Development of a Throttleless Natural Gas Engine
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February 2002 • NREL/SR-540-31141 Development of a Throttleless Natural Gas Engine Final Report John T. Kubesh Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, Texas National Renewable Energy Laboratory 1617 Cole Boulevard Golden, Colorado 80401-3393 NREL is a U.S. Department of Energy Laboratory Operated by Midwest Research Institute ••• Battelle ••• Bechtel Contract No. DE-AC36-99-GO10337 February 2002 • NREL/SR-540-31141 Development of a Throttleless Natural Gas Engine Final Report John T. Kubesh Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, Texas NREL Technical Monitor: Mike Frailey Prepared under Subcontract No. ZCI-9-29065-01 National Renewable Energy Laboratory 1617 Cole Boulevard Golden, Colorado 80401-3393 NREL is a U.S. Department of Energy Laboratory Operated by Midwest Research Institute ••• Battelle ••• Bechtel Contract No. DE-AC36-99-GO10337 NOTICE This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. 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Available electronically at http://www.osti.gov/bridge Available for a processing fee to U.S. Department of Energy and its contractors, in paper, from: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information P.O. Box 62 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-0062 phone: 865.576.8401 fax: 865.576.5728 email: [email protected] Available for sale to the public, in paper, from: U.S. Department of Commerce National Technical Information Service 5285 Port Royal Road Springfield, VA 22161 phone: 800.553.6847 fax: 703.605.6900 email: [email protected] online ordering: http://www.ntis.gov/ordering.htm Printed on paper containing at least 50% wastepaper, including 20% postconsumer waste Table of Contents List of Acronyms and Symbols ...................................................................................................iv Statement of Data Accuracy.......................................................................................................iv Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... v Program Objectives.................................................................................................................... v 1.0 Introduction....................................................................................................................... 1 2.0 Development of Direct Injection Stratified Charge (DISC) System .................................... 4 2.1 Early Direct Injection Engine Development.................................................................... 4 2.2 Early Direct Injection Results......................................................................................... 6 3.0 Direct Acting Gas Injection System Development ............................................................. 9 4.0 Development of Fuel Injected Prechamber (FIPC) System............................................. 12 5.0 Results with FIPC Engine ............................................................................................... 22 6.0 Results with FIPC Engine with Reduced Volume Prechambers...................................... 27 6.1 Transient Emissions Estimation ...................................................................................... 36 7.0 Comparison to Existing Engines ..................................................................................... 37 8.0 Conclusions.................................................................................................................... 42 9.0 Recommendations for Future Work ................................................................................ 43 References............................................................................................................................... 44 i List of Figures Figure 1. Estimated Fuel Consumption Penalty for Natural Gas Engine versus Diesel Engine (adapted from Ref. 1)...........................................................................................................1 Figure 2. Fuel-Air Equivalence Ratios Required for Throttleless Operation ................................ 2 Figure 3. Fuel Injector Assembly ................................................................................................4 Figure 4. DISC Injector and Spark Plug Locations in Cylinder Head........................................... 5 Figure 5. Prototype DISC Piston ................................................................................................ 6 Figure 6. Reduction in Load in DISC Test Cylinder as Function of Equivalence Ratio................ 7 Figure 7. Indicated Specific Hydrocarbons (ISHC) Emissions Tradeoff for DISC Test Cylinder .. 8 Figure 8. Prototype Direct-Acting Natural Gas Fuel Injector ....................................................... 9 Figure 9. Cutaway of Poppet-Valve Direct Gas Injector............................................................ 10 Figure 10. Cutaway of Prechamber Design .............................................................................. 12 Figure 11. Side View of Cylinder Head and Fuel Injector Mounting Block................................. 13 Figure 12. Schematic of Original Prechamber Fuel Metering System....................................... 14 Figure 13. Prototype Fuel System with Initial Design for Direct Prechamber Fueling................ 14 Figure 14. Piston Design Used for Divided Chamber Engine Experiments............................... 15 Figure 15. ECiU Prototyping Engine Controller......................................................................... 16 Figure 16. Schematic of Revised Fuel Metering System with Increased Volume between Prechamber Fuel Injectors and Prechamber Check Valves ............................................... 17 Figure 17. Schematic of Fuel Injection System......................................................................... 18 Figure 18. Photograph of FIPC Engine with Final Configuration Prechambers and Fueling System .............................................................................................................................. 18 Figure 19. Photograph of Improved Fuel Delivery Tube and Prechamber Cap Hold-Down....... 19 Figure 20. Photograph of Cooling Air Spray Tube Mounted on Engine..................................... 20 Figure 21. Photograph of Variable Geometry Turbocharger Installation ................................... 21 Figure 22. Torque Curve for FIPC Engine ................................................................................ 22 Figure 23. Fuel-Air Equivalence Ratio for FIPC Operation ....................................................... 23 Figure 24. Brake Thermal Efficiency for FIPC Engine............................................................... 23 Figure 25. Brake Specific Hydrocarbon Emissions for FIPC Engine......................................... 24 Figure 26. Brake Specific Carbon Monoxide Emissions for FIPC Engine ................................. 25 Figure 27. Brake Specific Nox Emissions for FIPC Engine........................................................ 26 Figure 28. Reduced Volume Prechamber................................................................................. 27 Figure 29. Torque Curve for FIPC Engine with Reduced Volume Prechambers....................... 28 Figure 30. Torque Versus Throttle Characteristics for FIPC Engine with Reduced Volume Prechambers .....................................................................................................................29 Figure 31. Equivalence Ratio Measured as a Function of Load for the FIPC Engine with Reduced Volume Prechambers ......................................................................................... 30 Figure 32. Pressure Drop Across Throttle Measured as a Function of Load for the FIPC Engine with Reduced Volume Prechambers. ................................................................................. 30 Figure 33. Combustion Stability for the FIPC Engine with Reduced Volume Prechambers ...... 31 Figure 34. Brake Thermal Efficiency for the FIPC Engine with Reduced Volume Prechambers 32 Figure 35. Brake Specific Nox Emissions for the FIPC Engine with Reduced Volume Prechambers .....................................................................................................................32 Figure 36. NOx Versus Efficiency Tradeoff for the FIPC Engine with Reduced Volume Prechambers .....................................................................................................................33 Figure 37. Brake Specific HC Emissions for the FIPC Engine with Reduced Volume Prechambers