Study of the Performance and Exhaust Emissions of a Spark-Ignited Engine Operating on Syngas Fuel R.G. Papagiannakis C.D. Rakop
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190 Int. J. Alternative Propulsion, Vol. 1, No. 2/3, 2007 Study of the performance and exhaust emissions of a spark-ignited engine operating on syngas fuel R.G. Papagiannakis Thermodynamic and Propulsion Systems Section, Aeronautical Sciences Department, Hellenic Air Force Academy, Dekelia Air Force Base, Dekelia Attiki, Greece E-mail: [email protected] C.D. Rakopoulos*, D.T. Hountalas and E.G. Giakoumis Internal Combustion Engines Laboratory, Thermal Engineering Department, School of Mechanical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Heroon Polytechniou St., Zografou Campus, 15780 Athens, Greece E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] *Corresponding author Abstract: To resolve the problem of depletion of petroleum based liquid fuels, various solutions have been proposed. One of them is the use of gaseous fuels that are generated from the gasification of woods, namely syngas or wood-gas fuels, as full supplement fuels in spark ignition internal combustion (IC) engines. This fuel consists of nearly 40% combustible gases, mainly hydrogen and carbon monoxide (CO), while the rest is non-combustible gases. In the present work, a comparison between experimental and computed results is presented for a conventional natural gas, spark-ignited engine, fuelled with syngas instead of natural gas fuel. For the theoretical investigation, a computer model is developed that simulates the syngas combustion processes in a conventional natural gas, spark-ignited engine. The combustion model is a two- zone one, where the combustion rate of syngas fuel depends on the velocity of the flame front that forms around the area of the burning zone and then spreads inside the combustion chamber. The flame front development takes into account the history of pressure and temperature inside the chamber and the local composition, in order to estimate the flame velocity. An equilibrium model is used to determine the concentration of the chemical species involved, the extended Zeldovich mechanism is used to determine the concentration of nitric oxide (NO) and a CO kinetics scheme is used to estimate the CO emission. To validate the predictive ability of the model, experimental measurements are used from the operation of a multi-cylinder, four-stroke, turbocharged, spark-ignited engine fuelled with syngas fuel, with the measurements corresponding to various values of the air to fuel ratio (load). The experimental results are found to be in good agreement with the respective computed ones obtained from the computer model. Comparing the computed results when operating the engine with natural gas as against syngas fuel, a serious effect of the syngas operation on the cylinder pressure diagrams and the engine brake efficiency is revealed, for all test cases examined. Moreover, Copyright © 2007 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. } Study of the performance and exhaust emissions 191 as far as pollutant emissions are concerned, the use of natural gas instead of syngas has a positive effect on both NO and CO emissions (reduction). Keywords: syngas fuel; hydrogen; carbon monoxide; spark ignition engine; performance; emissions. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Papagiannakis, R.G., Rakopoulos, C.D., Hountalas, D.T. and Giakoumis, E.G. (2007) ‘Study of the performance and exhaust emissions of a spark-ignited engine operating on syngas fuel’, Int. J. Alternative Propulsion, Vol. 1, No. 2/3, pp.190–215. Biographical notes: Roussos G. Papagiannakis obtained his Dipl.Ing. and Dr.Ing. degrees from the School of Mechanical Engineering of the NTUA, Greece. He is Lecturer at the Thermodynamic and Propulsion Systems Section of the Aeronautical Sciences Department in the Hellenic Air Force Academy, Athens, Greece. Constantine D. Rakopoulos is Head of the Thermal Engineering Department, Full Professor of Internal Combustion Engines and Director of the IC Engines Laboratory at the School of Mechanical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece. He graduated (Dipl.Ing.) from the NTUA and obtained his MSc, DIC and PhD degrees from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of London, UK. He has been responsible for the development of engines research at the School of Mechanical Engineering of the NTUA for the last 25 years, with over 140 refereed papers in international journals and conferences. Dimitrios T. Hountalas is Associate Professor of Internal Combustion Engines at the School of Mechanical Engineering of the NTUA, Greece. He graduated (Dipl.Ing.) from the School of Mechanical Engineering of NTUA where he also obtained his Dr.Ing. degree. His research interests include experimental and simulation analysis of diesel engines in the School of Mechanical Engineering of the NTUA for the last 15 years. Evangelos G. Giakoumis obtained his Dipl.Ing. and Dr.Ing. degrees from the School of Mechanical Engineering of the NTUA, Greece. He has worked for 6 years as Area Manager at the After-Sales Department of Peugeot Automobiles Distributor in Greece, and has been recently elected Lecturer at the Thermal Engineering Department of the School of Mechanical Engineering of the NTUA. His research interests include diesel engine experimental and simulation analysis under transient conditions, and second-law analysis of internal combustion engines. 1 Introduction The energy policy, whether in developing or industrialised countries, is an issue frequently discussed under economic, technical and political perspectives. The worldwide energy consumption is constantly increasing and it will certainly increase during at least the 21st century. Nowadays, around 80% of the world primary energy is satisfied by fossil fuels (Duret et al., 2005; Garnier et al., 2005). It has become common belief that today’s main resources of energy, such as the conventional petroleum based liquid fuels, will become scarce within the next generation. Awareness of limitations of fossil fuels reserves and the fact that burning of fossil fuels has a major contribution to the greenhouse gases emission has led to a growing 192 R.G. Papagiannakis et al. interest in the use of bio-energy and other renewable energy sources. Biomass is considered to be one of the key renewable energy resources of the future, especially in developing countries, at both small- and large-scale levels. It can lay claim to being considered as a renewable equivalent to fossil fuels. It offers flexibility of fuel supply due to the range and the diversity of fuels that can be produced. Biomass can be converted into liquid (bio-oil) or gaseous (biogas) fuels, which can be used on energy systems, increasing the energy available for economic development without contributing to the greenhouse effect, while most of the biomass fuels are characterised by friendly environmental attributes such as low levels of sulphur and NOX emissions (Chaudari et al., 2003; Huang and Crookes, 1998). Many internal combustion (IC) engines, usually converted from commercial compression- or spark-ignition engines, have been fuelled with natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and scarcely with biogases (producer gas, landfill gas and digester gas), for use in power generation, transportation and other applications (Kouremenos and Rakopoulos 1986; Rakopoulos and Kyritsis, 2001, 2006; Stone and Ladommatos, 1991; Stone et al., 1993). Advantages of reduced exhaust emissions and improved thermal efficiency under certain conditions with natural gas or LPG operation have been reported. Landfill gas and sewage gas are both the by-products of anaerobic decomposition of organic matter and are primarily composed of methane (~50–70%) and carbon dioxide (~50–30%). Landfill gas is produced in sanitary landfills, whereas the digester gas is produced at sewage treatment plants (Huang and Crookes, 1998). On the other hand, the producer gas is the product of the partial combustion (a thermo-chemical process, gasification and pyrolysis) of biomass in a gasifier, with its main components being: H2 (~20%), CO (~20%), N2, CO2 and CH4. Specifically, the syngas (wood-gas) producers convert solid biomass (woody chips and powdery) materials such as wood, agricultural and agro-industrial wastes (Garnier et al., 2005; Shridhar et al., 2001). Thus, with the increasing public interest in the conservation of energy resources and environmental protection, special attention is paid to the development of ecological and efficient combustion technologies. One of these technologies could be the use of syngas (wood-gas) (Cleland and Purvis, 1996; Hindsgaul et al., 2000; Munoz et al., 2000; Sobyanin et al., 2005). Using wood for electrical power generation produces zero net gain of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, essentially eliminates sulphur dioxide (SO2) emission, increases the energy security by using indigenous fuel, contributes to the industrial and forest economy, and improves the environment by using wastes and residues. From the thermodynamic point of view, combining heat and electricity production using wood gasification leads to a major advantage. On the one hand, the high temperature heat in the combustion chamber is used for high quality energy production (electricity), and on the other the lower temperature heat from the exhaust gas is used for low quality energy production (buildings heating). Biomass energy is labour-intensive to produce, harvest and transport as it is dispersed over large areas. Therefore, there is a limit for the upper size of