Effect of excess air ratio and ignition timing on the combustion and emission characteristics of the ammonia-hydrogen Wankel rotary engine

As a hydrogen carrier, ammonia can suppress knock and enhance thermal efficiency of the hydrogen-fueled Wankel rotary engine (WRE), and achieve zero carbon emissions. This research established a three-dimensional fluid dynamics model coupled with detailed reaction kinetics of ammonia and hydrogen and verified it based on experiments. Incorporating 10% volume fraction of ammonia into the hydrogen-fueled WRE eliminates knock and decreases the excess air ratio (λ) from 1.8 to 1.4, effectively improving the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP). The results indicate that when λ exceeds 1.4, flame propagation accelerates with higher concentration of the mixture. This enhances peak in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate, but it results higher NOx emissions. As λ varies from 1.8 to 1.4, NOx emission levels rise by 47.4%. At λ ≤ 1.2, the rapid flame propagation leads to short combustion duration, diminishing the power output. At this stage, the NO formation is dominated by H radicals, and the NOx production reaches its minimum value at λ of 1.0. In summary, the ammonia-hydrogen WRE achieves optimal performance at λ of 1.4 and ignition timing of −5 °CA after top dead center, the indicated thermal efficiency reaches 36.9% and the IMEP achieves 0.683 MPa.