Due to the market presence that natural gas has and is expected to have in the future energy sector, research and development of novel natural gas combustion strategies to increase power density, lower total emissions, and increase overall efficiency is warranted. Dilution whether by excess air or by exhaust gas recirculation has historically been implemented on diesel, natural gas, and gasoline engines to mitigate various regulated emissions. In the large industrial natural gas engine industry, excess air dilution or ultra-lean-burn operation has afforded lean-burn engines increased power density and reduced NO x emissions. This advance in technology has allowed lean-burn engines to compete in markets such as electrical power generation which previously they had not been able. However, natural gas engines utilizing a non-selective catalytic reduction system or three-way catalyst must operate under stoichiometric conditions and thus are limited in power density by exhaust gas temperatures. In previous gasoline small engine research, a novel exhaust gas recirculation technique called dedicated exhaust gas recirculation was shown to have a positive impact on engine-out emissions of NO x and unburned hydrocarbons while also lowering exhaust component temperatures. This work seeks to understand the consequences of implementing a dedicated exhaust gas recirculation system on a multi-cylinder stoichiometric industrial natural gas engine. The results of this initial evaluation demonstrate reductions in engine-out NO x and CO emissions and improvements in engine-out exhaust gas temperatures with the dedicated exhaust gas recirculation technique. However, in a low-turbulence combustion chamber, dedicated exhaust gas recirculation significantly lowers the overall rate of combustion and results in significant differences in cylinder-to-cylinder combustion.
Underwater exhaust systems are employed on board ships to allow zero direct emissions to the atmosphere with the possibility of drag reduction via exhaust gas lubrication. However, underwater expulsion of exhaust gases imparts high and dynamic back pressure, which can fluctuate in amplitude and time period as a ship operates in varying sea-states depending on its geographical location and weather conditions. Therefore, this research aims to experimentally investigate the performance of a marine diesel engine against varying amplitudes and time periods of dynamic back pressure at different sea-states due to underwater exhaust systems.
In this study, a turbocharged, marine diesel engine was tested at different loads along the propeller curve against dynamic back pressure waves produced by controlling an electronic butterfly valve placed in the exhaust line after the turbine outlet. Engine performance was investigated against single and multiple back pressure waves of varying amplitudes and wave periods based on real sea-state conditions and wave data.
We found that the adverse effects of dynamic back pressure on engine performance were less severe than those found against static back pressure. Governor control and turbocharger dynamics play an important role in keeping the fuel penalty and thermal loading low against dynamic back pressure. Therefore, a marine engine may be able to handle much higher levels of dynamic back pressures when operating with underwater exhaust systems in higher sea-states.
Stoichiometric industrial natural gas engines rely on robust design to achieve consumer driven up-time requirements. Key to this design are exhaust components that are able to withstand high combustion temperatures found in this type of natural gas engine. The issue of exhaust component durability can be addressed by making improvements to materials and coatings or decreasing combustion temperatures. Among natural gas engine technologies shown to reduce combustion temperature, dedicated exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) has limited published research. However, due to the high nominal EGR rate it may be a technology useful for decreasing combustion temperature. In previous work by the author, dedicated EGR was implemented on a Caterpillar G3304 stoichiometric natural gas engine. Examination of combustion statistics showed that, in comparison to a conventional stoichiometric natural gas engine, operating with dedicated EGR requires adjustments to the combustion recipe to achieve acceptable engine operation. This work focuses on modifications to the combustion recipe necessary to improve combustion statistics such as coefficient of variance of indicated mean effective pressure (COV of IMEP), cylinder-cylinder indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP), location of 50% mass fraction burned, and 10%–90% mass fraction burn duration. Several engine operating variables were identified to affect these combustion statistics. A response surface method (RSM) optimization was chosen to find engine operating conditions that would result in improved combustion statistics. A third order factorial RSM optimization was sufficient for finding optimized operating conditions at 3.4 bar brake mean effective pressure (BMEP). The results showed that in an engine with a low turbulence combustion chamber, such as a G3304, optimized combustion statistics resulted from a dedicated cylinder lambda of 0.936, spark timing of 45° before top dead center (°bTDC), spark duration of 365 µs, and intake manifold temperature of 62°C. These operating conditions reduced dedicated cylinder COV of IMEP by 10% (absolute) and the difference between average stoichiometric cylinder and dedicated cylinder IMEP to 0.19 bar.
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