IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v193y2017icp263-275.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the mid-load potential of ethanol-diesel dual-fuel combustion with and without EGR

Author

Listed:
  • Pedrozo, Vinícius B.
  • May, Ian
  • Zhao, Hua

Abstract

Dual-fuel combustion has been shown as an effective means to maximise the utilisation of low carbon fuels in conventional diesel engines while simultaneously reducing nitrogen oxides (NOx) and soot emissions. In this framework, a systematic study was performed to optimise the use of ethanol as a partial substitute for diesel fuel and improve the effectiveness of dual-fuel combustion in terms of emissions, efficiency, and operational cost. Investigations were carried out on a single-cylinder common rail heavy-duty diesel engine at three mid-loads of 0.9, 1.2, and 1.5MPa net indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP). The ethanol energy fraction was varied from 0% to 80% and diesel injection timings were optimised for maximum efficiency. The experiments were conducted with and without cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) to explore the trade-off between exhaust emissions and engine running costs. The results showed the importance of a small pre-injection of diesel prior to the main injection to reduce in-cylinder pressure rise rates (PRR). The use of high ethanol fractions resulted in shorter and delayed combustion process, similar indicated efficiency, and up to 68% lower NOx emissions than conventional diesel combustion. Soot levels varied with different ethanol percentages. Unburnt hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions increased with higher amounts of premixed ethanol fuel. The introduction of 25% EGR led to further NOx reductions, decreasing the nitrogen oxides levels of the non-EGR cases by 80%, on average, with little impact on engine efficiency. The overall results indicated that the utilisation of an ethanol fraction of 80% combined with EGR has potential to achieve 88% NOx reduction compared with the baseline conventional diesel combustion without EGR at 1.2MPa IMEP. A cost-benefit analysis showed that the effectiveness of dual-fuel combustion in terms of cost is heavily dependent on fuel prices (e.g. per litre). The combustion strategy requires a maximum volumetric price ratio between ethanol and diesel fuels equivalent to 60%. Higher relative prices can still be cost-effective depending on the ethanol energy fraction and EGR rate used as a result of reduced aqueous urea solution consumption in the NOx aftertreatment system.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedrozo, Vinícius B. & May, Ian & Zhao, Hua, 2017. "Exploring the mid-load potential of ethanol-diesel dual-fuel combustion with and without EGR," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 263-275.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:193:y:2017:i:c:p:263-275
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.02.043
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261917301769
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.02.043?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pedrozo, Vinícius B. & May, Ian & Dalla Nora, Macklini & Cairns, Alasdair & Zhao, Hua, 2016. "Experimental analysis of ethanol dual-fuel combustion in a heavy-duty diesel engine: An optimisation at low load," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 166-182.
    2. Desantes, José M. & Benajes, Jesús & García, Antonio & Monsalve-Serrano, Javier, 2014. "The role of the in-cylinder gas temperature and oxygen concentration over low load reactivity controlled compression ignition combustion efficiency," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 854-868.
    3. Asad, Usman & Kumar, Raj & Zheng, Ming & Tjong, Jimi, 2015. "Ethanol-fueled low temperature combustion: A pathway to clean and efficient diesel engine cycles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 838-850.
    4. Asad, Usman & Zheng, Ming, 2014. "Exhaust gas recirculation for advanced diesel combustion cycles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 242-252.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Singh, Awanish Pratap & Padhi, Upasana P. & Joarder, Ratan & Roy, Arnab, 2019. "Spatio-temporal effect of the breakdown zone in the laser-initiated ignition of atomized ethyl alcohol-air mixture," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C), pages 140-154.
    2. García, Antonio & Monsalve-Serrano, Javier & Villalta, David & Lago Sari, Rafael & Gordillo Zavaleta, Victor & Gaillard, Patrick, 2019. "Potential of e-Fischer Tropsch diesel and oxymethyl-ether (OMEx) as fuels for the dual-mode dual-fuel concept," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Liu, Haifeng & Ma, Guixiang & Hu, Bin & Zheng, Zunqing & Yao, Mingfa, 2018. "Effects of port injection of hydrous ethanol on combustion and emission characteristics in dual-fuel reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) mode," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 592-602.
    4. Pedrozo, Vinícius B. & Zhao, Hua, 2018. "Improvement in high load ethanol-diesel dual-fuel combustion by Miller cycle and charge air cooling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 138-151.
    5. Wang, Bin & Yao, Anren & Yao, Chunde & Chen, Chao & Wang, Hui, 2020. "In-depth comparison between pure diesel and diesel methanol dual fuel combustion mode," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    6. Pinto, G.M. & da Costa, R.B.R. & de Souza, T.A.Z. & Rosa, A.J.A.C. & Raats, O.O. & Roque, L.F.A. & Frez, G.V. & Coronado, C.J.R., 2023. "Experimental investigation of performance and emissions of a CI engine operating with HVO and farnesane in dual-fuel mode with natural gas and biogas," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    7. Szulczyk, Kenneth R. & Ziaei, Sayyed Mahdi & Zhang, Changyong, 2021. "Environmental ramifications and economic viability of bioethanol production in Malaysia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 780-788.
    8. Tongroon, Manida & Chuepeng, Sathaporn, 2022. "Adjacent combustion heat release and emissions over various load ranges in a premixed direct injection diesel engine: A comparison between gasoline and ethanol port injection," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    9. da Costa, Roberto Berlini Rodrigues & Coronado, Christian J.R. & Hernández, Juan J. & Malaquias, Augusto Cesar Teixeira & Flores, Luiz Fernando Valadão & de Carvalho, João A., 2021. "Experimental assessment of power generation using a compression ignition engine fueled by farnesane – A renewable diesel from sugarcane," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    10. Szulczyk, Kenneth R. & Tan, Yeng-May, 2022. "Economic feasibility and sustainability of commercial bioethanol from microalgal biomass: The case of Malaysia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    11. Dong, Shijun & Wang, Zhaowen & Yang, Can & Ou, Biao & Lu, Hongguang & Xu, Haocheng & Cheng, Xiaobei, 2018. "Investigations on the effects of fuel stratification on auto-ignition and combustion process of an ethanol/diesel dual-fuel engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 19-30.
    12. Rafael Lago Sari & Yu Zhang & Brock Merritt & Praveen Kumar & Ashish Shah, 2024. "Combining Gasoline Compression Ignition and Powertrain Hybridization for Long-Haul Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-19, February.
    13. Man, Hanyang & Liu, Huan & Xiao, Qian & Deng, Fanyuan & Yu, Qiao & Wang, Kai & Yang, Zhengjun & Wu, Ye & He, Kebin & Hao, Jiming, 2018. "How ethanol and gasoline formula changes evaporative emissions of the vehicles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 584-594.
    14. Huang, Haozhong & Zhu, Zhaojun & Zhu, Jizhen & Lv, Delin & Pan, Yuping & Wei, Hongling & Teng, Wenwen, 2019. "Experimental and numerical study of pre-injection effects on diesel-n-butanol blends combustion," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 249(C), pages 377-391.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Masurier, J.-B. & Foucher, F. & Dayma, G. & Dagaut, P., 2015. "Ozone applied to the homogeneous charge compression ignition engine to control alcohol fuels combustion," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 566-580.
    2. Wang, Yifeng & Yao, Mingfa & Li, Tie & Zhang, Weijing & Zheng, Zunqing, 2016. "A parametric study for enabling reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) operation in diesel engines at various engine loads," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 389-402.
    3. Bendu, Harisankar & Deepak, B.B.V.L. & Murugan, S., 2017. "Multi-objective optimization of ethanol fuelled HCCI engine performance using hybrid GRNN–PSO," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 601-611.
    4. Pan, Suozhu & Cai, Kai & Cai, Min & Du, Chenbo & Li, Xin & Han, Weiqiang & Wang, Xin & Liu, Daming & Wei, Jiangjun & Fang, Jia & Bao, Xiuchao, 2021. "Experimental study on the cyclic variations of ethanol/diesel reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion in a heavy-duty diesel engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    5. Pedrozo, Vinícius B. & May, Ian & Dalla Nora, Macklini & Cairns, Alasdair & Zhao, Hua, 2016. "Experimental analysis of ethanol dual-fuel combustion in a heavy-duty diesel engine: An optimisation at low load," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 166-182.
    6. Han, Weiqiang & Li, Bolun & Pan, Suozhu & Lu, Yao & Li, Xin, 2018. "Combined effect of inlet pressure, total cycle energy, and start of injection on low load reactivity controlled compression ignition combustion and emission characteristics in a multi-cylinder heavy-d," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(PB), pages 846-858.
    7. Khoa, Nguyen Xuan & Lim, Ocktaeck, 2019. "The effects of combustion duration on residual gas, effective release energy, engine power and engine emissions characteristics of the motorcycle engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C), pages 54-63.
    8. Mikulski, Maciej & Balakrishnan, Praveen Ramanujam & Hunicz, Jacek, 2019. "Natural gas-diesel reactivity controlled compression ignition with negative valve overlap and in-cylinder fuel reforming," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    9. Andwari, Amin Mahmoudzadeh & Aziz, Azhar Abdul & Said, Mohd Farid Muhamad & Latiff, Zulkarnain Abdul, 2014. "Experimental investigation of the influence of internal and external EGR on the combustion characteristics of a controlled auto-ignition two-stroke cycle engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 1-10.
    10. Zhang, Qiankun & Xia, Jin & Wang, Jianping & He, Zhuoyao & Zhao, Wenbin & Qian, Yong & Zheng, Liang & Liu, Rui & Lu, Xingcai, 2022. "Experimental study on ignition and combustion characteristics of biodiesel-butanol blends at different injection pressures," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    11. Deng, Yuanwang & Liu, Huawei & Zhao, Xiaohuan & E, Jiaqiang & Chen, Jianmei, 2018. "Effects of cold start control strategy on cold start performance of the diesel engine based on a comprehensive preheat diesel engine model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 279-287.
    12. Park, Jungsoo & Song, Soonho & Lee, Kyo Seung, 2015. "Numerical investigation of a dual-loop EGR split strategy using a split index and multi-objective Pareto optimization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 21-32.
    13. Pachiannan, Tamilselvan & Zhong, Wenjun & Rajkumar, Sundararajan & He, Zhixia & Leng, Xianying & Wang, Qian, 2019. "A literature review of fuel effects on performance and emission characteristics of low-temperature combustion strategies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    14. Zamboni, Giorgio & Moggia, Simone & Capobianco, Massimo, 2016. "Hybrid EGR and turbocharging systems control for low NOX and fuel consumption in an automotive diesel engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 839-848.
    15. Liu, Bolan & Zhang, Fujun & Zhao, Changlu & An, Xiaohui & Pei, Haijun, 2016. "A novel lambda-based EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) modulation method for a turbocharged diesel engine under transient operation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 521-530.
    16. Yangxun Liu & Weinan Liu & Huihong Liao & Wenhua Zhou & Cangsu Xu, 2021. "An Experimental and Kinetic Modelling Study on Laminar Premixed Flame Characteristics of Ethanol/Acetone Mixtures," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-18, October.
    17. Yuan, Yupeng & Wang, Jixiang & Yan, Xinping & Shen, Boyang & Long, Teng, 2020. "A review of multi-energy hybrid power system for ships," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    18. Shim, Euijoon & Park, Hyunwook & Bae, Choongsik, 2018. "Intake air strategy for low HC and CO emissions in dual-fuel (CNG-diesel) premixed charge compression ignition engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 1068-1077.
    19. Zhong, Yingzi & Han, Weiqiang & Jin, Chao & Tian, Xiaocong & Liu, Haifeng, 2022. "Study on effects of the hydroxyl group position and carbon chain length on combustion and emission characteristics of Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) engine fueled with low-carbon st," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PC).
    20. Benajes, J. & Novella, R. & Pastor, J.M. & Hernández-López, A. & Duverger, T., 2017. "A computational analysis of the impact of bore-to-stroke ratio on emissions and efficiency of a HSDI engine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 903-910.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:193:y:2017:i:c:p:263-275. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.