Effect of syngas composition on combustion and exhaust emission characteristics in a pilot-ignited dual-fuel engine operated in PREMIER combustion mode

The objective of this study was to investigate the performance and emissions of a pilot-ignited, supercharged, dual-fuel engine powered by different types of syngas at various equivalence ratios. It was found that if certain operating conditions were maintained, conventional engine combustion could be transformed into combustion with two-stage heat release. This mode of combustion has been investigated in previous studies with natural gas, and has been given the name PREmixed Mixture Ignition in the End-gas Region (PREMIER) combustion. PREMIER combustion begins as premixed flame propagation, and then, because of mixture autoignition in the end-gas region, ahead of the propagating flame front, a transition occurs, with a rapid increase in the heat release rate. It was determined that the mass of fuel burned during the second stage affected the rate of maximum pressure rise. As the fuel mass fraction burned during the second stage increased, the rate of maximum pressure rise also increased, with a gradual decrease in the delay between the first increase in the heat release rate following pilot fuel injection and the point when the transition to the second stage occurred. The H-2 and CO2 content of syngas affected the engine performance and emissions. Increased H2 content led to higher combustion temperatures and efficiency, lower CO and HC emissions, but higher NOx emissions. Increased CO2 content influenced performance and emissions only when it reached a certain level. In the most recent studies, the mean combustion temperature, indicated thermal efficiency, and NOx emissions decreased only when the CO2 content of the syngas increased to 34%. PREMIER combustion did not have a major effect on engine cycle-to-cycle variation. The coefficient of variation of the indicated mean effective pressure (COVIMEP) was less than 4% for all types of fuel at various equivalence ratios, indicating that the combustion was within the stability range for engine operation. Copyright (C) 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.