Exploring Strategies for Reducing High Intake Temperature Requirements and Allowing Optimal Operational Conditions in a Biogas Fueled HCCI Engine for Power Generation

This paper evaluates strategies for reducing the intake temperature requirement for igniting biogas in HCCI engines. HCCI combustion is a promising technology for stationary power generation using renewable fuels in combustion engines. Combustion of biogas in HCCI engines allows high thermal efficiency similar to Diesel engines, with low net CO2 and low NOx emissions. However, in order to ensure the occurrence of autoignition in purely biogas fueled HCCI engines, a high inlet temperature is needed. This paper presents experimental and numerical results. First, experimental analysis on a 4 cylinder, 1.9 L Volkswagen TDI Diesel engine running with biogas in HCCI mode shows high gross indicated mean effective pressure (close to 8 bar), high gross indicated efficiency (close to 45%) and NOx emissions below the 2010 US limit (0.27g/kWh). Stable HCCI operation is experimentally demonstrated with a biogas composition of 60% CH4 and 40% CO2 on a volumetric basis, inlet pressures of 2–2.2 bar (absolute) and inlet temperatures of 200–210°C for equivalence ratios between 0.19–0.29. At lower equivalence ratios, slight changes in inlet pressure and temperature caused large changes in cycle-to-cycle variations while at higher equivalence ratios these same small pressure and temperature variations caused large changes to ringing intensity. Second, numerical simulations have been carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of high boost pressures and high compression ratios for reducing the inlet temperature requirements while attaining safe operation and high power output. The one zone model in Chemkin was used to evaluate the ignition timing and peak cylinder pressures with variations in temperatures at IVC from 373 to 473 K. In-cylinder temperature profiles between IVC and ignition were computed using Fluent 6.3 and fed into the multi-zone model in Chemkin to study combustion parameters. According to the numerical results, the use of both higher boost pressures and higher compression ratios permit lower inlet temperatures within the safe limits experimentally observed and allow higher power output. However, the range of inlet temperatures allowing safe and efficient operation using these strategies is very narrow, and precise inlet temperature control is needed to ensure the best results.Copyright © 2011 by ASME

[1]  G. Woschni.  A Universally Applicable Equation for the Instantaneous Heat Transfer Coefficient in the Internal Combustion Engine , 1967 .

[2]  B. Johansson,et al.  Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition with Water Injection , 1999 .

[3]  Shane Ward,et al.  Evaluation of energy efficiency of various biogas production and utilization pathways , 2010 .

[4]  Bengt Johansson,et al.  A Study of the Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Combustion Process by Chemiluminescence Imaging , 1999 .

[5]  Robert W. Dibble,et al.  Prediction of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions in iso-octane HCCI engine combustion using multizone simulations , 2002 .

[6]  Dieter Deublein,et al.  Biogas from Waste and Renewable Resources: An Introduction , 2008 .

[7]  John E. Dec,et al.  Advanced compression-ignition engines—understanding the in-cylinder processes , 2009 .

[8]  Bengt Johansson,et al.  Optical Diagnostics Applied to a Naturally Aspirated Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Engine , 1999 .

[9]  Iván Darío Bedoya,et al.  Effects of mixing system and pilot fuel quality on diesel-biogas dual fuel engine performance. , 2009, Bioresource technology.

[10]  Joshua R. Smith,et al.  A Sequential Fluid-mechanic Chemical-kinetic Model of Propane HCCI Combustion , 2001 .

[11]  Hideaki Kobayashi,et al.  Effects of CO2 dilution on turbulent premixed flames at high pressure and high temperature , 2007 .

[12]  Zoran Filipi,et al.  New Heat Transfer Correlation for an HCCI Engine Derived from Measurements of Instantaneous Surface Heat Flux , 2004 .

[13]  S. Saxena,et al.  Experimental study of biogas combustion in an HCCI engine for power generation with high indicated efficiency and ultra-low NOx emissions. , 2012 .

[14]  John E. Dec,et al.  An Investigation of the Relationship Between Measured Intake Temperature, BDC Temperature, and Combustion Phasing for Premixed and DI HCCI Engines , 2004 .

[15]  A Ramesh,et al.  Homogeneous charge compression ignition versus dual fuelling for utilizing biogas in compression ignition engines , 2009 .

[16]  A. Savitzky,et al.  Smoothing and Differentiation of Data by Simplified Least Squares Procedures. , 1964 .

[17]  Robert W. Dibble,et al.  A Multi-Zone Model for Prediction of HCCI Combustion and Emissions , 2000 .

[18]  Francisco Espinosa-Loza,et al.  Piston-Liner Crevice Geometry Effect on HCCI Combustion by Multi-Zone Analysis , 2002 .

[19]  Norimasa Iida,et al.  Autoignition and Combustion of Natural Gas in 4 Stroke HCCI Engine , 2001 .

[20]  Rudolf H. Stanglmaier,et al.  Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI): Benefits, compromises, and future engine applications , 1999 .

[21]  R. J. Crookes,et al.  Assessment of simulated biogas as a fuel for the spark ignition engine , 1998 .

[22]  G. A. Lavoie,et al.  Modeling of HCCI Combustion and Emissions Using Detailed Chemistry , 2001 .

[23]  Cem Sorusbay,et al.  Evaluation of heat transfer correlations for HCCI engine modeling , 2009 .

[24]  Ghazi A. Karim,et al.  An examination of the flame spread limits in a dual fuel engine , 1999 .

[25]  A. Ramesh,et al.  An experimental study of the biogas-diesel HCCI mode of engine operation , 2010 .