PSFC JA-06-3 Onboard Plasmatron Hydrogen Production for Improved Vehicles L. Bromberg, D.R. Cohn, A. Rabinovich, N. Alexeev, A. Samokhin, K. Hadidi, J. Palaia, N. Margarit-Bel February 6, 2006 MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center Work supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of FreedomCar and Vehicle Technologies, Contract number: DE-AC03-99EE50565 1 Abstract This paper describes progress in plasmatron fuel reformers and applications to internal combustion vehicles. Several plasmatron configurations and their performance with a variety of fuels are described. Fuels investigated range from methane and propane to gasoline, diesel and biofuels. Applications described include lean spark ignition operation, NOx trap regeneration, diesel particulate filter regeneration and ignition timing control in advanced combustion mode engines. 2 Table of Contents 1) INTRODUCTION AND ORGANIZATION OF REPORT................................................................. 5 2) PLASMATRON DESCRIPTION............................................................................................................ 7 A) THERMAL PLASMATRON (GEN 1)............................................................................................................. 8 Summary of thermal plasmatron features ................................................................................................. 11 B) LOW CURRENT PLASMATRON FUEL CONVERTERS (GEN 2) ................................................................... 12 Summary of gen 2 plasmatron features..................................................................................................... 14 C) WIDE AREA ELECTRODE, LOW CURRENT PLASMATRON FUEL REFORMER (GEN 3) .............................. 14 Summary of the gen 3 plasmatron features............................................................................................... 17 D) PLASMATRON DEVELOPMENT AT ARVINMERITOR............................................................................... 17 E) DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL SETUP ........................................................................................ 18 Transient analysis with a mass spectrometer............................................................................................ 21 Description of the mass spectrometer .....................................................................................................................21 Calculations vs experiments ....................................................................................................................................24 Calibration with CFD code......................................................................................................................................25 3) PLASMATRON APPLICATIONS TO SPARK-IGNITION ENGINE ........................................... 27 A) SI ENGINE TEST SETUP AND PLASMATRON PERFORMANCE................................................................... 28 B) RESULTS................................................................................................................................................. 29 C) DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................................... 33 4) PLASMATRON APPLICATION TO AFTERTREATMENT I: NOX TRAP............................... 35 A) INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 35 B) PLASMATRON TECHNOLOGY FOR NOX AFTERTREATMENT.................................................................. 35 C) ADVANTAGES OF COMPACT PLASMATRON FUEL CONVERTERS.......................................................... 36 D) CATALYST REGENERATION ESTIMATION............................................................................................... 37 E) BIOFUEL REFORMATION ........................................................................................................................ 41 F) DIESEL REFORMATION........................................................................................................................... 42 G) HYDROGEN ASSISTED NOX TRAP REGENERATION AT ARVINMERITOR............................................... 43 H) TEST CELL SETUP AND RESULTS ............................................................................................................ 44 I) VEHICLE INSTALLATION AND RESULTS................................................................................................. 48 J) ARVINMERITOR/MIT RESULTS SUMMARY........................................................................................... 50 K) CUMMINS/MIT NOX TRAP REGENERATION TESTS ............................................................................... 50 5) PLASMATRON APPLICATION TO AFTERTREATMENT II: DPF TRAP............................... 52 A) PLASMATRON TECHNOLOGY FOR DPF REGENERATION ...................................................................... 54 B) CALCULATIONS OF REFORMER REQUIREMENTS................................................................................... 55 C) TESTING PROCEDURE ............................................................................................................................ 58 D) HOMOGENEOUS OXIDATION OF REFORMATE IN THE EXHAUST........................................................... 60 Model.......................................................................................................................................................... 60 Results from the PSR Model ...................................................................................................................... 61 Plug Flow Reactor Simulation.................................................................................................................................62 Non-Equilibrium Reformer .....................................................................................................................................64 6) PLASMATRON AIDED HCCI OPERATION.................................................................................... 67 A) TEMPERATURE CONTROL....................................................................................................................... 67 B) OCTANE CONTROL ................................................................................................................................. 69 7) MODELING ............................................................................................................................................. 72 A) FLUID DYNAMICS MODELING................................................................................................................. 72 Methane plasmatron CFD modeling......................................................................................................... 72 Axial injection of methane ......................................................................................................................... 73 3 Methane premixed with swirl gas.............................................................................................................. 78 Propane plasmatron CFD modeling ......................................................................................................... 81 Gasoline plasmatron CFD modeling......................................................................................................... 85 50 µm diameter droplets ..........................................................................................................................................86 10 µm diameter droplets ..........................................................................................................................................89 Finite spray angle .....................................................................................................................................................90 Cooling of the gas by evaporating fuel ...................................................................................................................91 B) CHEMICAL MODELING ........................................................................................................................... 92 PSR model .................................................................................................................................................. 92 Two Stage PSR results.............................................................................................................................................93 Effect of residence time in the conversion..............................................................................................................96 Discussion.................................................................................................................................................................98 Partially Stirred Reactor Model.............................................................................................................. 101 Partial Stirred Reactor (PaSR)................................................................................................................ 103 Discussion................................................................................................................................................. 110 8) STEADY STATE EXPERIMENTS .................................................................................................... 112 A) METHANE REFORMING