(Project concluded on November 30, 2020)
This project aims the develop combustion systems using diesel and natural gas blends for Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) applications. There is a need for ICE running on natural gas blends for remote power plants and natural-gas-based hybrid powertrains for vessels. Although there are already commercial systems available, there is a lack of knowledge on the combustion of natural gas blends. The sub-optimal fuel-air mixture or local extinction results in emissions of unburned hydrocarbon (UHC). One of the most severe UHC emissions is the release of the unburned greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere (methane slip). To better understand the methane slip, in-depth knowledge of the turbulent mixture formation and combustion process is required. The main goal of this project is to investigate, focusing on the fundamental physical processes, the combustion of natural gas blends ignited by pilot diesel sprays. The experimental research will be carried out on a constant volume combustion chamber and on a single-cylinder research engine with optical access. Laser measurement techniques will be applied in order to gather information on the gas velocity field, droplets diameter and velocity as well as OH distribution on the flame. Numerical simulation models will be developed and validated with the experimental data. The expected result of this project is the experimental database of burning natural gas blends ignited by pilot diesel spray. This data will support the validation of the computational model, which in turn can assist in the design of ICE running on both diesel and blends of natural gas. The knowledge to be acquired by this project will be employed to increase the efficiency of large engines (e.g. ship and thermo-power engines) running with mixtures of diesel and Natural Gas (NG) as well those employed in medium-size applications. As one example of the latter, this project will investigate the mitigation of emissions of Green House Gases (GHG) on large trucks employed in the mining industry.
TEAM
Project Coordinator
Partners
Pavlos Aleiferis
University College London, UK
Simone Hochgreb
University of Cambridge, UK