged dual-fuel engine fueled by producer gases with varying hydrogen content

This study investigated the effect of hydrogen content in producer gas on the performance and exhaust emissions of a supercharged producer gas–diesel dual-fuel engine. Two types of producer gases were used in this study, one with low hydrogen content (H₂ = 13.7%) and the other with high hydrogen content (H₂ = 20%). The engine was tested for use as a co-generation engine, so power output while maintaining a reasonable thermal efficiency was important. Experiments were carried out at a constant injection pressure and injection quantity for different fuel–air equivalence ratios and at various injection timings. The experimental strategy was to optimize the injection timing to maximize engine power at different fuel–air equivalence ratios without knocking and within the limit of the maximum cylinder pressure. Two-stage combustion was obtained; this is an indicator of maximum power output conditions and a precursor of knocking combustion. Better combustion, engine performance, and exhaust emissions (except NO_x) were obtained with the high H₂-content producer gas than with the low H₂-content producer gas, especially under leaner conditions. Moreover, a broader window of fuel–air equivalence ratio was found with highest thermal efficiencies for the high H₂-content producer gas.     

Availability analysis of a coke oven gas fueled spark ignition engine

The current work investigates a coke oven gas fueled spark ignition (SI) engine from the perspective of the first and second laws in order to understand the energy conversion performance of fuels and achieve highly efficient utilization. A detailed energy and exergy analysis is applied to a quasi-dimensional two-zone spark ignition engine model which combines turbulence flame propagation speed model at 1500 rpm by changing gas fuel types, compression ratio, load and ignition timing. It was found that the irreversibility of methane is the maximum and that of syngas is the minimum among the three different fuels. The irreversibility in the combustion process of a coke oven gas fueled SI engine is reduced when the compression ratio or the throttle valve opening angle is increased and the ignition timing is delayed. Increasing the compression ratio and delaying the ignition timing can improve the first and second law efficiency and reduce the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC). The power performance and fuel economy are good and the energy is also used effectively when the compression ratio is 11, the throttle angle is 90% and the ignition time is ?10° CA ATDC respectively.     

Comparative performance of coke oven gas,hydrogen and methane in a spark ignition engine

In this study, coke oven gas (COG), a by-product of coke manufacture with a high volumetric percentage of H₂ and CH₄, has been identified as auxiliary support and promising energy source in stationary internal combustion engines. Engine performance (power and thermal efficiency) and emissions (NO_x, CO, CO₂ and unburned hydrocarbons) of COG, pure H₂ and pure CH₄ have been studied on a Volkswagen Polo 1.4 L port-fuel injection spark ignition engine. Experiments have been done at optimal spark advance and wide open throttle, at different speeds (2000–5000 rpm) and various air-fuel ratios (λ) between 1 and 2. The obtained data revealed that COG combines the advantages of pure H₂ and pure CH₄, widening the λ range of operation from 1 to 2, with very good performance and emissions results comparable to pure gases. Furthermore, it should be highlighted that this approach facilitates the recovery of an industrial waste gas.     

Combustion and emission characteristics of a hydrogen-diesel dual-fuel engine

Hydrogen generated from renewable sources is an eco-friendly fuel that can be used in automotive industry or for energy generation purposes. Hydrogen is a high-energy content gas and its carbonless chemical structure can provide significant benefits of high thermal efficiency and near zero or very low carbon emissions when combusted with other fuels.In this study, the implementation of hydrogen fuel was tested at low and medium operating loads in a heavy-duty hydrogen-diesel dual-fuel engine. The paper provides a detailed experimental analysis of the effects of hydrogen energy share ratio and various combustion strategies such as exhaust gas recirculation, diesel injection pressure and diesel injection patterns.At low load conditions, engine operation with an H₂ energy share ratio of up to 98% was achieved without any engine operation implications. This condition provided a simultaneous reduction of carbon and NOx emission of over 90% while soot emissions were dropped by 85% compared to the conventional diesel-only operation. At medium load, the increased NOx emission due to the high energy content of hydrogen fuel was found to be the primary challenge.     

Technology-environment-economy assessment of high-quality utilization routes for coke oven gas

Coke oven gas (COG) is an important energy resource that rich in hydrogen and methane, which is conventionally used for industrial heating but is embarking on high-quality utilization routes to produce bulk energy and materials. Previous work emphasized the comparison of COG utilization with external competitors but has limited understanding of the internal competitiveness of different COG utilization routes, making it impossible to scientifically guide the high-quality utilization of COG. This study proposed a technology-environment-economy assessment framework to compare the competitiveness of six high-quality COG utilization routes called COG to electricity (COGTE), COG to methanol (COGTM), COG to hydrogen (COGTH), COG to synthetic natural gas (COGTSNG), COG to synthetic ammonia (COGTSA), and COG to olefins (COGTO). The framework employed the life cycle assessment method based on an economic functional unit to calculated individual indicators and used the entropy weight method to integrate these indicators to a comprehensive score. The results show that energy consumption, water consumption, and carbon emission are critical defects of COGTSNG, COGTM, and COGTE, respectively. Net present value rate, internal rate of return, and dynamic payback period are common but differentiated disadvantages of the five COG utilization routes other than COGTO with the current market price, which are the main factors of their weaker comprehensive competitiveness. COGTO is expected to be the most promising high-quality COG utilization route thanks to its excellent competitiveness, handsome market demand, and special policy preferences. In addition to COGTM, any of the other five COG utilization routes are likely to be most competitive when raw material and product prices fluctuate by 25%, which suggests that the investment should be tailored to local specific prices, demand, and policies.     

Experimental study of engine performance and emissions for hydrogen diesel dual fuel engine with exhaust gas recirculation

With an alarming enlargement in vehicular density, there is a threat to the environment due to toxic emissions and depleting fossil fuel reserves across the globe. This has led to the perpetual exploration of clean energy resources to establish sustainable transportation. Researchers are continuously looking for the fuels with clean emission without compromising much on vehicular performance characteristics which has already been set by efficient diesel engines. Hydrogen seems to be a promising alternative fuel for its clean combustion, recyclability and enhanced engine performance. However, problems like high NOx emissions is seen as an exclusive threat to hydrogen fuelled engines. Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), on the other hand, is known to overcome the aforementioned problem. Therefore, this study is conducted to study the combined effect of hydrogen addition and EGR on the dual fuelled compression ignition engine on a single cylinder diesel engine modified to incorporate manifold hydrogen injection and controlled EGR. The experiments are conducted for 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% loads with the hydrogen energy share (HES) of 0%, 10% and 30%. The EGR rate is controlled between 0%, 5% and 10%. With no substantial decrement in engine's brake thermal efficiency, high gains in terms of emissions are observed due to synergy between hydrogen addition and EGR. The cumulative reduction of 38.4%, 27.4%, 33.4%, 32.3% and 20% with 30% HES and 10% EGR is observed for NOx, CO2, CO, THC and PM, respectively. Hence, the combination of hydrogen addition and EGR is observed to be advantageous for overall emission reduction.     

Performance and combustion characteristic of CI engine fueled with hydrogen enriched diesel

The combustion of hydrogen–diesel blend fuel was investigated under simulated direct injection (DI) diesel engine conditions. The investigation presented in this paper concerns numerical analysis of neat diesel combustion mode and hydrogen enriched diesel combustion in a compression ignition (CI) engine. The parameters varied in this simulation included: H₂/diesel blend fuel ratio, engine speed, and air/fuel ratio. The study on the simultaneous combustion of hydrogen and diesel fuel was conducted with various hydrogen doses in the range from 0.05% to 50% (by volume) for different engine speed from 1000 – 4000 rpm and air/fuel ratios (A/F) varies from 10 – 80. The results show that, applying hydrogen as an extra fuel, which can be added to diesel fuel in the (CI) engine results in improved engine performance and reduce emissions compared to the case of neat diesel operation because this measure approaches the combustion process to constant volume. Moreover, small amounts of hydrogen when added to a diesel engine shorten the diesel ignition lag and, in this way, decrease the rate of pressure rise which provides better conditions for soft run of the engine. Comparative results are given for various hydrogen/diesel ratio, engine speeds and loads for conventional Diesel and dual fuel operation, revealing the effect of dual fuel combustion on engine performance and exhaust emissions.     

Hydrogen production via steam reforming of coke oven gas enhanced by steel slag-derived CaO

Steel slag, a waste from steelmaking plant, has been proven to be good candidate resources for low-cost calcium-based CO₂ sorbent derivation. In this work, a cheap and sintering-resistance CaO-based sorbent (CaO (SS)) was prepared from low cost waste steel slag and was applied to enhance catalytic steam reforming of coke oven gas for production of high-purity hydrogen. This steel slag-derived CaO possessed a high and stable CO₂ capture capacity of about 0.48 g CO₂/g sorbent after 35 adsorption/desorption cycles, which was mainly ascribed to the mesoporous structure and the presence of MgO and Fe₂O₃. Product gas containing 95.8 vol% H₂ and 1.4 vol% CO, with a CH₄ conversion of 91.3% was achieved at 600 °C by steam reforming of COG enhanced by CaO (SS). Although high temperature was beneficial for methane conversion, CH₄ conversion was remarkably increased at lower operation temperatures with the promotion effects from CaO (SS), and CO selectivity has been also greatly decreased. Reducing WHSV could increase methane conversion and reduce CO selectivity due to longer reactants residence time. Reducing C/A could increase methane conversion and hydrogen recovery factor, and also decrease CO selectivity. When being mixed with catalyst during SE-SRCOG, CaO (SS) with a uniform size distribution favored methane conversion due to the high utilization efficiency of catalyst. Promising stability of CaO (SS) in cyclic reforming/calcination tests was evidenced with a hydrogen recovery factor >2.1 and CH₄ conversion of 82.5% at 600 °C after 10 cycles using CaO (SS) as sorbent.     

Potential energy and greenhouse gas emission effects of hydrogen production from coke oven gas in U.S. steel mills

For this study, we examined the energy and emission effects of hydrogen production from coke oven gas (COG) on a well-to-wheels basis and compared these effects with those of other hydrogen production options, as well as with those of conventional gasoline and diesel options. We then estimated the magnitude of hydrogen production from COG in the United States and the number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) that could potentially be fueled with the hydrogen produced from COG. Our analysis shows that this production pathway can achieve energy and greenhouse gas emission reduction benefits. This pathway is especially worth considering because first, the sources of COG are concentrated in the upper Midwest and in the Northeast United States, which would facilitate relatively cost-effective collection, transportation, and distribution of the produced hydrogen to refueling stations in these regions. Second, the amount of hydrogen that could be produced may fuel about 1.7 million cars, thus providing a vital near-term hydrogen production option for FCV applications.     

Influence of operating parameters on performance and emissions for a compression-ignition engine fueled by hydrogen/diesel mixtures

Hydrocarbon exhaust emissions are mainly recognized as a consequent of carbon-based fuel combustion in compression ignition (CI) engines. Alternative fuels can be coupled with hydrocarbon fuels to control the pollutant emissions and improve the engine performance. In this study, different parameters that influence the engine performance and emissions are illustrated with more details. This numerical work was carried out on a dual-fuel CI engine to study its performance and emission characteristics at different hydrogen energy ratios. The simulation model was run with diesel as injected fuel and hydrogen, along with air, as inducted fuel. Three-dimensional CFD software for numerical simulations was implemented to simulate the direct-injection CI engine. A reduced-reaction mechanism for n-heptane was considered in this work instead of diesel. The Hiroyasu-Nagel model was presented to examine the rate of soot formation inside the cylinder. This work investigates the effect of hydrogen variation on output efficiency, ignition delay, and emissions. More hydrogen present inside the engine cylinder led to lower soot emissions, higher thermal efficiency, and higher NO_x emissions. Ignition timing delayed as the hydrogen rate increased, due to a delay in OH radical formation. Strategies such as an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) method and diesel injection timing were considered as well, due to their potential effects on the engine outputs. The relationship among the engine outputs and the operation conditions were also considered.     

Influence of injection timing on the exhaust emissions of a dual-fuel CI engine

Environmental concerns and limited amount of petroleum fuels have caused interests in the development of alternative fuels for internal combustion (IC) engines. As an alternative, biodegradable, and renewable fuel, ethanol is receiving increasing attention. Therefore, in this study, influence of injection timing on the exhaust emission of a single cylinder, four stroke, direct injection, naturally aspirated diesel engine has been experimentally investigated using ethanol blended diesel fuel from 0% to 15% with an increment of 5%. The engine has an original injection timing 27° CA BTDC. The tests were performed at five different injection timings (21°, 24°, 27°, 30°, and 33° CA BTDC) by changing the thickness of advance shim. The experimental test results showed that NO_x and CO₂ emissions increased as CO and HC emissions decreased with increasing amount of ethanol in the fuel mixture. When compared to the results of original injection timing, at the retarded injection timings (21° and 24° CA BTDC), NO_x and CO₂ emissions increased, and unburned HC and CO emissions decreased for all test conditions. On the other hand, with the advanced injection timings (30° and 33° CA BTDC), HC and CO emissions diminished, and NO_x and CO₂ emissions boosted for all test conditions.     

焦炉煤气的余热利用

通过对焦炉煤气初冷过程的理论分析，指出焦化厂现行的单靠循环氨水喷洒集气管加初冷器的冷却过程中，能量利用的不合理，着重介绍了一项值得推广的煤气初冷余热利用系统。     

Effect on performance and emissions of a dual fuel diesel engine using hydrogen and producer gas as secondary fuels

Energy is an essential prerequisite for economical and social growth of any country. Skyrocketing of petroleum fuel cost s in present day has led to growing interest in alternative fuels like CNG, LPG, Producer gas, Biogas in order to provide suitable substitute to diesel for a compression ignition engine. This paper discusses some experimental investigations on dual fuel operation of a 4 cylinder (turbocharged and intercooled) 62.5 kW gen-set diesel engine with hydrogen, producer gas (PG) and mixture of producer gas and hydrogen as secondary fuels. Results on brake thermal efficiency and emissions, namely, un-burnt hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), and NO_x are presented here. The paper also contains vital information relating to the performances of an engine at a wide range of load conditions with different gaseous fuel substitutions. When only hydrogen is used as secondary fuel, maximum increase in the brake thermal efficiency is 7% which is obtained with 20% of secondary fuel. When only producer gas is used as secondary fuel, maximum decrease in the brake thermal efficiency of 8% is obtained with 30% of secondary fuel. Compared to the neat diesel operation, proportion of un-burnt HC and CO increases, while, emission of NO_x reduces in all Cases. On the other hand, when 40% of mixture of producer gas and hydrogen is used (in the ratio (60:40) as secondary fuel, brake thermal efficiency reduces marginally by 3%. Further, shortcoming of low efficiency at lower load condition in a dual fuel operation is removed when a mixture of hydrogen and producer gas is used as the secondary fuel at higher than 13% load condition. Based on the performance studied, a mixture of producer gas and hydrogen in the proportion of 60:40 may be used as a supplementary fuel for diesel conservation.     

Optimization of syngas production by non-catalytic partial oxidation of coke oven gas

Optimization of syngas production by non-catalytic partial oxidation of coke oven gas was carried out on a self-designed reactor. Tests were carried out to study the effects of volute and partial oxidation burners on the body the distribution of temperature and conversion. It was found that the partial oxidation burner can show desirable temperature distribution compared with the volute burner, under pure oxygen condition. As a result, it can improve the methane conversion and low oxygen consumption. Methane content in product gas can be reduced from 17 to 1%. The optimum operation conditions were: oxygen flow 9 m³/h, oxygen-coke oven gas 0.24–0.26, upper temperature of rector 1200–1250°C, and outlet temperature 960–1000°C.     

Utilizing coke oven gases as a fuel for a cogeneration system based on high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell; energy,exergy and economic assessment

Based on a high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC), a cogeneration system is proposed to produce heat and power. The system includes a coke oven gas steam reformer, a water gas shift reactor, and an afterburner. The system is analyzed in detail considering the energy, exergy and economic viewpoints. The analyses reveal the importance of HT-PEMFC in the system and according to the results, 9.03 kW power is generated with energy and exergy efficiencies of 88.2% and 26.2%, respectively and the total product unit cost is calculated as 91.8 $/GJ. Through a parametric study the effects on system performance are studied of such variables as the current density, fuel cell and reformer operating temperatures, and cathode stoichiometric ratio. It is found that an increase in the fuel cell temperature and/or a decrease in the reformer temperature enhance the exergy efficiency. The exergy efficiency is also maximized at the cathode stoichiometric ratio of 2.4. By performing a two-objective optimization using genetic algorithm, the best operating point is determined at which the exergy efficiency is (32.86%) and the total product unit cost is (78.68 $/GJ).     

Refrigeration cycle for cryogenic separation of hydrogen from coke oven gas

Ten billion cubic meters of hydrogen are dissipated to the environment along with the emission of coke-oven gas every year in China. A novel cryogenic separation of hydrogen from coke oven gas is proposed to separate the hydrogen and liquefy it simultaneously, and the cooling capacity is supplied by two refrigeration cycles. The performance of the ideal vapor refrigeration cycle is analyzed with methane and nitrogen as refrigerant respectively. The results show that the coefficient of performance (COP) of methane refrigeration cycle is 2.7 times that of nitrogen refrigeration cycle, and the figure of merit (FOM) of methane refrigeration cycle is 1.6 times that of nitrogen refrigeration cycle. The performance of ideal gas refrigeration cycle is also analyzed with neon, hydrogen and helium as refrigerant respectively. The results show that both the coefficient of performance and figure of merit of neon refrigeration cycle is the highest. It is thermodynamically possible to arrange the refrigeration cycle with methane and neon as refrigerant, respectively. __________ Translated from Cryogenics and Superconductivity, 2007, 35(5): 387–390, 394 [译自: 低温与超导]     

Numerical investigation of coke oven gas (COG) injection into an ironmaking blast furnace (BF)

Blast furnace (BF) ironmaking is the predominating process for producing hot metal (HM). It consumes huge quantities of carbonaceous fuel materials and leads to massive CO₂ emissions. The injection of coke oven gas (COG) into the BF is considered a promising solution. It recovers the COG that is a kind of off-gas in the steelwork, and reuses the COG as an H₂-intensive fuel in the BF to partially replace the use of carbonaceous fuel materials. However, thus far, the technology is not widely adopted, mainly due to the lack of understanding regarding the effects of key operational parameters of COG injection on BF performance. In addition, the coupling effect of COG injection and BF operation particularly the control at furnace top is not clear, leading to the low utilization efficiency. In this work, a continuum-based BF process model is developed and validated to consider the injection of COG into a commercial scale BF through the tuyere. The model is validated by comparing the calculated key performance indicators with those measured in production. The impact of COG injection rate is studied and its coupling effects with top burden distribution have also been clarified. The simulation results show that an increased COG injection rate leads to improved BF performance, in terms of increased productivity and decreased consumption of carbonaceous fuel materials. However, the utilization efficiency of COG and the replacement ratio of carbonaceous fuel materials by COG is decreased. An optimum top burden distribution can be identified, which can improve the utilization efficiency of injected COG and achieve a relatively high replacement ratio. The findings from this work should be useful to guide production of BF with H₂-intensive fuel injection, which helps to save the use of carbonaceous fuel materials and reduce CO₂ emission.     

Comparison of the effects of EGR and lean burn on an SI engine fueled by hydrogen-enriched low calorific gas

A naturally aspirated spark ignition (SI) engine fueled by hydrogen-blended low calorific gas (LCG) was tested in both exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and lean burn modes. The “dilution ratio” was introduced to compare their effects on engine performance and emissions under identical levels of dilution. LCG composed of 40% natural gas and 60% nitrogen was used as a main fuel, and hydrogen was blended with the LCG in volumes ranging from 0 to 20%. The engine test results demonstrated that EGR operations at stoichiometry showed a narrower dilution range, inferior combustion characteristics, lower brake thermal efficiency, faster nitrogen oxides (NO_x) suppression, and higher total hydrocarbon (THC) emissions for all hydrogen blending rates compared to lean burn. These trends were mainly due to the increased oxygen deficiency as a result of using EGR in LCG/air mixtures. Hydrogen enrichment of the LCG improved combustion stability and reduced THC emissions while increasing NO_x. In terms of efficiency, hydrogen addition induced a competition between combustion enhancement and increases in the cooling loss, so that the peak thermal efficiency occurred at 10% H₂ with excess air ratio of 1.5. The engine test results also indicated that a close-to-linear NO_x-efficiency relationship occurred for all hydrogen blending rates in both operations as long as stable combustion was achieved. NO_x versus combustion duration analysis showed that adding H₂ reduced combustion duration while maintaining the same level of NO_x. The methane fraction contained in the THC emissions decreased slightly with an increase in hydrogen enrichment at low EGR or excess air dilution ratios, but this tendency was diminished at higher dilution ratios because of the combined dilution effects from the inert gas in the LCG and the diluents (EGR or excess air).