Combustion and emission performance of a syngas-diesel dual-fuel generator under constant load

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Date
2023-08-20
Authors
Arslan, Aysegul
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Abstract

Remote communities in Canada still rely on diesel generators for their heating and electricity. Diesel combustion produces emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and other hazardous pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbons (HC) and particulate matter (PM) which affect negatively the environment and human health. Governmental regulations have forced manufacturers of fossil fuel powered systems to reduce emissions. Fuel switching from petroleum diesel to sustainable fuels such as syngas, which is a gaseous fuel that can be produced from local biomass through gasification process, has the potential to substitute diesel fuel in numerous engineering power systems and consequently reduce undesirable emissions. For instance, syngas can substitute a large quantity of diesel fuel in dual-fuel diesel engines and hence significantly reduce emissions. With a self-ignition temperature typically exceeding 500°C, sole syngas cannot be used in compression ignition (CI) engines. However, the utilization of syngas in CI engines can be achieved through dual-fuel combustion mode where only a small amount of diesel is needed to initiate ignition. The primary objective of this thesis is to thoroughly investigate the combustion and emission performance of a four-cylinder syngas-diesel dual-fuel generator under constant load conditions. This is achieved by varying syngas flow rates and composition, and optimizing direct injection (DI) strategies and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate. The unique aspect of this research is that experiments were performed on a modern multi-cylinder diesel-fueled generator with minimal modifications, making it more relevant for practical applications. The findings from this study can potentially be directly applied to real-world scenarios, where existing diesel generators can be retrofitted to accommodate syngas utilization in dual-fuel combustion mode.

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Syngas/diesel dual-fuel combustion, heavy-duty diesel engine, direct injection strategy, EGR, emissions
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