Ammonia is now recognized as a very serious asset in the context of the hydrogen energy economy, thanks to its non-carbon nature, competitive energy density and very mature production, storage and transport processes. If produced from renewable sources, its use as a direct combustion fuel could participate to the flexibility in the power sector as well as help mitigating fossil fuel use in certain sectors, such as long-haul shipping. However, ammonia presents unfavorable combustion properties, requiring further investigation of its combustion characteristics in practical systems. In the present study, a modern single-cylinder spark-ignition engine is fueled with gaseous ammonia/air mixtures at various equivalence ratios and intake pressures. The results are compared with methane/air and previous ammonia/hydrogen/air measurements, where hydrogen is used as combustion promoter. In-cylinder pressure and exhaust concentrations of selected species are measured and analyzed. Results show that ammonia is a very suitable fuel for SI engine operation, since high power outputs were achieved with satisfying efficiency by taking advantage of the promoting effects of either hydrogen enrichment or increased intake pressure, or a combination of both. The performances under NH3 fueling compare well with those obtained under methane operation. High NOx and unburned NH3 exhaust concentrations were also observed under fuel-lean and fuel-rich conditions, respectively, calling for additional mitigation measures. A detailed combustion analysis show that hydrogen mainly acts as an ignition promoter. In the engine, pure ammonia combustion is assumedly mainly driven by the ignition kinetics of ammonia and the flame response to turbulence rather than by the laminar burning velocity.
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The Engine Combustion Network (ECN) community has greatly contributed to improve the fundamental understanding of spray atomization and combustion at conditions relevant to internal combustion engines. In this context, standardized spray experiments have been defined to facilitate the comparison of experimental and simulation studies performed in different facilities and with different models. This operating mode promotes collaborations among research groups and accelerates the advancement of research on spray. In efforts to improve the comparability of the ECN spray A experiments, it is of high importance to review the boundary conditions of different devices used in the community. This work is issued from the collaboration in the ECN France project, where two new experimental facilities from PPRIME (Poitiers) and PRISME (Orleans) institutes are validated to perform spray A experiments. The two facilities, based on Rapid Compression Machine (RCM) design, have been investigated to characterize their boundary conditions (e.g., flow velocity as well as fuel and gas temperatures). A set of standardized spray experiments were performed to compare their results with those obtained in other facilities, in particular the Constant Volume Pre-burn (CVP) vessel at IFPEN. It is noteworthy that it is the first time that RCM type facilities are used in such a way within the ECN. This paper (part 1) focuses on the facilities description and the fine characterization of their boundary conditions. A further paper (part 2) will present the results obtained with the same facilities performing ECN standard spray A characterizations. The reported review of thermocouple thermometry highlights that it is necessary to use thin-wires and bare-bead junction as small as possible. This would help to measure the temperature fluctuations with a minimal need for error corrections, which are highly dependent on the proper estimation of the velocity through the junction, and therefore it may introduce important uncertainties. Temperature heterogeneities are observed in all spray A devices. The standard deviation of the temperature distribution at the time of injection is approximately 5%. We report time-resolved temperature measurement from PPRIME RCM, performed in the near nozzle area during the injection. In inert condition, colder gases from the boundary layer are entrained toward the mixing area of the spray causing a further deviation from the target temperature. This emphasizes the importance of the temperature in the boundary (wall) layer. In reacting condition, the temperature of these entrained gases increases by the effect of the increased pressure, as the RCM has a relatively small volume. Generally, the velocity and turbulence levels are an order of magnitude higher in RCM and constant pressure flow compared to CVP vessels. The boundary characterization presented here will be the base for discussing spray behavior in the part 2 of this paper.
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