EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF METHANE COMBUSTION IN A HCCI ENGINE UNDER ENRICHED OXYGEN CONDITIONS
(2023) European Combustion Meeting — Location: Luxor Egypt (23.January.2023)
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- Abstract
- In the context of the energy transition towards renewable energy, it is necessary to exploit any viable technological solution to decrease our footprint on the environment, but also to rethink the way we produce, store and use energy. The conversion of energy stored as e-fuels can be tackled with internal combustion engines. Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines represent an appealing alternative to spark ignition and compression ignition engines due to their high thermal efficiency, high fuel flexibility and low NOx emissions. However two main technical limitations are associated to this type of technology. The first one is the low control on ignition timing, as combustion is driven by kinetics. The second one is the low power density, because of the high intake temperature needed to achieve combustion and the low values of equivalence ratios used. Having a high intake temperature and a combustion which is happening approximately at the same moment in all the combustion chamber, also leads to low operating ranges. We have experimentally investigated the influence of oxygen enrichment in the oxidiser in methane HCCI combustion, as a way to increase the mixture reactivity and hence, decrease the intake temperature of the mixture. The parameters of interest of combustion are ignition timing and Maximum Pressure Rise Rate. Furthermore, a kinetic analysis has been performed with OpenSMOKE++ to investigate the chemical reactions underlying the combustion behaviour. It has been experimentally found that increasing the oxygen fraction from 21 to 49% allows to decrease the intake temperature of the mixture by 30 K. From the numerical point of view, it has been found that the mixture is less sensitive to intake temperature at higher oxygen percentages. By increasing the oxygen percentage in the oxidiser up to 100% we expect to be able to further decrease the intake temperature, leading to an extension of the operating range and increase of the power density. In future works, the potential of increasing the fuel content in the mixture will be evaluated.
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Citations
Spano, S., & et al. (2023). EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF METHANE COMBUSTION IN A HCCI ENGINE UNDER ENRICHED OXYGEN CONDITIONS. European Combustion Meeting, Luxor Egypt. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/267769