Effects of Injection Overlap and EGR on Performance and Emissions of Natural Gas HPDI Marine Engine

Abstract

ABSTRACT Due to the increasingly stringent emission regulations and the growing concern about energy hazard, natural gas (NG) has emerged as an alternative fuel with abundant reserves, low cost, high combustion performance and low pollutant emissions. In this study, a NG high pressure direct injection (HPDI) model is embedded in a Cummins ISX marine medium-speed four-stroke natural gas-diesel dual fuel (NGDDF) engine model. The strategies with different injection overlap of NG and pilot diesel oil (PDO) and different exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) were investigated, the following conclusions are drawn. At the same EGR rate, the injection start point of NG (SOING) has impact on the compression end pressure to some extent, while the injection end point of the pilot diesel oil (EOIPDO) makes little difference to the compression end pressure. With the increase of SOING, the maximum pressure (PMax) rises gradually. When the SOING remains unchanged, the longer the pilot diesel oil (PDO) injection lasts, the higher the PMax. The heat release rate (HRR) of HPDI engine has two peaks. The first one decreases as the EGR rate rises, while the other is inversely proportional only to the EGR rate. As the EGR rate increasing, the position of the second peak of HRR is increasingly delayed, irrespective of the injection strategy used. At the same EGR rate, the overlapping injection strategy has only a limited impact on the maximum in-cylinder temperature (about 42 K) and the soot emission (about 0.003 g/kwh). The first stage of nitrogen oxides (NOX) generation is closely related to the EGR rate. The higher the EGR rate, the longer the interval between the first and second stage of NOX generation. Though both reasonable injection overlap and delay of EOIPDO are conducive to reduce pollutant emissions, it remains necessary to delay the position of the overlap angle as much as possible, and the emission reduction effect of injection overlap will diminish as the EGR rate increasing. Either the injection overlap formed by delaying EOIPDO or advancing SOING has a positive impact on indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP). The introduction of EGR will increase indicated specific fuel consumption (ISFC) of the engine, while the injection overlap strategy can be used to reduce it by 5.35 g/kwh. In order to meet the Tier III standard, the combination of injection strategy B and 18% EGR can be considered as the most effective solution for soot, ISFC and IMEP factors.