Effect of addition of hydrogen and TiO2 in gasoline engine in various exhaust gas recirculation ratio

The effects of hydrogen ratios on combustion and emission characteristics of gasoline engine were studied under different exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), ignition timing and ignition pressure. The test performed in a modified gasoline direct ignition engine at different hydrogen ratios of 0%, 5%, 10% and 25%. In addition, the EGR rate set to 0%, 5%, 10% and 20% to study the combustion and emission characteristics. Addition to the different hydrogen fractions, 5% of TiO₂ is added to increase the combustion characteristics with reduced emission. Regarding the results of the current study, the engine torque increases by 15% due to the addition of hydrogen in gasoline, while mechanical efficiency is improved by achieving a large throttle opening. At the same time, NOx emission decreased by 62% compared to the unmodified engine due to the influence of EGR, hydrogen ratio and high oxygen concentration TiO₂. Moreover, the emission of CO and HC also reduced due to the influence of hydrogen fuel. Additionally, few more tests are taken to monitor the effect of the injection pressure for the hydrogen fuel. Higher injection reports higher effective thermal efficiency at 4 MPa and lower NOx. Reasonable injection pressure results in shorten flame development period.     

On-board generation of hydrogen to improve in-cylinder combustion and after-treatment efficiency and emissions performance of a hybrid hydrogen–gasoline engine

Hydrogen on-board fuel reforming has been identified as a waste energy recovery technology with potential to improve Internal combustion engines (ICE) efficiency. Additionally, can help to reduce CO₂, NO_x and particulate matter (PM) emissions. As this thermochemical energy is recovered from the hot exhaust stream and used in an efficient way by endothermic catalytic reforming of petrol mixed with a fraction of the engine exhaust gas. The hydrogen-rich reformate has higher enthalpy than the petrol fed to the reformer and is recirculated to the intake manifold, which will be called reformed exhaust gas recirculation (rEGR).The rEGR system has been simulated by supplying hydrogen (H₂) and carbon monoxide (CO) into a conventional Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) system. The hydrogen and CO concentrations in the rEGR stream were selected to be achievable in practice at typical gasoline exhaust temperatures (temperatures between 300 and 600 °C). A special attention has been paid on comparing rEGR to the baseline ICE, and to conventional EGR. The results demonstrate the potential of rEGR to simultaneously increase thermal efficiency, reduce gaseous emissions and decrease PM formation.Complete fuel reformation can increase the calorific value of the fuel by 28%. This energy can be provided by the waste heat in the exhaust and so it is ideal for combination with a gasoline engine with its high engine-out exhaust temperatures.The aim of this work is to demonstrate that exhaust gas fuel reforming on an engine is possible and is commercially viable. Also, this paper demonstrates how the combustion of reformate in a direct injection gasoline engine via reformed Exhaust Gas Recirculation (rEGR) can be beneficial to engine performance and emissions.     

Numerical study on effects of hydrogen direct injection on hydrogen mixture distribution,combustion and emissions of a gasoline/hydrogen SI engine under lean burn condition

A numerical study on effects of hydrogen direct injection on hydrogen mixture distribution, combustion and emissions was presented for a gasoline/hydrogen SI engine. Under lean burn conditions, five different direct hydrogen injection timings were applied at low speeds and low loads on SI engines with direct hydrogen injection (HDI) and gasoline port injection. The results were showed as following: firstly, with the increase of hydrogen direct injection timing, the hydrogen concentration near the sparking plug first increases and then decreases, reaching the highest when hydrogen direct injection timing is 120°CA BTDC: Secondly, hydrogen can speed up the combustion rate. The main factor affecting the combustion rate and efficiency is the hydrogen concentration near the sparking plug: Thirdly, in comparing with gasoline, the NO_X emissions with hydrogen addition increase by an average of 115%. For different hydrogen direct injection timings, the NO_X emissions of 120°CA BTDC is the highest, which is 29.9% higher than the 75°CA BTDC. The hydrogen addition make the NO_X emissions increase in two ways. On the one hand, the average temperature with hydrogen addition is higher. On the other hand, the temperature with hydrogen addition is not homogeneous, which makes the peak of temperature much higher. In a word, the main factor of NO_X emissions is the size of high temperature zone in the cylinder: Finally, because the combustion is more complete, in comparing with gasoline, hydrogen addition can reduce the CO and HC emissions by 32.2% and 80.4% respectively. Since a more homogeneous hydrogen mixture distribution can influence a lager zone in the cylinder and reduce the wall quenching distance, these emissions decrease with the increase of hydrogen direct injection timing. The CO and HC emissions of 135°CA BTDC decrease by 41.5% and 71.4%, respectively, compared to 75°CA BTDC.     

Effects of hydrogen injection strategy on the hydrogen mixture distribution and combustion of a gasoline/hydrogen SI engine under lean burn condition

Hydrogen is a carbon free energy carrier with high diffusivity and reactivity, it has been proved to be a kind of suitable blending fuel of spark ignition (SI) engine to achieve better efficiency and emissions. Hydrogen injection strategy affects the engine performance obviously. To optimize the combustion and emissions, a comparative study on the effects of the hydrogen injection strategy on the hydrogen mixture distribution, combustion and emission was investigated at a SI engine with gasoline intake port injection and four hydrogen injection strategies, hydrogen direct injection (HDI) with stratified hydrogen mixture distribution (SHMD), hydrogen intake port injection with premixed hydrogen mixture distribution (PHMD), split hydrogen direct injection (SHDI) with partially premixed hydrogen mixture distribution (PPHMD) and no hydrogen addition. Results showed that different hydrogen injection strategy formed different kinds of hydrogen mixture distribution (HMD). The ignition and combustion rate played an important role on engine efficiency. Since the SHDI could use two hydrogen injection to organize the HMD, the ignition and combustion rate with the PPHMD was the fastest. With the PPHMD, the brake thermal efficiency of the engine was the highest and the emissions were slight more than that with the PHMD. PHMD achieve the optimum emission performance by its homogeneous hydrogen. The engine combustion and emission performance can be optimized by adjusting the hydrogen injection strategy.     

Hydrogen fueled spark ignition engine with electronically controlled manifold injection: An experimental study

In this work, a single cylinder conventional spark ignition engine was converted to operate with hydrogen using the timed manifold fuel injection technique. A solenoid operated gas injector was used to inject hydrogen into the inlet manifold at the specified time. A dedicated electronic circuit developed for this work was used to control the injection timing and duration. The spark timing was set to minimum advance for best torque (MBT). The engine was operated at the wide-open throttle condition. For comparison of results, the same engine was also run on gasoline.The performance and emission characteristics with hydrogen and gasoline are compared. From the results, it is found that there is a reduction of about 20% in the peak power output of the engine when operating with hydrogen. The brake thermal efficiency with hydrogen is about 2% greater than that of gasoline. A lean limit equivalence ratio of about 0.3 could be attained with hydrogen as compared to 0.83 with gasoline. CO, CO₂ and HC emissions were negligible with hydrogen operation. However, for hydrogen operation, NO_x emission was four times higher than that of gasoline at full load power. The best ignition timing for hydrogen was much retarded when compared to gasoline. The effect of hydrogen injection pressure was also studied and no specific changes were observed. The effect of operating speed was also studied.     

Stoichiometric H2ICEs with water injection

For the most part, gasoline engines operate close to stoichiometry because of the high power density and the easy after treatment through the very well established three-way catalytic converter technology. The lean burn gasoline engine suffers major disadvantages for the after treatment still requiring aggressive research and development to meet future emission standards more than for the lower power density compensated by the better fuel conversion efficiency running lean. Hydrogen engines are usually run ultra-lean to avoid abnormal combustion phenomena and possibly to avoid the emission of nitrogen oxides without the difficult non-stoichiometric after treatment. While the ultra-lean combustion of hydrogen may reduce the formation of NOx within the cylinder but makes the power density very low, the only lean combustion of hydrogen requires after treatment for NOx reduction. The suppression of abnormal combustion in hydrogen engines has been a challenge for the three regimes of abnormal combustion, knock (auto ignition of the end gas region), pre-ignition (uncontrolled ignition induced by a hot spot prior of the spark ignition) and backfire (premature ignition during the intake stroke, which could be seen as an early form of pre-ignition). Direct injection and jet ignition coupled to port water injection are used here to avoid the occurrence of all these abnormal combustion phenomena as well as to control the temperature of gases to turbine in a turbocharged stoichiometric hydrogen engine.     

Effects of split injection proportion and the second injection timings on the combustion and emissions of a dual fuel SI engine with split hydrogen direct injection

In this paper, a new kind of injection mode, split hydrogen direct injection, was presented for a dual fuel SI engine. Six different first injection proportions (IP1) and five different second injection timings were applied at the condition of excess air ratio of 1, first injection timing of 300°CA BTDC, low speed, low load conditions and the Minimum spark advance for Best Torque (MBT) on a dual fuel SI engine with hydrogen direct injection (HDI) plus port fuel injection (PFI). The result showed that, split hydrogen direct injection can achieve a higher brake thermal efficiency and lower emissions compared with single HDI. In comparison with single HDI, the split hydrogen direct injection can form a controlled stratified condition of hydrogen which could make the combustion more complete and faster. By adding an early spray to form a more homogeneous mixture, the split hydrogen direct injection not only can help to form a flame kernel to make the combustion stable, but also can speed up the combustion rate through the whole combustion process, which can improve the brake thermal efficiency. By split hydrogen direct injection, the torque reaches the highest when the first injection proportion is 33%, which improves by 1.13% on average than that of single HDI. With the delay of second injection timing, the torque increases first and then decreases. With the increase of first injection proportion, the best second injection timing is advanced. Furthermore, by forming a more homogeneous mixture, the split hydrogen direct injection can reduce the quenching distance to reduce the HC emission and reduce the maximum temperature to reduce the NO_X. The split hydrogen direct injection can reduce the HC emission by 35.8%, the NO_X emissions by 7.3% than that of single HDI.     

A comparative study on effects of homogeneous or stratified hydrogen on combustion and emissions of a gasoline/hydrogen SI engine

A comparative study on effects of homogeneous or stratified hydrogen on combustion and emissions was presented for a gasoline/hydrogen SI engine. Three kinds of injection modes (gasoline, gasoline plus homogeneous hydrogen and gasoline plus stratified hydrogen) and five excess air ratios were applied at low speed and low load on a dual fuel SI engine with hydrogen direct injection (HDI) and gasoline port injection. The results showed that, with the increase of excess air ratio, the brake thermal efficiency increases firstly then decreases and reaches the highest when the excess air ratio is 1.1. In comparison with pure gasoline, hydrogen addition can make the ignition stable and speed up combustion rate to improve the brake thermal efficiency especially under lean burn condition. Furthermore, it can reduce the CO and HC emissions because of more complete combustion, but produce more NO_X emissions due to the higher combustion temperature. Since, in the gasoline plus stratified hydrogen mode, the hydrogen concentration near the sparking plug is denser than that of homogeneous hydrogen, the ignition is more stable and faster, which further speed up the combustion rate and improve the brake thermal efficiency. In the gasoline plus stratified hydrogen mode, the brake thermal efficiency increases by 0.55%, the flame development duration decreases by 1.0°CA, rapid combustion duration decreases by 1.3°CA and the coefficient of variation (COV) decreases by 9.8% on average than that of homogeneous hydrogen. However, in the gasoline plus stratified hydrogen mode, due to the denser hydrogen concentration near the sparking plug and leaner hydrogen concentration near the wall, the combustion temperature and the wall quenching distance increase, which make the NO_X and HC emissions increase by 14.3% and 12.8% on average than that of homogeneous hydrogen.     

Control of homogeneous charge compression ignition combustion in a two-cylinder gasoline direct injection engine with negative valve overlap

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) has challenges in ignition timing control, combustion rate control, and operating range extension. In this paper, HCCI combustion was studied in a two-cylinder gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine with negative valve overlap (NVO). A two-stage gasoline direct injection strategy combined with negative valve overlap was used to control mixture formation and combustion. The gasoline engine could be operated in HCCI combustion mode at a speed range of 800–2 200 r/min and load, indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) range of 0.1–0.53 MPa. The engine fuel consumption is below 240 g/(kW⁻¹·h⁻¹), and the NO _x emission is below 4 × 10⁻⁵ without soot emission. The effect of different injection strategies on HCCI combustion was studied. The experimental results indicated that the coefficient of variation of the engine cycle decreased by using NVO with two-stage direct injection; the ignition timing and combustion rate could be controlled; and the operational range of HCCI combustion could be extended. Translated from J Tsinghua Univ (Sci & Tech), 2006, 46(5): 720–723 [译自: 清华大学学报]     

缸内直喷汽油机HCCI燃烧对压缩比和辛烷值的适应性研究

在缸内直喷汽油机（GDI）上采用多次燃油喷射和可变配气技术来控制缸内混合气形成和燃烧,实现了SI/HCCI复合燃烧方式。研究了不同压缩比和辛烷值对均质混合气压燃（HCCI）燃烧排放特性的影响。结果表明,汽油HCCI燃烧呈现单阶段燃烧燃料特性,HCCI着火发生在上止点附近时油耗低。低压缩比下,HCCI燃烧可以在较浓空燃比下工作,NOx排放较高。高辛烷值燃料HCCI燃烧可运行的负荷范围窄。汽油HCCI发动机在偏高压缩比条件下燃用偏低辛烷值汽油可以获得较好的经济性和排放性能。     

Novel dual fuel diesel-ammonia combustion system in advanced TDI engines

As ammonia (NH₃) is the best hydrogen carrier for safety and efficiency, transportation engines have been proposed using ammonia. NH₃ may be used as a single combustion fuel for an internal combustion engine. However, as NH₃ is a difficult fuel for what concerns combustion, faster and more complete combustions may be achieved by working dual fuel. The most promising alternatives are offered by using either diesel injection ignition plus port/direct injection of the NH_3, or jet ignition of a gasoline-like fuel (gasoline, CH₄, C₃H₈, H₂) plus port/direct injection of the NH₃. The opportunity of diesel injection ignition plus direct injection of NH₃ is considered here. The simulations show the prospect to achieve Diesel-like power densities and efficiencies, and load control by quantity of fuel injected. Critical component for prototyping is the high pressure fuel injection systems specifically developed for NH₃.     

An experimental study on performance,emission and combustion parameters of hydrogen fueled spark ignition engine with the timed manifold injection system

In the present study, a single cylinder spark ignition (SI) engine is modified to operate with hydrogen gas with ECU (Electronic Controlled Unit) operated timely manifold injection system. Performance, emission and combustion parameters are studied at MBT (Maximum Brake Torque) spark timing with WOT (Wide Open Throttle) position. All trials are performed in the speed range of 1100 rpm–1800 rpm. Baseline observations are recorded with gasoline for comparison purpose. Results have shown that maximum brake power is reduced by 19.06% and peak brake thermal efficiency is increased by 3.16% in the case of hydrogen operation. Reduction in NO_x emission is observed for hydrogen at higher engine speed. The maximum net heat release rate is two times higher and the peak cylinder pressure is 1.36 times higher for hydrogen as compared to gasoline at the engine speed of 1400 rpm.     

Operation principles for hydrogen spark ignited direct injection engines for passenger car applications

The sustainable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from road transport requires solutions to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, in addition to vehicles with electrified powertrains, such as those implemented in battery electric of fuel cell vehicles, internal combustion engines fueled with e-fuels or biofuels are also under discussion. An e-fuel that has come into focus recently, is hydrogen due to its potential to achieve zero tank-to-wheel and well-to-wheel carbon dioxide emissions when the electrolysis is powered by electricity from renewable sources. Due to the high laminar burning velocity, hydrogen has the potential for engine operation with high cylinder charge dilution by e.g. external exhaust gas recirculation or enleanment, resulting in increased efficiency. On the other hand, the high burning velocity and high adiabatic flame temperatures pose a challenge for engine cooling due to increased heat losses compared to conventional fuels. To further evaluate the use of hydrogen for small passenger car engines, a series production 1 L 3 cylinder gasoline engine provided by Ford Werke GmbH was modified for hydrogen direct injection. The engine was equipped with a high pressure external exhaust gas recirculation system to investigate charge dilution at stoichiometric operation. Due to limitations of the turbocharging system, very lean operation, which can achieve nitrogen oxides raw emissions below 10 ppm, was limited to part load operation below BMEP = 8 bar. Thus, a reduction of the nitrogen oxides emission level at high loads compared to stoichiometric operation was not possible. At stoichiometric operation with external exhaust gas recirculation engine efficiency can be increased significantly. The comparison of stoichiometric hydrogen and gasoline operation shows a reduced indicated efficiency with hydrogen with significant faster combustion of hydrogen at comparable centers of combustion. However, higher boost pressures would allow to achieve even higher indicated efficiencies by charge dilution compared to gasoline engine operation.     

High pressure direct injection of gaseous fuels using a discrete phase methodology for engine simulations

Direct gaseous fuel injection in internal combustion engines is a potential strategy for improving in-cylinder combustion processes, performance and emissions outputs and, in the case of hydrogen, could facilitate a transition away from fossil fuel usage. Computational fluid dynamic studies are required to fully understand and optimise the combustion process, however, the fine grids required to adequately model the underexpanded gas jets which tend to result from direct injection make this a difficult and cumbersome task. In this paper the gaseous sphere injection (GSI) model, which utilises the Lagrangian discrete phase model to represent the injected gas jet, is further improved to account for the variation in the jet core length with better estimation due to total pressure ratio change. The improved GSI model is then validated against experimental hydrogen and methane underexpanded freestream jet studies, mixing in a direct injection hydrogen spark ignition engine and combustion in a pilot ignited direct injection methane compression ignition engine. The improved GSI model performs reasonably well across all cases examined which cover various pressure ratios, injector diameters, injection conditions and disparate gases (hydrogen and methane) while also allowing for relatively coarse meshes (cheaper computational cost) to be used when compared to those needed for fully resolved modelling of the gaseous injection process. The improved GSI model should allow for efficient and accurate investigation of direct injection gaseous fuelled engines.     

Effects of hydrogen direct injection on engine stability and optimization of control parameters for a combined injection engine

As engine stability is a crucial issue for engine performance and toxic emissions, an experimental research has been conducted to analyze the effects of hydrogen direct injection on engine stability. The experiments have been divided into two parts. The first set is aimed to analyze different parameter characteristics with and without hydrogen direct injection, and the second set tries to find optimal control regions. Excess air ratios, spark timings, engine speeds and engine loads are chosen as primary parameters in the study. The results show hydrogen addition can increase brake thermal efficiency by a range from 6% to 13%, enhancing the lean burn performance. Combustion duration has been shortened to about 80% by adding 10% hydrogen mixture into gasoline. Besides, Hydrogen addition makes the mixture further insensitive to ignition timings, and narrows the optimal regions with higher excess air ratios. Under medium engine speeds, the highest CoV_IMEP locates in the low load region for pure gasoline, while this maximum value appears in the medium load region for 10% hydrogen mixture. In addition, the specific value of CoV_IMEP with 10% hydrogen is rather small compared to pure gasoline. Thus, hydrogen direct injection can significantly improve engine stability and reduce controlling difficulties.     

Effect of addition of hydrogen and exhaust gas recirculation on characteristics of hydrogen gasoline engine

The effects of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on combustion and emissions under different hydrogen ratios were studied based on an engine with a gasoline intake port injection and hydrogen direct injection. The peak cylinder pressure increases by 9.8% in the presence of a small amount of hydrogen. The heat release from combustion is more concentrated, and the engine torque can increase by 11% with a small amount of hydrogen addition. Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions can be reduced by EGR dilution. Hydrogen addition offsets the blocking effect of EGR on combustion partially, therefore, hydrogen addition permits a higher original engine EGR rate, and yields a larger throttle opening, which improves the mechanical efficiency and decreases NOx emissions by 54.8% compared with the original engine. The effects of EGR on carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions are not obvious and CO and HC emissions can be reduced sharply with hydrogen addition. CO, HC, and NOx emissions can be controlled at a lower level, engine output torque can be increased, and fuel consumption can be reduced significantly with the co-control of hydrogen addition and EGR in a hydrogen gasoline engine.     

Effect of hydrogen fuel at higher flow rate under dual fuel mode in CRDI diesel engine

The prime intention of this work is to provide a maximum replacement for diesel using hydrogen in a common rail direct injection equipped diesel engine. The experiment was conducted upto 5.2 kW brake power constant speed water-cooled engine. In the combustion chamber, diesel fuel was injected at a crank angle of 23⁰ bTDC, making it an ignitor for the premixed mixture of hydrogen and air. Hydrogen is injected at 6 different proportions ranging from 6 to 36 liter per min (LPM). The air and hydrogen gas were mixed homogeneously using the timed manifold injection technique, which was controlled through the in-house PC based data acquisition (DAQ) program developed on data factory. The electronic control unit helps to induct the hydrogen for a period of 211⁰ CA during the suction stroke. Performance, emission and combustion studies were made with the different levels of hydrogen injection, which proves that the 30 LPM of hydrogen provide the best results. Further, 30.65% improvement was achieved in brake thermal efficiency with 23.48% decreased brake specific energy consumption. This also helped to reduce the harmful emissions like CO, CO_2, UHC and smoke by 22.3%, 14%, 32.74% and 43.86%, respectively. However, oxides of nitrogen emission level was increased by 7.3% compared to that of the diesel fuel at its maximum power output setting. The duration of the combustion also reduced due to the higher flame speed character of hydrogen. Thus, the overall results conclude that the addition of hydrogen improved the performance factors and reduced all the emission values of the common rail direct injection diesel engine at an optimum level of 30 LPM.     

基于双直喷策略的低负荷下活性控制压燃燃烧特性的数值研究

采用流体仿真软件CONVERGE开展了基于双直喷策略的低负荷工况下二代生物柴油/汽油活性控制压燃(reactivity controlled compression ignition,RCCI)燃烧模式的数值模拟研究,对比了常规进气道喷射汽油RCCI和双直喷RCCI的燃烧特性,并探讨了双燃料喷射时刻对双直喷RCCI燃烧的影响。结果表明:相比常规进气道喷射汽油RCCI,双直喷RCCI能够有效控制缸内汽油混合气分布,改善不完全燃烧现象;随着汽油直喷时刻的推迟,分层燃烧减弱,燃烧持续期缩短,燃烧效率降低,热效率先减小再增大后又减小,NO_x排放减少而碳烟排放增加;随着二代生物柴油喷射时刻的推迟,分层燃烧加剧,燃烧持续期延长,燃烧效率升高,热效率先增大而后减小,NO_x排放增加而碳烟排放减少。     

Experimental study on lean-burn characteristics of an SI engine with hydrogen/gasoline combined injection and EGR

Hydrogen has shown potential for improving the combustion and emission characteristics of the spark ignition (SI) dual-fuel engine. To reduce the additional NO_x emissions caused by hydrogen direct injection, in this research, the cooperative control of the addition of hydrogen with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) in the hydrogen/gasoline combined injection engine was investigated. The results indicate that both the addition of hydrogen and the use of EGR can increase the brake mean effective pressure (BMEP). As the α_H2 value increases from 0% to 25%, the maximum BMEP increases by 9%, 12.70%, 16.50%, 11.30%, and 8.20%, respectively, compared with the value without EGR at λ = 1.2. The CA0-10 tends to increase with increases in the EGR rate. However, the effect of EGR in increasing the CA0-10 can be offset by the addition of 15% hydrogen at λ = 1.2. Measurements of the coefficient of variation of the indicated mean effective pressure (COV_IMEP) indicate that the addition of hydrogen can effectively extend the EGR limit. Regarding gaseous emissions, NO_x emissions, after the introduction of EGR and the addition of hydrogen, are lower than those of pure gasoline without EGR. An 18% EGR rate yields a significant reduction in NO_x, reaching maximum decreases of about 82.7%, 77.8%, and 60% compared to values without EGR at λ = 1.0, 1.2, and 1.4, respectively. As the EGR rate increases, the hydrocarbon (HC) emissions continuously increase, whereas a blend of 5% hydrogen can significantly reduce the HC emissions at high EGR rates at λ = 1.4. Finally, according to combustion and emissions, the coupling of a 25% addition of hydrogen with 30% EGR at λ = 1.2, and the coupling of a 20% addition of hydrogen with an 18% EGR rate at λ = 1.4 yield the best results.