Abstract
Application of a pre-combustion chamber (PCC) ignition system is one of the methods to improve combustion stability and reduce toxic compounds emission, especially NOx. Using PCC allows the operation of the engine at lean combustion conditions or the utilization of low calorific gaseous fuels such as syngas or biogas. The paper presents the results of an experimental study of the combustion process in two stroke, large bore, stationary gas engine GMVH 12 equipped with two spark plugs (2-SP) and a PCC ignition system. The experimental research has been performed during the normal operation of the engine in an industrial compression station. It was observed that application of PCC provides less cycle-to-cycle combustion variation (more than 10%) and nitric oxide and carbon monoxide emissions decreased to 60% and 26% respectively. The total hydrocarbon (THC) emission rate is 25% higher for the engine equipped with PCC, which results in roughly two percent engine efficiency decrease. Another important criterion of engine retrofitting was the PCC location in the engine head. The experimental results show that improvement of engine operating parameters was recorded only for a configuration with one port offset by 45° from the axis of the main chamber. The study of the ignition delay angle and equivalence ratio in PCC did not demonstrate explicit influence on engine performance.
Highlights
Despite the introduction of modern low-emission high-speed four-stroke engines into the natural gas compression network, the share of old two-stroke type engines is still high
In the first stage of study each cylinder of GMVH-12 gas engine was equipped with two spark plugs, where the ignition delay was controlled automatically and set on an angle equal to −5.4◦ before the top dead centre (TDC)
The analysis of mean effective pressure distribution and overall emission have been collected for five rotational speeds
Summary
Despite the introduction of modern low-emission high-speed four-stroke engines into the natural gas compression network, the share of old two-stroke type engines is still high. Depending on the type of configuration, operating conditions and required power it can consist of 8, 12 and 16 cylinders depending on different power, adjusted to the size of the powered gas compressors. They are used in the transmission system of natural gas transported from Russia across Poland to the countries of Western Europe as well as the national gas transmission network.
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