Dissertation Investigation Into Producer Gas
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DISSERTATION INVESTIGATION INTO PRODUCER GAS UTILIZATION IN HIGH PERFORMANCE NATURAL GAS ENGINES Submitted by Daniel M. Wise Department of Mechanical Engineering In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Spring 2013 Doctoral Committee: Advisor: Daniel B. Olsen Gary Caille Anthony Marchese Sybil Sharvelle ABSTRACT INVESTIGATION INTO PRODUCER GAS UTILIZATION IN HIGH PERFOMANCE NATURAL GAS ENGINES A wide range of fuels are used in industrial gas fueled engines including well-head gas, pipeline natural gas, producer gas, coal gas, digester gas, landfill gas, and liquefied petroleum gas. Many industrial gas fueled engines operate both at high power density for increased efficiency and at ultra-lean air-fuel ratios for low NOx emissions. These two conditions require that engine operation occurs in a narrow air-fuel ratio band between the limits of misfire and the initiation of knock. The ability to characterize these limits for a given fuel is essential for efficient and effective engine operation. This work pursues two primary research objectives: (1) to characterize producer gas blends by developing prognostic tools with respect to a given blend’s resistance to knock and (2) to develop a process to determine knock onset for a given fuel gas through direct indication from pressure transducer data at varied air-fuel ratios (ranging from stoichiometric to ultra-lean) as well as varied intake conditions (ranging from naturally aspirated to boosted intake pressures replicating turbocharged engines) and to quantitatively characterize the knock event using discreet and repeatable metrics derived from the analysis of the data. Methane number determination for natural gas blends is traditionally performed with research engines at stoichiometric conditions where the onset of knock is identified through subjective audible indication. To more closely replicate the operating conditions of a typical industrial engine, a Cooperative Fuel Research (CFR F2) engine is modified for boosted fuel/air intake and variable exhaust back pressure (to simulate turbocharger operation) with the ii incorporation of piezoelectric pressure transducers at the cylinder head to allow quantitative analysis of cylinder pressure conditions and transients precursive to, during, and following a knock event of varying magnitude. The interpretation of this data provides for evaluation of unique analytical methods to quantify and characterize engine knock under these conditions. In the course of this study an objective and consistent method for measuring methane number is developed, measured methane number for a total of 35 producer gas blends is provided, and a prognostic tool for predicting methane number, utilizing neural networks, is presented. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Dan Olsen, my advisor, for his remarkable support throughout the course of my graduate studies. In addition, I would like to express my appreciation to my faculty committee members, Dr. Gary Caille, Dr. Anthony Marchese, and Dr. Sybil Sharvelle for their interest in this work, for the time they have invested on my behalf and for the guidance provided me throughout this process. Many thanks to the staff of the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory, in particular to Phil Bacon for his help and support offered on so many occasions and to Kirk Evans, without whose expertise and innovation this project would not have been possible. I also sincerely appreciate the help and support provided by my fellow graduate students, always willing to lend their expertise, as well as the undergraduate students working with me in the CFR laboratory, constructing the test cell nearly from scratch. To Chris Fischer, whose hard work and tireless contribution have been invaluable to the success of this project, thank you. Finally, to Kathy, my loving wife and partner, for your support throughout this process. It’s been far too much to ask but you’ve stayed with me every step of every journey, this one included. I can’t thank you enough. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................. viii LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................................... x LIST OF SYMBOLS .............................................................................................................. xv LIST OF ACRONYMS.......................................................................................................... xvi 1 INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL BACKGROUND .................................................... 1 1.1 Engine Knock .............................................................................................................. 3 1.2 Fuel Knock Ratings ..................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Problem Statement and Research Objectives.............................................................. 9 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................. 11 2.1 Metrics to Rate Resistance to Knock for Gaseous Fuels .......................................... 11 2.1 Characterization of Producer Gas as a Fuel in IC Engines ....................................... 21 3 EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS.................................................................................... 23 3.1 Hardware Set-Up ...................................................................................................... 23 3.2 Engine ....................................................................................................................... 26 3.3 Knock Measurement System .................................................................................... 28 3.4 Engine Intake System ............................................................................................... 30 3.5 Engine Exhaust System ............................................................................................. 40 3.6 Electronic Ignition .................................................................................................... 48 3.7 Fuel Blending System ............................................................................................... 49 3.8 Enabling Software and Virtual Instrumentation (VI) ............................................... 54 4 TEST PLAN AND FUEL SELECTION .......................................................................... 56 v 4.1 Test Cell Demonstration Testing .............................................................................. 56 4.2 Crank Angle/Piston Top Dead Center (TDC) Indication.......................................... 57 4.3 Ignition Timing Sweeps and MBT Timing Determination ....................................... 58 4.4 Methane Number Sensitivity to Engine Operating Parameters ................................ 59 4.5 Producer Gas Blend Selection .................................................................................. 61 4.6 Knock Measurement Method Development ............................................................. 65 4.7 Knock Level Thresholds ........................................................................................... 74 4.8 Knock Integral .......................................................................................................... 76 5 TEST RESULTS ............................................................................................................... 83 5.1 Measured Methane Numbers .................................................................................... 83 5.2 Critical Compression Ratio, Measured Methane Number and NMEP ..................... 84 5.3 Methane Number Sensitivity to Operational Parameters Results ............................. 87 5.4 Heating Value, Methane Number, NMEP and Intake Boost Pressure...................... 89 5.5 Combustion Analysis ................................................................................................ 92 5.6 Correlation of Measured Methane Number to Predicted .......................................... 94 5.7 Impact of Diluent and Fuel Gas Content on Measured Methane Number................ 97 6 PREDICTING METHANE NUMBER FOR PRODUCER GAS BLENDS ................. 100 6.1 CHEMKIN Modeling of Producer Gas Blends ...................................................... 100 6.2 Neural Network Methodology ................................................................................ 107 6.3 Neural Network Model for Producer Gas Methane Number .................................. 111 7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................... 114 7.1 Overview ................................................................................................................. 114 7.2 Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 114 7.3 Research Recommendations ................................................................................... 116 REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................