Ultra-low Nitrogen Research Articles

Low Temperature Combustion Modeling and Predictive Control of Marine Engines

The increase of popularity of reactivity-controlled compression ignition (RCCI) is attributed to its capability of achieving ultra-low nitrogen oxides (NOx) and soot emissions with high brake thermal efficiency (BTE). The complex and nonlinear nature of the RCCI combustion makes it challenging for model-based control design. In this work, a model-based control system is developed to control the combustion phasing and the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) of RCCI combustion through the adjustments of total fuel energy and blend ratio (BR) in fuel injection. A physics-based nonlinear control-oriented model (COM) is developed to predict the main combustion performance indicators of an RCCI marine engine. The model is validated against a detailed thermo-kinetic multizone model. A novel linear parameter-varying (LPV) model coupled with a model predictive controller (MPC) is utilized to control the aforementioned parameters of the developed COM. The developed system is able to control combustion phasing and IMEP with a tracking error that is within a 5% error margin for nominal and transient engine operating conditions. The developed control system promotes the adoption of RCCI combustion in commercial marine engines.

Thermal Management of Diesel Engine Aftertreatment System Based on Ultra-Low Nitrogen Oxides Emission

To achieve diesel engine ultra-low nitrogen oxide emission, light-off selective catalyst reduction (LO-SCR) has been suggested for better performance with lower exhaust temperature. An electric heater upstream of the exhaust aftertreatment system was applied to significantly decrease the NOx emission at a low exhaust temperature. With a 7.2 kW electric heater coupled with LO-SCR, the NOx emission during 200~500 s of the world harmonized transient cycle (WHTC) decreased from 282.6 ppm to 61.5 ppm, which is a decrease of 45%. Application of an upstream diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) decreased the NOx emission by 63% at the same interval at the cost of worse cold-start performance. The urea input was also adjusted to avoid NOx emission during the latter part of the WHTC.

Fabrication, microstructure and optical properties of 〈110〉 textured CVD polycrystalline diamond infrared materials

The fabrication of “bulk” diamond materials with high transmittance and enough thickness was essential for application as infrared windows. The present work reported the preparation, microstructure and optical properties of polycrystalline diamond materials by MPCVD method using ultralow nitrogen doping (0–80 ppm). The effects of nitrogen concentration and synthesis temperature on the crystalline quality, microstructure, and infrared transmittance were systematically studied by XRD/Raman, SEM/TEM, and UV–VIS/FTIR spectrophotometer, respectively. The results showed that nitrogen doping with appropriate concentration could promote the formation of texture with strong <110> plane orientation, and the growth rate was significantly enhanced without obvious reduction in the optical quality. The freestanding diamond materials fabricated at the nitrogen concentration (10–20 ppm) had high <110> texture degree, enough thickness (>0.7 mm), fast growth rates (~3–6 μm/h), and peak transmittance of ~70.1 % in the infrared band (3.0–15.0 μm). The nitrogen doped diamonds fabricated by this process had excellent performance which showing potential applications as infrared windows for ultrahigh-speed aircrafts.

Investigative research of diesel/ethanol advanced combustion strategies: A comparison of Premixed Charge Compression Ignition (PCCI) and Direct Dual Fuel Stratification (DDFS)

Direct Dual Fuel Stratification (DDFS) is a new low-temperature combustion (LTC) approach that employs dual fuel direct injection in the combustion chamber. In this method, a relatively small proportion of diesel fuel was pre-injected and utilized to activate the burning of the premixed charge followed by direct injection of a diesel/ethanol mixture (75% diesel, 25% ethanol by volume) into the combustion chamber near TDC. The DDFS approach generates a lower reactivity charge in the central sector of the combustion chamber and a stronger reactivity charge along the wall. For the examination of combustion vibrations and acoustic, a new technique dependent on the fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the cylinder vibration statistics was used. Whereas the PCCI combustion technique is more likely to cause knocking than the typical diesel CI, the results show that charge stratification in DDFS combustion does have a good effect in reducing vibration intensity. Owing to the improved controllability of the start of combustion and burning period, DDFS combustion attained a brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of 51%, which was larger than CI and PCCI. DDFS shows ultra-low nitrogen oxide (NOx) (below 1 g/kW-h), mild carbon monoxide (CO) (below 6 g/kW-h), and unburned hydrocarbons (UHC) emissions. Because of the higher thermal efficiency and a decreased carbon source due to presence of ethanol, DFFS combustion could produce lower CO levels by up to 34% when compared to PCCI.

Cylinder Pressure Feedback Control for Ideal Thermodynamic Cycle Tracking: Towards Self-learning Engines

To meet increasingly strict future greenhouse gas and pollutant emission targets, development time and costs of heavy-duty internal combustion engines will reach unacceptable levels. This is mainly due to increased system complexity and need to guarantee robust performance under a wide range of real-world conditions. Cylinder Pressure Based Control is a major contributor to achieve these goals in advanced, highly-efficient engine concepts. Current Cylinder Pressure Based Control approaches use combustion and air-path parameters as feedback signals. These signals are not directly linked to engine efficiency; therefore, compensation for changing ambient conditions, engine ageing or differences in fuel qualities is a non-trivial problem. Contrary to other methods, the method presented in this paper aims to realise an idealised thermodynamic cycle by directly control of the entire cylinder pressure curve. From measured in-cylinder pressure, a new set of feedback signals is derived using principle component decomposition. With these signals, optimal fuel path settings are determined. The potential of this method is demonstrated for a dual fuel Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) engine, which combines very high efficiency and ultra low nitrogen oxides and particle matter emission. For the studied RCCI engine, it is shown that the newly proposed optimisation method gave the same optimal fuel path settings as existing methods. This is an important step towards self-learning engines.

Effect of nitrogen on micro-pores in DD33 single crystal superalloy during solidification and homogenization

The DD33 superalloy with ultra-low nitrogen (N) content was prepared by vacuum induced melting, and the effect of N on micro-pores in the DD33 single crystal nickel-base superalloy during solidification and homogenization was investigated by in-situ X-ray computed tomography (XCT). Results indicate that the volume fraction of micro-pores, including shrinkage pores and gas pores, increases from 0.08% to 0.11% with increasing N content from 5 ppm to 45 ppm during solidification. Correspondingly, the level of micro-pores in the sample with high N content is higher than that in the sample with low N content during homogenization at 1,330 °C for different time periods. However, the evolution behaviors of gas pores is different from that of shrinkage pores during solidification and homogenization. The number of gas pores is obviously larger in the high N sample during solidification, while the number of shrinkage pores and gas pores is almost the same in both samples after 1 h homogenization. Quantitative results show that the annihilation of micro-pores is associated with bubble diffusion, while the growth behavior of micro-pores during further exposure is dominated by Kirkendall-Frenkel effect.

Experimental Study on the Emission Performance of Lean Premixed Bunsen Flame with Piloted Rich Premixed Flame

Lean premixed flame has lower nitrogen oxide emission for lower flame temperature. Whereas its poor flame stability, an annual rich pilot premixed flame was used to enhance flame stability and reduce emissions with lower ratio of pilot flame and main lean flame load. With the increasing of pilot flame load, air coefficient of main flame increases gradually. Increasing the main flame load, the air coefficient of stable main flame decreases, while the nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide changes little. Under all main flame load, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide decrease sharply at first and then gets slowly. The ultralow Nitrogen Oxide of 18 mg/m³and carbon monoxide of 50 mg/m³can be reached, under the condition of main flame air coefficient from 1.3 to 1.5.

Catalyst-Heating Operation in a Medium-Duty Diesel Engine: Operating Strategy Calibration, Fuel Reactivity, and Fuel Oxygen Effects

&lt;div class="section abstract"&gt;&lt;div class="htmlview paragraph"&gt;Compliance with future ultra-low nitrogen oxide regulations with diesel engines requires the fastest possible heating of the exhaust aftertreatment system to its proper operating temperature upon cold starting. Late post injections are commonly integrated into catalyst-heating operating strategies. This experimental study provides insight into the complex interactions between the injection-strategy calibration and the tradeoffs between exhaust heat and pollutant emissions. Experiments are performed with certification diesel fuel and blends of diesel fuel with butylal and hexyl hexanoate. Further analyses of experimental data provide insight into fuel reactivity and oxygen content as potential enablers for improved catalyst-heating operation.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="htmlview paragraph"&gt;A statistical design-of-experiments approach is developed to investigate a wide range of injection strategy calibrations at three different intake dilution levels. Thermodynamic and exhaust emissions measurements are taken using a new medium-duty, single-cylinder research engine. Analysis of the results provides insight into the effects of exhaust gas recirculation, oxygenated fuel blends, and fuel reactivity on exhaust heat and pollutant emissions. Late-cycle heat release is an important factor in determining exhaust temperatures. Intake dilution and fuel properties certainly affect late-cycle heat release, but the methods applied in this work are not sufficient to reproduce or explain the mechanisms by which improved fuel cetane rating promotes operation with hotter exhaust and lower pollutant emissions.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

Multiple-objective optimization of heavy-duty compression ignition engine fueled by gasoline/hydrogenated catalytic biodiesel blends at low loads

Multiple-objective optimization of a heavy-duty compression ignition engine fueled by gasoline/hydrogenated catalytic biodiesel (HCB) blends at low loads was performed by employing the KIVA-3V code and genetic algorithm. In addition, the mechanism of multiple-injection and sensitivity of operating parameters on engine performance of the optimal cases were also explored. The results indicated that efficient combustions for G70H30 (70% gasoline and 30% HCB) and G100 (pure gasoline) with ultra-low nitrogen oxides (NOx) and soot emissions could be obtained after optimization. As HCB fraction increases, the ranges of operating parameters become more extensive, and the required initial temperature for optimal cases can be effectively reduced. When the main injection occurs after the ignition caused by pilot injection, main injection moderates the heat release rate (HRR) by creating concentration and temperature stratifications in the spray area simultaneously, and the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate, pilot, and main start of injections and pilot fraction play dominant roles on engine performance. Moreover, when main injection is much more advanced than the ignition timing, main injection controls the HRR only through the concentration stratification in the reaction zone, and the EGR rate, initial temperature, and pilot faction have dominated effects on engine performance.

Prediction of emission and performance characteristics of reactivity-controlled compression ignition engine with the intelligent software based on adaptive neural-fuzzy and neural-network

A fuel reactivity-controlled compression ignition concept promises to overcome increasingly stringent emission standards with ultra-low nitrogen oxide and soot emissions and very high fuel efficiency. In the present work, it was developed an intelligent software-based on adaptive neural-fuzzy inference systems in order to predict the emission and performance values of reactivity-controlled compression ignition engine fueled with natural gas and diesel under different operating conditions through an experimentally validated computational fluid dynamics model with the four cases generated in the study for intelligent software-based on neural-fuzzy systems simulation considering different input and output parameters. The engine model was run at input variables as initial pressure (1.67–2.79 bar), total fuel mass (60–130 mg), exhaust gas recirculation ratio (0–20%), the start of injection (32–56° before top dead center) and total 180 different conditions were generated while output responses such as indicated power, maximum in-cylinder pressure, soot, and nitrogen oxide emissions. The main operating parameters of the reactivity-controlled compression ignition engine were determined for different load conditions, enabling the engine to operate in a wide range with high efficiency and low emission. For the neural-fuzzy inference model presented study, the different number Gaussian curve membership functions (5, 6, 7, 8) (gaussmf) have been used considering different adaptive neural-fuzzy cases, and generally, about 13500 training cycles is found to be optimum neural-fuzzy inference parameters and minimum error value. Mean square error, mean error percentage, and the absolute fraction of variance (R2) were used to assess and compare the performance of the adaptive neural-fuzzy and artificial neural network. Results of the adaptive neural-fuzzy confirm that the model successfully predicts the performance and emission of the engine with the R2 value % 99.8, %99.9, and %96.5 for the output parameters indicated power, maximum in-cylinder pressure, and nitrogen oxide, respectively. Moreover, the performance of the neural-fuzzy inference algorithm compared with artificial neural network and consequently, it was observed that neural-fuzzy inference gives more accurate predict value according to the artificial neural network. Moreover, generating a neural-fuzzy inference architecture using the proposed mathematical foundation given the study shows that neural-fuzzy inference is a very effective and helpful technique to predict the reactivity-controlled compression ignition engine performance and emission parameters.

Experimental study on ultra-low initial NOx emission characteristics of Shenmu coal and char in a high temperature CFB with post-combustion

The NOx emission of conventional circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers could hardly meet the increasing strict standards in China, so the initial NOx emission and control of Shenmu coal and char were investigated in a 0.5 MWth high temperature CFB test platform with a main combustion zone (MCZ) and a post-combustion zone (PCZ), the reducing atmosphere in MCZ suppressed the formation of NOx, high temperature in PCZ made the residual carbon and CO burnout, the technology of high temperature CFB with post-combustion had the advantage of decreasing the initial NOx emission while maintaining the combustion efficiency of fuel. The experimental results showed that as the injection position of post-combustion air (PCA) moving backward, the reducing zone in PCZ was enlarged so more NOx could be converted to N2. When PCA was injected from PCA1 and PCA3, NOx and CO emission were both relatively lower than other injection positions, the temperature in PCZ of Shenmu char was more uniform and its NOx emission was lower compared to Shenmu coal, the peak temperatures of MCZ and PCC were 968 °C and 936 °C respectively, the initial NOx emission of Shenmu coal was 46 mg/m3 (at 6% O2), meanwhile, the CO emission was 139 ppm. The initial NOx emission of Shenmu char could reach 41 mg/m3 when the temperatures of MCZ and PCZ were 931 °C and 913 °C respectively, the new ultra-low emission requirement (≤50 mg/m3) was successfully achieved without additional denitration equipment, so the technology of high temperature CFB with post-combustion is an effective ultra-low nitrogen combustion technology.

Technical Route to Achieve Ultra-Low Emission of Nitrogen Oxides with Predictive Model of Nitrogen Oxide Background Concentration

As the most mature denitration technology in the cement clinker burning process, selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) has been unable to meet the requirements of ultra-low nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions under low ammonia escape, thus a hybrid denitration process based on SNCR was established. The process had three steps: reducing the NOX background concentration (NBC), implementing staged combustion, and optimizing the effect of the SNCR. One of the keys to this process was the real-time acquisition of the NBC. In this paper, a multivariate linear regression model for the prediction of NBC was constructed and applied to one 12,000 t/d production line and one 5000 t/d production line. For the 12,000 t/d production line, NBC had a positive correlation with the temperature of the calciner outlet, the pressure, and the temperature of the kiln hood, and it had a negative correlation with the quantity of the kiln coal, the temperature of the smoke chamber, and the main motor current of the kiln. The influence degree of each parameter on the NBC is gradually weakened according to the above order. The determination coefficient (R2) of the model was 0.771, and the mean absolute error and maximum relative error between the predicted and measured NBC were 6.300 mg/m3 and 18.670 mg/m3 respectively.

The effect of direct water injection on a diesel-gasoline reactivity controlled compression ignition engine

Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) combustion is a promising method to achieve ultra-low nitrogen oxide and soot emissions. However, the main problem of this strategy is the limited operating range, which is mainly caused by high pressure rise rate. In this study, the possibility of using direct water injection as an approach to decrease pressure rise rate is appraised. To that end, a Lagrangian-Eulerian approach is used to simulate a gasoline-diesel RCCI engine with the use of OpenFOAM. The effects of water injection timing and the mass ratio of injected water to diesel fuel on the engine performance are investigated. The study also includes the injection of water into a Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engine to compare the effect of direct water injection on RCCI and HCCI methods. According to the results, the optimal case with the water injection timing of −10°ATDC and mass ratio of 3 achieves a 29% reduction in maximum pressure rise rate at the cost of a 1.4% decrease in engine power and a 1% increase in overall emissions. Sensitivity analysis shows that direct water injection has the most impact on maximum pressure rise rate and the lowest impact on gross indicated efficiency. A trade-off between maximum pressure rise rate and emissions can be achieved by adjusting spray angle or water injection timing in the RCCI concept. However, in the HCCI strategy, direct water injection invariably results in significantly increasing overall emissions regardless of the spray angle and water injection timing.

In-depth comparison between pure diesel and diesel methanol dual fuel combustion mode

Diesel Methanol Dual Fuel (DMDF) could achieve high efficiency and low emissions simultaneously at part of engine conditions, but the reason of this has not been clarified. In order to find the reason behind this phenomenon, Pressure-Volume (P-V) map, equivalence ratio (φ)-temperature (T) map and three-dimensional simulation software were used to compare diesel and DMDF mode, and two test conditions were selected to fulfill in-depth comparison of two combustion modes. Based on the analysis of P-V map, the reason of higher thermal efficiency at DMDF mode is as follows: lower cylinder pressure in compression stroke contributes to compression work reduction. Meanwhile, higher combustion rate of DMDF mode could reduce cylinder temperature and pressure in the late power stroke, which would further decrease exhaust loss and heat loss. Based on the analysis of φ-T map, higher methanol substitution percent could reduce the intersection area between cylinder φ-T map and nitric oxide & soot generation region. And after analyzing in-cylinder temperature, hydroxy mole fraction together with the equivalent ratio three-dimensional cloud map, it is found that the inhibitory effect of methanol on diesel low-temperature combustion prolongs diesel ignition delay, which helps to form the homogeneous charge in the cylinder. Under DMDF mode, fuel rich areas are significantly reduced, so is the maximum in-cylinder temperature. This is the key to achieve ultra-low nitrogen oxides and soot emissions for DMDF mode.

Natural gas-diesel reactivity controlled compression ignition with negative valve overlap and in-cylinder fuel reforming

Dual-fuel reactivity controlled compression ignition combustion offers potentially superior overall efficiency and ultra-low nitrogen oxides and soot emissions. Using natural gas as the low reactivity fuel also provides high knock-resistance and carbon dioxide emission reduction. However, the concept suffers from relatively low combustion efficiency at low engine loads, causing unacceptable methane slip. This study tackles this issue, applying numerical simulations to investigate the application of negative valve overlap to improve combustion efficiency of reactivity controlled compression ignition at low engine loads. The objective is modification of in-cylinder thermal and chemical state before combustion, by varying timing and amount of fuel injected directly into the recompressed hot exhaust gases. The study uses TNO's multi-zone, chemical kinetics-based combustion model with variable valve actuation functionality. The simulation is based on two experimentally validated cases: an uncooled exhaust gas recirculation strategy and a lean burn concept. In both cases, negative valve overlap elevates in-cylinder temperature and cuts methane emissions by 15%, without combustion optimization. Crucially, it enables peak exhaust recompression temperatures above 850 K, sufficient for diesel reforming/oxidation. The lean RCCI strategy takes greater advantage of fuel reforming than the exhaust gas recirculation case. Optimum conditions give almost 99% combustion efficiency and ultra-low methane emissions. Net indicated efficiency is 40.5% (@15% load), despite negative valve overlap’s substantial pumping losses. Low-load net efficiency is 5.5 percentage points above the lean strategy baseline and 3 pp. better than the exhaust gas recirculation baseline. This strategy is considered applicable on state-of-the-art dual-fuel gas engines without hardware changes.

Performance of a diesel oxidation catalyst under diesel-gasoline reactivity controlled compression ignition combustion conditions

Reactivity controlled compression ignition is a promising combustion strategy due to the combination of excellent thermal efficiency with ultra-low nitrogen oxides and particulate matter raw emissions. However, very high levels of unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide emissions are found. It limits the reactivity controlled compression ignition use at very low loads and presents an additional challenge for the diesel oxidation catalyst. The low exhaust temperature and high carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon concentration can penalise the catalyst conversion efficiency. The objective of this work is to evaluate the response of an automotive diesel oxidation catalyst when used for reactivity controlled compression ignition combustion combining experimental and modelling approaches. For this purpose, dedicated tests have been done using diesel-gasoline as fuel combination in a single-cylinder engine. This way, the catalyst conversion efficiency has been determined within a wide operating range covering hydrocarbon adsorption conditions and the pollutants abatement dependence on the mass flow and temperature. The experimental results in the full-size catalyst has been analysed by modelling. A lumped diesel oxidation catalyst model has been applied to extend the results to multi-cylinder engine conditions and to determine the light-off curves for both carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. These tests evidence the penalty in light-off temperature due to high pollutants mass fraction, which promotes inhibition limitations to the reaction rate.

Multi-point micro-flame ignited hybrid lean-burn combustion of gasoline with direct injection dimethyl ether

Lean-burn combustion is effective in reducing fuel consumption of gasoline engines because of the higher specific heat ratio of the fuel lean mixture and reduced heat loss from lower combustion temperature. However, its application to real engines is hampered by the unstable ignition, high cyclic variability, and partial-burn due to slower combustion, as well as the restricted maximum lean-burn air/fuel ratio limit and the insufficiently low nitrogen oxides emission. Multi-point micro-flame-ignited hybrid combustion has been proposed and applied to extend the lean burn limit of premixed gasoline and air mixture. To achieve micro-flame-ignited combustion in premixed lean gasoline mixture formed by port fuel injection, a small amount of dimethyl ether is injected directly into the cylinder of a four-stroke gasoline engine to control and accelerate the ignition and combustion process so that the engine could be operated with the overall excess air coefficient (Lambda) of 1.9. The results show that heat release processes can be grouped into three forms, that is, ramp type, double-peak type, and trapezoid type. Regardless of single or split injections, direct injection timing of dimethyl ether dominates the features of heat release. The ramp type occurs at early injection timing while the double-peak type takes place at late injection timing. Trapezoid type appears between the above two types. Dimethyl ether injection timing controls the ignition timing and has less effect on combustion duration. Single injection of dimethyl ether leads to much earlier ignition timing and slightly longer combustion duration, forming higher nitrogen oxides emissions than the split injections. Ultra-low nitrogen oxides emissions and higher thermal efficiency are achieved in the ramp type combustion compared to the other two types of combustion in both injection approaches.

Vacuum denitrification and nitrogen absorption of molten steel under ultra-low nitrogen conditions

ABSTRACTVacuum smelting experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of different initial nitrogen content and surface active elements on nitrogen denitrification and nitrogen absorption in molten steel. Thermodynamic calculations show that the pressure corresponding to 10 ppm of [N] should be less than 45 Pa; at 30 Pa and 1600°C, the nitrogen content in the steel reduced from 18 to 10 ppm in 50 min. Furthermore, denitrification can be described as a 1.5th order reaction model. In addition, the mean parameters of nitrogen absorption between the ultra-low and common-nitrogen steels are different: for ultra-low nitrogen molten steel exposed to air, even if [S] ≥ 200 ppm and [O] ≥ 300 ppm, [N] can increase from 10 to over 40 ppm in 20 min.

Dynamic modeling and model predictive control of an RCCI engine

Reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) is a low temperature combustion strategy that offers one of the highest reported indicated thermal efficiencies for internal combustion engines, while having ultra-low nitrogen oxides (NOx) and soot emissions. The complex nature of RCCI makes it challenging to control combustion for an optimum heat release shape at broad engine operation with low cyclic variability and without exceeding maximum allowable in-cylinder pressure rise rate. This study aims at developing a control oriented model (COM) and a model predictive controller (MPC) to adjust combustion phasing, including crank angle by which 50% of fuel mass is burnt (CA50) and load, including indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) during both steady-state and transient RCCI operations. A new COM is developed using a combination of physics-based and empirical models. An MPC with a 5-cycle prediction horizon is developed and implemented on an experimental RCCI engine setup. The IMEP and CA50 are controlled by adjusting injected fuel quantity, dual-fuel premixed ratio (PR), and start of injection (SOI) timing. To extend the controller operating range, switched MPCs are developed using PR as the scheduling variable. In addition, a sensitivity-based control strategy is developed to select between PR and SOI as the control variable. Experimental validation results show that the designed controller can track desired CA50 and IMEP with less than 1.4 CAD and 15 kPa tracking errors on a range of RCCI operation.

Simulation, exergy analysis and optimization of a shale oil hydrogenation process for clean fuels production

Because of high contents of unsaturated hydrocarbons, sulfur, nitrogen and other impurities in shale oil, its potential use as an alternative fuel is limited. Shale oil hydrogenation technology is an efficient technique for upgrading shale oil to remove heteroatomic compounds. The whole shale oil hydrogenation process is modeled and simulated firstly in this paper, including embedding the kinetic models of hydrogenation reactions. The corresponding-state group contribution method is applied to estimate the physical properties of the components of shale oil. The performance of the shale oil hydrogenation process is analyzed by exergy analysis. The results indicate that the exergy efficiency of the shale oil hydrogenation process is about 69.20%. The energy bottleneck is the furnaces and compressors because the energy consumption of these devices is 59% and 24% of that of the shale oil hydrogenation process. Furthermore, to optimize the performance of this process, the key parameters of the process are investigated and optimized. The preferable reaction temperature of the hydrorefining and the hydrocracking reactors is 350–375 °C and 375–400 °C. The reaction pressure and catalyst grading ratio are suggested to 16–17 MPa and 1:3:3 for maximizing the yield of products with ultra-low nitrogen and heteroatomic compounds.