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The objective of current research on internal combustion engines
is to further reduce exhaust emissions while simultaneously
reducing fuel consumption. The resulting measures often mean
an increase in complexity of internal combustion engines, which
on one hand increases production cost and on the other hand
increases the susceptibility of the overall system to defects. It is
therefore necessary to develop technologies which can generate
an advantage for the consumer despite increasing complexity.
Within the scope of the project “High Efficiency Diesel Engine
Concept” (“Hocheffizientes Diesel-Motoren-Konzept” HDMK),
funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy
with TÜV Rheinland as project management organization
(funding code: 19U15003A), two engine concepts were
investigated and combined on a John Deere four-cylinder inline
engine.
On the one hand, a new cylinder activation concept ("3/4-
cylinder concept") was implemented with the aim of reducing
fuel consumption. On the other hand, a fully variable valve train
was developed for this engine, which both improves the
functionality of the 3/4-cylinder concept and can have a positive
influence on exhaust emissions through internal exhaust gas
recirculation.
A comparison of this engine concept with its series reference
based on measurement data showed a fuel economy advantage
of up to 5.2% in the low load field cycles of the DLG PowerMix.
The maximum fuel consumption benefit in the low load engine
regime exceeded 15% in some of the operating points.
As a final step, the engine was modified for the integration into
an existing and working tractor, maintaining the available
installation space of the powertrain.
The move away from fossil fuels and the diversification of the primary energy sources used are imperative both in terms of mitigating global warming and ensuring the political independence of the Western world. For the industries of agriculture and forestry, it is possible to secure the basic energy supply through their own yield. The use of vegetable oil is a possibility to satisfy the energy requirements for agricultural machines both autonomously and sustainably. Up to now, rapeseed has been the most important plant for oil production in Western Europe. In the EU, rapeseed oil is currently credited with up to 60% fossil CO2 savings compared to conventional diesel fuel. As a result, since 2018, rapeseed oil is no longer considered as biofuel in the EU. However, if cultivation and processing are completely based on renewable energy sources, up to 90% of fossil CO2 emissions can be saved in the future. This also applies to rapeseed oil, which is a by-product of animal feed production. In addition, pure rapeseed oil is chemically unchanged and thus biodegradable, which makes it particularly attractive for use in environmentally sensitive areas.
To increase the attractiveness of rapeseed oil as a fuel for the agricultural industry, a multi-fuel concept for the flexible use of rapeseed oil, diesel fuel and any mixtures of these two fuels would be beneficial, as it minimizes economic risks due to price fluctuations, availability, and taxation. For implementing such a concept, technical adjustments to the propulsion system are necessary. In existing vegetable oil vehicles, cost-intensive additional components are required for diesel particulate filter regeneration. Conventional regeneration via post-injected fuel (which does not participate in combustion) leads to dilution of the engine oil with vegetable oil.
This study elaborates the possibilities of DPF regeneration in vegetable oil operation by internal engine measures without the need for post-injection. This includes strategies for generating exhaust gas temperatures in high-idle operation which are suitable for regeneration. For this purpose, strategies combining throttling and retarded combustion are used. The measures were successfully tested with respect to their effectiveness for DPF regeneration. It could also be proved that no increased engine oil dilution occurs as a result of the regeneration procedure.
For a prospective series application, however, regeneration should also be possible in transient engine operation. For this purpose, the measures developed for high-idle regeneration have been transferred to partial load points to gain insight into their applicability for transient engine operation. In addition, the effect of external EGR on regeneration has been considered. As the previous investigations of high-idle regeneration showed that regeneration is most critical when pure rapeseed oil is used, the studies of regeneration in part-load operation were limited to pure rapeseed oil. The systematic parameter variations carried out during the studies helped to improve the understanding of the system and the mechanisms of regeneration. The results of the investigation show that the exhaust gas temperature can be increased significantly by the measures studied. However, achieving the exhaust temperature required for DPF regeneration remains a challenge for certain operating points.
In recent years, the automotive industry has shifted from purely combustion engine-driven vehicles towards hybridization due to the introduction of CO2 emission legislation. Hybrid powertrains also represent an important pillar and starting point in the journey towards zero-emission and full electrification. Fulfilling the most recent emission standards requires efficient control strategies for the engine, capable of real-time operation. Model accuracy is one of the main parameters which directly influence the performance of such control strategies. Specific methodologies developed in the past, such as physically- or phenomenologically-based approaches, have already facilitated the modeling of the combustion engine. Even though these models can accurately predict emissions in steady state conditions, their performance during transient engine operation is time-consuming and still not sufficiently reliable. The major contribution of the current work is to clarify and apply the recent advancements in data-driven modeling techniques, especially in time series forecasting with feedforward neural networks (FFNNs) and long short-term memory networks (LSTMs), to address the limitations mentioned above and to compare the different approaches. The quantity and quality of data are significant challenges for data-driven modeling. This paper studies the modeling of gasoline engine emissions using FFNNs and LSTMs. The data quantity and quality requirements are studied based on a portable emission measurement system (PEMS), measuring at 1 Hz, and additional analyses on an engine test bench with a HiL setup, providing the possibility of increasing the measurement frequency with more sophisticated devices by a factor of five. Subsequently, the training and validation of the FFNNs and LSTMs are outlined, and finally, the model accuracy is discussed.
In recent years, the utilization of dual-fuel combustion has gained
popularity in order to improve engine efficiency and emissions. With
its high knock resistance, methane allows operation in high
compression diesel engines with lower risk of knocking. With the use
of diesel fuel as an ignition source, it is possible to exploit the
advantages of lean combustion without facing problems to provide
the high amount of ignition energy necessary to burn methane under
such operating conditions. Another advantage is the variety of
sources from which the primary fuel can be obtained. In addition to
fossil sources, methane can also be produced from biomass or
electrical energy.
As the rate of substitution of diesel by methane increases, the trade-
off between nitrogen oxide and soot is mitigated. However, emissions
of carbon monoxide and unburned methane increase. Since carbon
monoxide is toxic and methane has 25 times the global warming
potential of carbon dioxide, these emission components pose a
problem. Because of the stability of the molecule, methane catalysts
require an exhaust gas temperature of over 500 °C in order to work
effectively.
In this work, the effect of conventional cooled external exhaust gas
recirculation (EGR) and additional hot internal EGR are investigated
for different substitution rates in a nonroad tractor engine converted
to dual-fuel operation. The internal EGR rate is controlled by a
variable second exhaust valve lift during the intake stroke – an
approach which promises to benefit dual-fuel engines by increasing
the in-cylinder gas temperature, thus favoring more complete
combustion. A simulation model of the engine is used to determine
the internal EGR rates and in-cylinder temperatures based on the
experimental data. When internal EGR is used in combination with
external EGR, the resulting emissions show additional reductions in
nitrogen oxide (up to -51 %), carbon monoxide (up to -18 %) and
methane (up to -28 %) with increasing internal EGR, while still
maintaining low soot levels due to the substitution of diesel fuel for
methane.
Comparison of Premixed Fuel and Premixed Charge Operation for Propane-Diesel Dual-Fuel Combustion
(2023)
With the rising popularity of dual-fuel combustion, liquefied
petroleum gas (LPG) can be utilized in high-compression diesel
engines. Through production from biomass (biomass to liquid, BtL),
biopropane as a direct substitute for LPG can contribute to a reduction
in greenhouse gas emissions caused by combustion engines. In a
conventional dual-fuel engine, the low reactivity fuel (LRF) propane
is premixed with the intake air to form a homogeneous mixture. This
air-fuel mixture is then ignited by the high reactivity fuel (HRF) in the
form of a diesel pilot injection inside the cylinder. In the presented
work, this premixed charge operation (PCO) is compared to a method
where propane and diesel are blended directly upstream of the high-
pressure pump (premixed fuel operation, PFO) in variable mixing
ratios for different engine loads and speeds. Furthermore, the effects
of internal and external exhaust gas recirculation are investigated for
each operating mode. The results show that PCO allows higher
propane ratios of up to 75 % at low loads, while PFO enables higher
percentages of propane at medium and high loads (up to 50 %),
allowing for a “reactivity on demand” approach. In addition, PFO
shows significantly lower emissions of unburned hydrocarbons
(-98.3 %) and carbon monoxide (-94.6 %) compared to PCO while
soot emissions are reduced in both cases. The use of EGR allows
nitrogen oxide emissions to be lowered to similar levels for both
operation modes and shows benefits concerning unburned
hydrocarbon (-73.5 %) and carbon monoxide (-62.9 %) emissions in
PCO.
Performance of pure OME and various HVO–OME fuel blends as alternative fuels for a diesel engine
(2022)
Since the potential for reducing CO2 emissions from fossil fuels is limited, suitable CO2-neutral fuels are required for applications which cannot reasonably be electrified, and therefore still rely on internal combustion engines in the future. Potential fuel candidates for CI engines are either paraffinic diesel fuels or new fuels like POMDME (polyoxymethylene dimethyl ether, short “OME”). Besides, also blends of these two types of fuels might be of interest. While many studies have been conducted on OME blends with fossil diesel fuel, the research on HVO–OME blends has been less extensive to date.
In the current work, pure OME and HVO–OME blends are investigated in a single-cylinder research engine. The test results of the various fuel blend formulations are compared and evaluated, particularly with regard to soot-NOx trade-off behavior. The primary objective of the study is to examine whether the major potential of blending these two fuels is already largely exploited at low OME content, or if significant additional emission reduction potential can still be found with higher content blends, but still without the need to switch to pure OME operation. Furthermore, the fuel blend which is best suited for the realization of an ultra-low emission concept under the current technical conditions should be identified. In addition, three different injector designs were tested for operation on pure OME3-5, differing both in hydraulic flow and in the number of injection holes as well as their layout. The optimum configuration is evaluated with regard to emissions, normalized heat release and indicated efficiency.
In the strive for the climate-neutral and ultra-low emission vehicle powertrains of the future, synthetic fuels produced from renewable sources will play a major role. Polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers (POMDME or “OME”) produced from renewable hydrogen are a very promising candidate for zero-impact emissions in future CI engines. To optimize the utilisation of these fuels in terms of efficiency, performance and emissions, it is not only necessary to adapt the combustion parameters, but especially to optimize the injection and mixture formation process. In the present work, the spray break-up behavior and mixture formation of OME fuel is investigated numerically in 3D CFD and validated against experimental data from optical measurements in a high pressure/high temperature chamber using Schlieren and Mie scattering. For comparison, the same operating points using conventional diesel fuel were measured in the optical chamber, and the CFD modeling was optimized based on these data. To model the spray-breakup phenomena reliably, the primary break-up model according to Fischer is used, taking into account the nozzle internal flow in a detailed calculation of the disperse droplet phase. As OME has not yet been investigated very intensively with respect to its chemico-physical properties, chemical analyses of the substance properties were carried out to capture the most important parameters correctly in the simulation. With this approach, the results of the optical spray measurement could be reproduced well by the numerical model for the cases studied here, laying the basis for further numerical studies of OME sprays, including real engine operation.
A detailed study of a cylinder activation concept by efficiency loss analysis and 1D simulation
(2020)
Cylinder deactivation is a well-known measure for reducing fuel consumption, especially when applied to gasoline engines. Mostly, such systems are designed to deactivate half of the number of cylinders of the engine. In this study, a new concept is investigated for deactivating only one out of four cylinders of a commercial vehicle diesel engine (“3/4-cylinder concept”). For this purpose, cylinders 2–4 of the engine are operated in “real” 3-cylinder mode, thus with the firing order and ignition distance of a regular 3-cylinder engine, while the first cylinder is only activated near full load, running in parallel to the fourth cylinder. This concept was integrated into a test engine and evaluated on an engine test bench. As the investigations revealed significant improvements for the low-to-medium load region as well as disadvantages for high load, an extensive numerical analysis was carried out based on the experimental results. This included both 1D simulation runs and a detailed cylinder-specific efficiency loss analysis. Based on the results of this analysis, further steps for optimizing the concept were derived and studied by numerical calculations. As a result, it can be concluded that the 3/4-cylinder concept may provide significant improvements of real-world fuel economy when integrated as a drive unit into a tractor.