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Advanced Combustion in Natural Gas-Fueled Engines

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Natural Gas Engines

Part of the book series: Energy, Environment, and Sustainability ((ENENSU))

Abstract

Current energy and emission regulations set the requirements to increase the use of natural gas in engines for transportation and power generation. The characteristics of natural gas are high octane number, less amount of carbon in the molecule, suitable to lean combustion, less ignitibility, etc. There are some advantages of using natural gas for engine combustion. First, less carbon dioxide is emitted due to its molecular characteristics. Second, higher thermal efficiency is achieved owing to the high compression ratio compared to that of gasoline engines. Natural gas has higher octane number so that knock is hard to occur even at high compression ratios. However, this becomes a disadvantage in homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines or compression ignition engines because the initial auto-ignition is difficult to be achieved. When natural gas is used in a diesel engine, primary natural gas–air mixture is ignited with small amount of diesel fuel. It was found that under high pressure, lean conditions, and with the control of certain parameters, the end gas is auto-ignited without knock and improves the engine combustion efficiency. Recently, some new fuel ignition technologies have been developed to be applied to natural gas engines. These are the laser-assisted and plasma-assisted ignition systems with high energy and compact size.

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Abbreviations

ATDC:

After top dead center

AFR:

Air–fuel ratio

BTDC:

Before top dead center

CA:

Crank angle

CAD:

Crank angle degree

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

CI:

Compression ignition

CNG:

Compressed natural gas

CO:

Carbon monoxide

CO2:

Carbon dioxide

EVC:

Exhaust valve closing

EVO:

Exhaust valve opening

EGR:

Exhaust gas recirculation

Ď• :

Equivalence ratio

IMEP:

Indicated mean effective pressure

IVC:

Intake valve close

IVO:

Intake valve open

HC:

Hydrocarbon

HCCI:

Homogeneous charge compression ignition

HRR:

Heat release rate

IC:

Internal combustion

LES:

Large Eddy simulation

LTC:

Low-temperature combustion

m DF :

Mass of pilot-injected diesel fuel

NG:

Natural gas

NO:

Nitrogen monoxide

NOx:

Nitrogen oxides

P:

Pressure

PCCI:

Premixed charge compression ignition

rpm:

Revolution per minute

RANS:

Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes

RCCI:

Reactivity controlled compression ignition

SI:

Spark ignition

SOC:

Start of combustion

SOI:

Start of injection

T:

Temperature

T G :

Ignition temperature

TDC:

Top dead center

UHC:

Unburned hydrocarbon

V:

Volume

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK

    Ulugbek Azimov

  2. Okayama University, Tsushima-Naka 3, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan

    Nobuyuki Kawahara, Kazuya Tsuboi & Eiji Tomita

Authors
  1. Ulugbek Azimov
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  2. Nobuyuki Kawahara
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  3. Kazuya Tsuboi
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  4. Eiji Tomita
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ulugbek Azimov .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

    Kalyan Kumar Srinivasan

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Avinash Kumar Agarwal

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

    Sundar Rajan Krishnan

  4. Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

    Vincenzo Mulone

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Azimov, U., Kawahara, N., Tsuboi, K., Tomita, E. (2019). Advanced Combustion in Natural Gas-Fueled Engines. In: Srinivasan, K., Agarwal, A., Krishnan, S., Mulone, V. (eds) Natural Gas Engines . Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3307-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3307-1_8

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