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2003-01-0765

A Study On The Determination of the Amount of Pilot Injection and Rich and Lean Boundaries of the Pre-Mixed CNG/Air Mixture For a CNG/Diesel Dual-Fuel Engine
Zhiqiang Lin and Wanhua Su
State Key Lab of Engines,Tianjin University

Reprinted From: CI Engine Combustion Processes & Performance with Alternative Fuels (SP-1737)

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2003-01-0765

A Study On the Determination of the Amount of Pilot Injection and Rich and Lean Boundaries of the Pre-Mixed CNG/Air Mixture for a CNG/Diesel Dual-Fuel Engine
Zhiqiang Lin and Wanhua Su
State Key Lab of Engines, Tianjin University
Copyright 2003 SAE International

ABSTRACT
A sequential port injection, lean-burn, fully electronicallycontrolled compressed natural gas (CNG)/Diesel dualfuel engine has been developed based on a turbocharged and inter-cooled direct injection (D.I.) diesel engine. During the optimization of engine overall performance, the effects of pilot diesel and pre-mixed CNG/air mixture equivalence ratio on emissions (CO, HC, NOx, soot), knocking, misfire and fuel economy are studied. The rich and lean boundaries of the pre-mixed CNG/air mixture versus engine load are also provided, considering the acceptable values of NOx and THC emissions, respectively. It is interesting to find that there is a critical amount of pilot diesel for each load and speed point, which proved to be the optimum amount of pilot fuel. Any decrease in the amount of pilot diesel from this optimum amount results in an increase of NOx emissions, because the pre-mixed CNG/air mixture must be made richer, otherwise THC emissions would increase. However, the soot emissions remain almost unchanged at a very low level.

Inlet manifold

Inlet port

Diesel injector

CNG common rail CNG Electromagnetism injector CNG leading pipe Combustion chamber Diesel Spray

Fig.1 Illustration of the combustion process in diesel/CNG dual-fuel engine

ustion if larger amount of pilot diesel is employed. It has been indicated [4,5,6] that in diesel engine, localized, stoichiometric diffusion combustion produces high flame temperatures and high NOx emissions. In addition, high soot emissions will be formed in diesel fuel rich zone. In order to achieve effective, clean combustion, the proportion of diesel diffusion of CNG/diesel engine in combustion process should be reduced to a minimum. After analysis of a series of research [7,8,9] on improving BSNOx vs. BSEC trade-off in dual-fuel engines N.J. Beck et. al[10] drew a conclusion that BSNOx levels can be reduced to 2g/hp-hr with an electronic dual fuel system and to 1 g/hp-hr with micropilot. The primary reduction in NOx is attributed to the elimination of NOx emissions from the pilot oil. It seams that the methodology of Micro-pilot injection was the best in the reduction of NOx emissions. However, in this study, it is found that there exists an optimum amount of pilot diesel and accordingly an optimum air/CNG equivalence ratio for each engine speed and load points, at which high efficiency and low emissions are obtained. This paper presents our experimental results on the effects of the amount of pilot diesel and the equivalence ratio of pre-mixed air/CNG mixture upon emissions (soot, NOx, THC, CO), knock, misfire and fuel economy.

INTRODUCTION
CNG/diesel dual-fuel engines have many features in common with spark-ignition, Otto-cycle engines, because the air and the primary fuel are pre-mixed in the cylinder before combustion. On the other hand, relying on compression ignition of the pilot diesel, they also share some characteristics with diesel engines, as well as some unique advantages and drawbacks of their own [1,2,3]. It is shown in figure 1 that natural gas is injected into inlet ports of cylinders sequentially by electronic gas injection valves during the inlet stroke, mixing with air into homogeneous mixture quickly. Then some pilot diesel, which would serve as millions of ignition source sites after their auto-ignition, is injected as the piston approaches the top of the compression stroke. Nearly all of the pilot diesel will mix with air to form a homogeneous mixture while the amounts of pilot diesel are small, however, there will exist some diffusion comb-

EXPERIMENT APPARATUS
A sequential port injection, lean burn, fully electronicallycontrolled CNG/Diesel dual-fuel engine was developed

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1 electronical throttle 2 ECU 3 battery 4 CNG pipe 5 CNG common rail 6 CNG temperature sensor 7 CNG pressure sensor 8 craft shaft sensor 9 inlet temperature sensor 10 inlet pressure sensor 11 supercharger 12 inlet manifold 13 solenoid adapter 14 gas solenoid valve 15 engine body 16 diesel injector 17 cool water temperature sensor 18 lube temperature sensor 19 lube pressure sensor 20 diesel pump 21 rack feedback sensor 22 linear electromagnet 23 craft shaft sensor 24 CNG pressure regulator 25 CNG filter 26 GNG cut off 27 CNG tank 28 CNG manual valve

Fig.2 Schematic layout of the experiment engine

in our previous study [11], based on a turbo-charged and inter-cooled D.I. diesel engine. A schematic layout of the experimental engine is shown in figure 2. The apparatus includes several sensors, e.g., CNG temperature and pressure sensors, inlet air temperature and pressure sensors, crankshaft position sensor and rack location feedback sensor. The amounts of pilot fuel and the equivalence air/CNG ratio can be fairly controlled at all load and speed points by the linear electromagnet and the gas solenoid valve correspondingly. The engine specifications are given in Table 1. For emission measurement, NDIR was used for CO, HCLD was employed for NOx, and HFID was applied to THC. A Bosch soot meter was used for soot emissions. Table 1 specifications of the test engine Bore (mm) 126 No. of cylinders 6 Displacement (litre) 9.726 Compression ratio 15 Charge type Turbocharger, inter cooling Max. power 175kw at 2200 rpm Max. torque 888Nm at 1400 rpm

Figure 3 shows the experimental relation of the air/CNG equivalence ratio ( ) with NOx and soot and the amounts of pilot diesel at 1400 RPM and the loads of 50%, 75%, 100%, respectively. The relationship between the pilot diesel and is interrelated and interdependent. To obtain a certain engine power output with a small amount of natural gas injection (namely a larger air/CNG equivalence ratio ), a larger amount of pilot diesel is required in order to have the same amount of heat release in the cylinders and vice versa. However, as the amount of pilot diesel is increased soot would be
1200
0.9

Load=100%(diesel)

70

0.8

1000

60
0.7

800

0.5

40

0.4

Load=50%(diesel)
30

600

0.3

400

0.2

20
0.1

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND ANALYSIS FOR THE CRITICAL AMOUNT OF PILOT DIESEL
EFFECTS OF PILOT DIESEL ON SOOT AND NOX EMISSIONS

200

0.0 1.0

1.5

2.0

Load=50% (NOx) Load=75% (NOx) Load=100% (NOx)

2.5

3.0

3.5

10 4.0

Load=50% (soot) Load=75% (soot) Load=100% (soot)

Fig.3 Soot, NOx VS.

the amount of pilot diesel

diesel (mg/st)

0.6

Soot (BSU)

NOx (ppm)

Load=75% (diesel)

50

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produced in a diesel engine, when burning zone is locally fuel rich [6]. Under this experimental condition, the local pilot diesel-mixing zone is therefore the prime source of the soot production. The experimental results in Fig.3 show that there is a critical amount of pilot diesel (CAPD) for each load and speed point respectively. When the amount of pilot diesel is less than this critical value, the soot emissions are very low (0.1) and are not affected by changing the amount of pilot diesel and accordingly the air/CNG equivalence ratio. This is because nearly the entire pilot diesel mixes with air into homogeneous mixture during its ignition delay period, burning in a similar way to HCCI combustion process. The relation between the CAPD and the load was determined from the experiments, as shown in figure 4. The higher the load, the shorter the ignition delay, and the less the CAPD becomes. When the amount of pilot diesel is greater than CAPD, the proportion of the diesel diffusion combustion is increased, resulting in higher soot emissions. Therefore, for the minimum soot emissions, the optimal amount of pilot diesel (OAPD) should be less than CAPD. However, this does not mean that the smaller amount of pilot diesel, the better the combustion process becomes.
33

The dot lines in figure 3 show the relation of NOx emissions versus air/CNG equivalence ratio . Figure 5 shows the burnt zone temperature calculated from P-V data using two-zone model. It always shows that lean burn benefits the reduction of NOx emission for < 2. When is greater than 2, however, the proportion of diesel diffusion combustion increases with the increasing amount of pilot diesel. Continuing increase in the air/CNG equivalence ratio would yield less effect on the NOx emissions and the burning zone temperature. As expected, too much pilot diesel with too lean air/CNG mixture leads to serious diffusion combustion of diesel spray and hence the increase in NOx emission, as is shown in Fig.3 for the condition of 75% load. In the case of the amount of pilot diesel less than CAPD, the engine maintains low soot emissions. However, a richer CNG/air mixture results in a higher NOx emission. If the air/CNG equivalence ratio is increased properly, the amount of pilot diesel has to be increased accordingly for a constant load. When the amount of pilot diesel is increased up to the CAPD, the engine works at a fairly lean condition without diffusion combustion, resulting in low emissions for both soot and NOx. Hence a conclusion can be drawn that too small amounts of pilot diesel or too rich CNG/air mixtures are not the best matching in regard to NOx and soot emissions. On the other hand, there exists an optimal amount of pilot diesel (OAPD) for each work point, which is usually the CAPD as shown in Fig.4. The conclusion drawn from this study is actually a challenge to some previous research, which calls for the micro-injection of pilot diesel for the reduction of NOx emissions [7,8,910]. EFFECT OF PILOT DIESEL AND AIR/CNG EQUIVALENCE RATIO ON CO AND HC EMISSIONS

32

31

mg/st Pilot diesel

30

29

28

27

26 50 75 100

load

Figure 6 indicates the experimental results of CO emissions VS. and the amount of pilot diesel at 1400
4000

Fig.4 Amount of diesel that can be formed into homogeneous mixture

Load=100%(diesel)

70

60
3000

Load=75%(diesel) CO (ppm)

2000

Load=50%(diesel)

40

30
1000

20

Fig.5 Burnt zone temperature VS. amount of pilot diesel

and

0 1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

Load=25% (CO) Load=50% (CO)

3.0

3.5

10 4.0

Load=75% (CO) Load=100% (CO)

Fig.6 CO VS. and the amount of pilot diesel

diesel (mg/st)

50

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Misfire zone

OAPD of 100% load

Amount of pilot diesel

mg/st

OAPD of 75% load

Fig.7 HC VS. the amount of pilot diesel

rpm and various loads. It is shown that CO emissions are very high if the CNG/air mixture is rich ( <1.3), and can be reduced effectively when is increased up to 1.4. For 1.4 < < 2, the CO emission reduction is not significant, and it even increases slightly for > 2. This is because CO is the product of incomplete combustion, which is caused either by low temperature in combustion zone due to too lean CNG/air mixture or by lack of oxygen in combustion zone due to inhomogeneous condition of mixture. However, the increase in pilot diesel would increase the temperature in combustion chamber and reduce CO emissions at lean conditions of CNG/air mixture ( > 2.5). The relationship among HC, air/CNG equivalence ratio and the amount of pilot diesel is shown by isolines of HC emission in Fig. 7. The experimental results show that for a given amount of pilot diesel, HC emissions increase with an increase in the air/CNG equivalence ratio. On the other hand, for a given equivalence air/CNG ratio, as the amount of pilot diesel is increased, HC emissions are decreased. If the CNG mixture is in the range of 1.4 < < 2 with the amount of pilot diesel equal to OAPD, the HC emissions can be as low as 8 g/kw.h. However, when the amount of pilot diesel is reduced from OAPD and the air/CNG equivalence ratio is increased, the HC emissions are increased. After the HC isoline of 10g/kwh, the rate of increase of HC emission increases. As shown in Fig. 7 the isoline is squeezed closer together in the shaded part, which is the area with very small amount of pilot diesel and the rather high air/CNG equivalence ratio. Under such a situation, the HC emissions are very high. It is due to the incomplete combustion arising from the very low combustion temperature and very low burning rate, which is the misfire zone.

The experimental results obtained above on engine emission characteristics of NOx, soot, CO, HC show that too small amount of pilot diesel (or too high CNG filling in at a given load) is not the optimal selection. The amounts of pilot diesel should be CAPD for each engine working point. On the contrary, HC emissions and fuel consumption will become worsened if CNG mixture becomes too lean, even at the condition of CAPD for the amounts of pilot diesel. However, as shown in figure 4, by using as much as CAPD for the amounts of pilot diesel, the engine can work under leaner conditions (1.4 < < 2) at various loads with lower NOx, HC, CO and soot emissions. Hence, the CAPD is referred to as the optimal amount of pilot diesel (OAPD).

RICH AND LEAN BOUNDARIES OF THE PREMIXED AIR/CNG MIXTURE

LEAN BOUNDARY OF AIR/CNG EQUIVALENCE RATIO For CNG/diesel dual-fuel engine, there is a certain tradeoff relationship among the emissions of NOx, soot, HC and CO. It has been mentioned above that lean burn and less diesel diffusion combustion is recognized as an approach to improve NOx emissions. However, there will be high HC and CO emissions and even misfire at the conditions of large air/CNG ratio and too little pilot diesel. As shown in figure 7, the engines working range must be located far away from the misfire area, in consideration of the reductions in HC and CO emission and fuel efficiency. Therefore, there should exist a lean boundary of air/CNG equivalence ratio as engine load is varied. The lean boundary is obtained as shown in figure 8, which is controlled by HC emissions. In this study it is determined as the HC emissions is less than

OAPD of 50% load

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10g/kw.h for different loads. It is found that at reduced loads the lean boundary moves towards larger air/CNG equivalence ratio, and lower values of the air/CNG equivalence ratio as the engine load is increased. It is related to the factors that the OAPD increases as the engine load is decreased.
12

10

Lean boundary

lower emissions of NOx. Therefore, it is not that KB represents the rich boundary (RB), but the rich boundary determined by NOx emissions is the real rich boundary of air/CNG equivalence ratio. Obviously the rich boundary is ultimately determined by the emission legislation. Fig.10 shows the optimal results for the rich boundaries of the air/CNG equivalence ratio with various emission legislations. The rich boundary is also the fast burning boundary for high thermal efficiency and acceptable Nox, HC and CO emissions.

BMEP (bar)

Load=100% Load=75%

4 2.4

2.6

2.8

3.0

3.2

3.4

Fig.8 Lean boundary VS. BMEP

Load=50% Load=25%

RICH BOUNDARY RATIO

OF

AIR/CNG

EQUIVALENCE

Fig.9 Unburned zone temperature VS. and the amount of pilot diesel

According to Daugas theory [12], auto-ignition temperature of natural gas (Tai) depends on its pressure (Pm) and . Equation 1 shows the relationship between Tai and Pm. When Pm is higher over 20bar, the effect of Pm on Tai is not significant, while plays a key role. Equation 2 shows Daugas [12] relationship between Tai and (0.8 < < 2.2), regressed from the experimental data. E Tai = + Const 1 nR ln Pm Tai = 300 + 433 1 + 7 ( 1.08)

Knock

High NOx emission

Rich boundary for euro II index in Nox emission

Knock boundary

Rich boundary for euro III index in Nox emission

Based on the data from a large number of experiments, the authors have developed a two-zone combustion model incorporating equations (1) and (2) and calculated the temperature in the unburned zone at different loads and of the engine. Figure 9 shows the calculated results of the temperature of the unburned zone versus and crank angle . The knock boundary is obtained by comparing the calculated knock temperature Tai with the calculated temperature Tu of the unburned zone. If Tu is equal to Tai, the corresponding air/CNG equivalence ratio is then taken as the points on the knock boundary line. The shadow area, where knock occurs, is called the knock boundary (KB), and shown in the left side of figure 10. When the engine load is increased, the knock boundary of air/CNG equivalence ratio (KB) is also increased, because higher compression temperature near TDC results in higher temperature in unbu- rned zone. The engine should work far away from the knock boundary for the safe operation of the engine. In practice, the engine has to operate at even leaner conditions for

Fig.10 Different rich boundary

CONCLUSION
In consideration of low emissions and high economy, there exists an optimal amount of pilot diesel (OAPD) for each work point in CNG/diesel dual-fuel engine. At the conditions of OAPD the injected pilot diesel mixes with air into a rather homogeneous mixture during its ignition delay period, so that the pilot diesel burns with the feature of homogeneous charge compression ignition, resulting in negligible contribution to the engine soot and NOx emissions. The OAPD does not mean a minimum amount of pilot diesel. Too small amount of pilot diesel leads to rich burning and higher NOx emissions. The conclusion drawn from this study represents a challenge to some previous research, which calls for microinjection of pilot diesel for the reduction of NOx emissions. OAPD is related to engine loads. The higher the load, the smaller the OAPD becomes. It has been found that lean burn and less diesel diffusion combustion are recognized as an approach to improve NOx

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emissions. However, there will be high HC and CO emissions and even misfire at the conditions of large air/CNG ratio and too little pilot diesel. The engine must work far away from the misfire area, in consideration of the reduction of HC and CO emissions and fuel efficiency. The lean boundary of air/CNG equivalence ratio is determined in this study, according to the increasing rate of unburned HC emissions. The engine should work far away from the knock boundary from the viewpoint of safety of engine operation. In practice, the engine has to operate at even leaner conditions for lower emissions of NOx. The rich boundary (RB) of air/CNG equivalence ratio is determined by the NOx emissions. Therefore the rich boundary is ultimately determined by the emission legislation. The rich boundary is also the fast burning boundary, at which the highest thermal efficiency can be obtained with acceptable NOx emissions.

9. Gebert,K. Beck, N.J., Barkhimer, R.L., Wong, H.C., "Strategies to Improve Combustion and Emission Characteristics of Dual-Fuel Pilot Ignited Natural Gas Engines", SAE971712(1997) 10. Beck, N. J., R. L. Barkhimer, W. P. Johnson, H.-C. Wong, and K. Gebert. Evolution of Heavy Duty Natural Gas Engines Stoichiometric Carbureted and Spark Ignited to Lean Burn Fuel Injected and Micro Pilot. SAE 972665(1997) 11. Wanhua Su Zhiqiang.Lin, Wang Yang Xie Hui WANG Jiang Pei Yi-qiang Fei Xiang-yang Liu Wen-sheng Development of a Sequential Port Injection, Fully Electronically-Controlled Gas/Diesel/Dual-fuel Engine Transactions of CSICE, Vol.19 No.2( 2001.5) 12. Daugas, C. Bastenholf, D. Cumbustion of Future Residual-fuels and New Fuels in 4-Stroke Medium Speed engines , 82-DGP-13, ASME (1982)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research is supported by: 1. The key project of NSF of China titled as New concept of combustion processes for vehicle engines. Grant Number: 59936130 2. The-state key project of fundamental research plan titled as new generation of engine combustion principle and approach to application of alternative fuels Grant Number: 2001CB209202

CONTACT
Dr. Zhiqiang Lin Associate Professor State Key Lab of Engines Tianjin University Tianjin, China zhiqiang_lin@eyou.com Prof. Wanhua Su Professor State Key Lab of Engines Tianjin University Tianjin, China whsu@tju.edu.cn

REFERENCES
1. C.S.Weaver and S.H.Turner Dual-fuel Natural Gas/Diesel Engines: Technology, Performance, and Emissions SAE 940548(1994) 2. Karim G.A. and Zhigang Liu A Predictive Model for Knock in Dual-fuel Engines. SAE 921550(1992) 3. Z Liu and G.A. Karim The Ignition Delay Period in Dual-fuel Engines. SAE 950466(1995) 4. Otto Uyehara, Factors-Effects the formation of NOx in Diesel Engines, SAE 910732(1991) 5. D.W. Stewart, T.W. Ryan III, A.C. Matheaus, NOx Control in Heavy-Duty Diesel Engines What is the Limit? SAE paper 980174(1998) 6. John E. Dec, A Conceptual Model of D.I.Diesel Combustion on Laser Sheet Imaging , SAE 970873(1997) 7. Hupperich. P, and Durnholz, M., Time Controlled Pilot Injection for Stationary and Heavy Duty Gas Engines. SAE 971713(1997) 8. Gebert,K. Beck, N.J., Barkhimer, R.L., Wong, H.C. and Wells, A.D., "Development of Pilot Fuel Injection System for CNG Engines", SAE 961100(1996)