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Proceedings of the International Conference on Power Engineering-09 (ICOPE-09) November 16-20, 2009, Kobe, Japan

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF USING WATER-GASOLINE EMULSIONS AS A NOx TREATMENT AND ITS EFFECTS ON PERFORMANCE AND EMISSIONS OF LEAN-BURN SPARK-IGNITION ENGINE
Quang-Anh Nguyen, Yuh-Yih Wu Dept. of Vehicle Eng., National Taipei University of Technology, 1, Sec. 3, Jhongsiao E. Rd., Taipei, Taiwan ABSTRACT Automotive emission regulations are becoming more and more stringent. The NOx standards still pose a formidable challenge. As we known, lean combustion is one of the best ways to reduce fuel consumption at part engine load. However, it produces higher NOx emissions. The reasons are high combustion temperature and excess of oxygen in cylinder. Both water-gasoline fuel emulsions and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) are used to absorb the heat in cylinder and reduce the combustion temperature. This paper introduces the process of intake port modification to develop a lean burn system. It also studies about applicable technique water-gasoline emulsions - used in this engine for reducing the NOx. To reach the lean combustion, the original intake port of a four-stroke spark-ignition (SI) engine was modified to generate tumble by using various flow control baffles. The in-cylinder air motion generated by each configuration was characterized using swirl and tumble flow bench to choose the optimum one. The first test is trying to reach the lean-limit of both original engine and modified one using pure gasoline. After that, this lean burn engine was tested with three different water concentrations of water-gasoline emulsions 5%, 10% and 15% respectively. Test conditions are based on vehicle running at 90 km/h on the high way. The engine torque, fuel consumption, exhaust emissions, and combustion characteristics of all tests were investigated. Water-gasoline emulsion has a positive effect on NOx reduction with a suitable water concentration at 5% by mass. The NOx emissions has been decreased 35.0% approximately in comparison with lean-burn engine using pure gasoline Keywords: Water-gasoline emulsion; lean burn; SI engine. without any change of intake port or cylinder head. As mentioned by previous researches [5], [6] the increase of NOx emissions can be a negative effect of lean combustion. Some techniques that have been under widen research and discussion like using of EGR, water additions to the combustion chamber or three-way catalyst. The second technique which is widely applied in diesel engine can be evaluated into three types: water-fuel emulsion, water injection using separated injector and addition of water at the engine intake manifold. In this paper, we only mention about the using of water-gasoline emulsion. The key for decreasing NOx emissions level while using water-fuel emulsion is the reduction of peak combustion temperature in combustion chamber. Bruce et al. [7] has investigated the effects of water-gasoline fuels on SI Engine emission and performance. The results showed that water-gasoline emulsion can decrease NOx following with the definite antiknock characteristics. Manuel et al. [8] experimented on diesel engine and found that due to the lower energy content of the diesel water fuel blends, the engine produced less power when mapped at full load, compared to base fuel. The number of researches on water-fuel emulsion has grown rapidly but basically on diesel engine. Because of this reason, an experimental research of water-gasoline emulsions in the specific area as lean-burn SI engine is presented in this paper. The first section introduces the experimental process of lean-burn engine development which includes flow bench test of various tumble baffles

1. INTRODUCTION Todays car makers all over the world are joining in huge competitions that technology is a key factor for the winners. In addition, the application of more strict regulations concerning the level of exhaust emissions urges research efforts. Actually, lean-burn spark-ignition engine technology with a long history of development is one of major directions. There are several ways to reach lean combustion. Kim et al [1] used intake air control valve and independent helical port to extend lean limit. Swamy et al [2] used pre-chamber a turbulence generating port and advanced technologies such as special ignition system, coating combustion chamber etc. to reach get lean combustion without deterioration of engine performance and emission. Summarily, Yamamoto [3] gave a general view of relationship between thermal efficiency and NOx formation- major concerns-in ultra-lean combustion. This research also mentioned about the potential of emulsified fuel with positive factors when using on lean-burn engine. During lean-burn engine development process, modification always takes great concerns from researchers. Originally, the experiment engine is stoichiometric-burning type. To extend lean limit, stratified charge was chosen as the method to improve combustion. As mentioned by Floch et al [4], high tumble intensity shows a high potential to improve combustion stability while creates a region of relatively rich (strictly, less lean) mixture close to spark plug. That is the reason of using tumble flow control baffles in our research. Moreover, lean combustion can be achieved

and water-gasoline emulsion preparation. Experiment results and discussion will be demonstrated in the following section. The last section will be conclusions of this study. 2. EXPERIMENT APPARATUS AND METHODS 2.1 Test engine A 1.3l commercialized automobile engine was used with original specifications listed in table 1: Table 1: Engine Specifications Displacement 1305cc Bore x Stroke 74.5mm x 74.8mm Compression ratio 9.5:1 Valve train DOHC IVO/IVC 370BTDC/ 490ATDC Maximum valve lift 6.95 mm Intake air system Naturally aspirated Fuel system MPFI Maximum torque 115Nm/4000rpm The experiment layout is shown in figure 1. Original throttle was replaced by an electronic-controlled throttle (ETC). A programmable MotoTron Electronic control unit (ECU) was used to control fuel injection duration and timing, throttle positions and advanced ignition angle. A type 6117A17 Kistler pressure transducer was used with a 5011 Kistler amplifier to measure in-cylinder pressure. Engine output values were shown via Combustion Analyzer and Power Control Panel. The exhaust emissions were measured by a Horiba MEXA-584 L exhaust analyzer.
Pressure Transducer

changed. It will affect the precision of measurement. Thus input gravity parameters of specific emulsions must be set up for the fuel flow meter before each individual tests of water-gasoline emulsion. Control and adjustment were proceeded through on-screen feedback data during engine-run experiments.

MotoTron ECU

Test Dynamometer Engine

Figure 2 : Models of tumble baffles Models of tumble baffles with various types (Original, TU A, TU B, TU C, TU D) were set between intake manifold and cylinder head as shown in figure 2. Tumble intensity varied by reducing the cross section of the inlet port from the lower part to the upper part. Previous investigations [9] shown that the shape and size of hole made major effects to swirl and tumble intensity. However dimensions of the same hole did not create the same contribution to turbulence intensity when applied to different engines. It depends on typicality of each ones. 2.2 Steady Flow Bench Test Swirl and tumble ratio created by tumble baffles are measured on steady flow rig for given valve lifts to predict the effectiveness of our designs to the in-cylinder air flow. The concepts of measurement method were shown on figure 3 and figure 4.

Encoder Amplifier

Combustion analyzer

Control Computer

Power control Panel

Data Acquisition

Figure 1: Experiment layout The test point was estimated following the target vehicle specification and its working condition - cruise speed at 90 km/h on highway. To achieve lean limit and to investigate the independent effects of water-gasoline emulsion on performance and emissions of this lean-burn engine, the tests was processed by fixed - advance ignition angle while optimizing the intake air by controlling throttle position and fuel quantity by adjust the injection duration. ETC helped precisely control throttle position via computer and while ECU did the adjustment works of injection duration. The AFR was also measured by Horiba exhaust analyzer. To determine the fuel quantity with different water concentration in emulsion, an Ono Sokki fuel flow meter which is gravity type was used. With different water concentrations, gravity of water-gasoline emulsion will be

Figure 3: Swirl measurement method

2.5 2.0 Swirl Ratio Rs 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 0.0 1.0 2.0

Original TU B TU D

TU A TU C

Figure 6: Swirl ratio with different tumble baffles 2.5 Original TU A TU B TU C TU D 2.0 Figure 4: Tumble measurement method A couple of swirl and tumble adapters was created based on the dimension from tested engine to simulate the flow from the intake manifold into the cylinder. Paddle wheel anemometers are used in adapters to measure the charge motion speed. Xu [10] has summarized the calculation of swirl and tumble parameters as swirl ratio (Rs) and tumble ratio (Rt). The AVL system is the most popularly used and defined as: Charge vortex rotation speed (s ) (1) Rs= Engine speed (N/30) In Eq. (1), N is crankshaft revolution speed, rpm. Assuming the cylinder charge motion as a solid body, at the end of induction process, it equals to the sum of the angular momentum introduced during the whole induction process. The swirl/tumble ratio is calculated by integrating the rig or stationary swirl numbers as a function of crank angle during the induction process and then divided by the fictitious engine speed. Figure 5 shows the engine cylinder head are tested with swirl adapter on SuperFlow SF-120.
Tumble Ratio Rt 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 Valve Lift (mm) Figure 7: Tumble ratio with different tumble baffles The results of tumble ratio, on the other hand, had big difference as shown in figure 7. The TU A baffle creates higher tumble level than others due to its holes position and size. The smaller hole is the bigger tumble motion can be produced. This baffle has been chosen as an optimum baffle for lean-burn engine test. . The flow-coefficient (Cf) when using TU A baffle is 0.30. The results also give some common phenomenon of tumble motion. At low valve lift with all types of tumble baffle, small tumbling motion is produced. But it rises suddenly with the increasing of valve lift. 0.0 1.0 2.0

3.0 4.0 5.0 Valve Lift (mm)

6.0

7.0

8.0

Figure 5: Swirl flow rig test The results of swirl and tumble ratio measured on the steady flow bench as the function of valve lift are shown in figure 6 and 7. There are minor differences of swirl ratio between various tumble baffles because all baffles were designed to create tumble motion, not swirl motion.

2.3 Water-gasoline emulsion preparation The emulsion is made by using two commercialized surfactants: Tween 80 and Span 80. It will improve the emulsion stability by increasing the gasoline/water affinity and decreasing the gasoline/water interfacial tension. 95 RON (Research Octane Number) gasolines was used in this experiment. First step was the mixing of water with 1% Tween 80 and gasoline with 1% Span 80 by mass. Then gasoline-surfactant mixture was mixed with water-surfactant mixture with different percentage by mass (5%, 10% and 15% water). All mixing processes were taken by stirring machine at 5000 rpm in 10 minutes. To evaluate the quality of water-gasoline emulsions, a Micro-electromechanical System (MEMS) [11] has been used to take the picture of emulsions. Figure 7 shows the picture of 15% water-gasoline emulsion. The droplet is water. Its diameter is about 85~125m.

9 8 COV of IMEP (%) 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Original Tumble baffle 5%water-tumble 10%water-tumble 15%water-tumble

Figure 8: Picture of 15% water-gasoline emulsion Moreover, the emulsion had been taken deposited test. Daily pictures of 15% water-gasoline emulsion were shown in figure 9. After two days, it had been divided into 2 layers: the upper layer is gasoline and the lower layer is water.

0 12 14 16

Figure 10: COV of IMEP for different tests The effects of water-gasoline emulsion on engine torque and brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) were shown in figure 11 and 12. At 13.23 AFR, using emulsion added with 5% and 10% of water will little increase engine torque, but emulsion added with 15% water produced smaller torque. Moreover, with leaner operation conditions, engine torque also has been decreased. It made BSFC increase and exhaust temperature decrease as shown in figure 13.
50

18 20 Air Fuel ratio

22

24

2 layers Figure 9: Daily pictures of 15% water-gasoline emulsion It means that the mixing factor should take great concern during the experiment and storage processes.
3. EXPERIMENT RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Engine combustion and performance The operation condition of vehicle at 90 km/h was simulated as 3000 rpm engine speed and 48 Nm torque with different air fuel ratio (AFR) for evaluation. Lean limit was defined as the leanest operation while the coefficient of variance (COV) of indicate mean effective pressure (IMEP) is less than or equal to 7% which is based on cylinder pressure signal shown via AVL Indicom software. It is defined as the standard deviation of IMEP of 100 continuous cycles divided by its mean value. The test has been taken in both original engine, engine with TU A baffle with pure gasoline and then the lean-burn engine with water-gasoline emulsions. Figure 10 shows the results of COV of various tests. It depicts that TU A baffle create smaller COV than original intake port. That might be caused by strong charge motion created by tumble baffle. The lean limit of original engine is AFR 19. Experimentally, it shows a great increase of COV (8.43%) on original engine while AFR reaches over 19. That caused by misfire due to too lean mixture which decreases combustion stability. By using TU A baffle, it has been increased to AFR 22. Nevertheless, the lean limit has been affected by the increasing of water concentration in emulsion. The reason might come from the non-combustible water which has negative effect on combustion.

Torque (Nm)

45

40

35 12 14

Original Tumble baffle 5%water-tumble 10%water-tumble 15%water-tumble 16 18 20 Air Fuel ratio 22 24

BSFC (g/kWh)

Figure 11: Effect of water concentration on torque 340 Original Tumble baffle 330 5%water-tumble 10%water-tumble 320 15%water-tumble
310 300 290 280 270 18 20 22 24 Air Fuel ratio Figure 12: Effect of water concentration on BSFC 12 14 16

650 Exhaust Temperature (C) 630 610 590 570 550

3500

NOx (ppm)

Original Tumble baffle 5%water-tumble 10%water-tumble 15%water-tumble

3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 12 14 16

Original Tumble baffle 5%water-tumble 10%water-tumble 15%water-tumble

16 18 20 22 24 Air Fuel ratio Figure 13: Effect of water concentration on exhaust temperature The addition of water into emulsion obviously reduces peak cylinder pressure as shown in figure 14. Emulsion with 15% water made negative effects to cylinder pressure. That is because of heat absorption in cylinder by water. Furthermore, with the increase of water concentration, burning rate is slightly lower. 30 Original
25 Cylinder Pressure (bar) 20 15 10 5 0 -180 Tumble baffle 5%water-tumble 10%water-tumble 15%water-tumble

12

14

CO (%)

Figure 15: Effect of water concentration on NOx emission Figure 16 shown CO emission which also decreased largely near the stoichiometric AFR with the increase of water concentration. The average decrease in CO emission with 5% of water gasoline emulsion over the range of AFR is 28.7% compared to pure gasoline. The reason of surprise decrease of CO can be explained by the additional creation of oxygen in the combustion zone following the increase in air-excess ratio (or air-gasoline ratio) for each AFR. Air excess ratio is increased by adding the water to gasoline for each AFR, because stoichiometric AFR is decreased. Thus, the O2 emission increased greatly following the increase of water concentration as shown in figure 17. The more amount of O2 that should be induced from excess-air, the larger CO emission has been decreased. 4 Original Tumble baffle 5%water-tumble 3 10%water-tumble 15%water-tumble 2

18 20 Air Fuel ratio

22

24

1
-120 -60 0 60 Crank Angle (deg) 120 180

Figure 14: Cylinder pressure at AFR = 14.7 3.2 Engine emissions Engine exhaust emissions of NOx, CO, HC and O2 were measured by Horiba MEXA-584L exhaust analyzer. The usual problem with lean-burn SI engine working at stoichiometric AFR is it produces high NOx emission which causes ozone concentrations increase. Water-gasoline emulsions have good effects in decreasing NOx emission significantly as shown in figure 15. As Ishida et al. research [12], the appearance of water in the burned zone should increase in both specific heat and the gas weight which result in the decrease of burned gas temperature that largely reduce NOx formation. The more the water concentration increases, the more value of NOx emission decreases. It is more effective with the combustion of lean mixtures. The average decrease in NOx emission with 5% of water gasoline emulsion over the range of AFR is 35.0% compared to pure gasoline.

0 18 20 22 24 Air Fuel ratio Figure 16: Effect of water concentration on CO emission 8


6 O2 (%) 4 2 0 18 20 22 24 Air Fuel ratio Figure 17: Effect of water concentration on O2 emission The increase of water concentration made more amount of HC emission as shown in figure 18. For 5% 12 14 16 Original Tumble baffle 5%water-tumble 10%water-tumble 15%water-tumble

12

14

16

HC (ppm)

water-gasoline emulsion, HC emission increase 13.5% compare with pure gasoline over the range of AFR. It could cause by the thicker quench layer of combustion due to heat absorption effect. 240 Original Tumble baffle 220 5%water-tumble 200 10%water-tumble 15%water-tumble 180
160 140 120 100

18 20 22 24 Air Fuel ratio Figure 18: Effect of water concentration on HC emission In general, the 5% water-gasoline emulsion could be chosen as the optimum one when comparing between the deterioration of engine performance and its good effects to emission in the tested lean-burn SI engine. The 10% and 15 % water-gasoline emulsions make worse on combustion characteristics, especially the engines lean limit.

12

14

16

4. CONCLUSION Various concentrations of water-gasoline emulsions have been tested on the 1.3l engine with tumble baffle. The optimize tumble baffle was determined by using steady flow bench test. By using tumble baffle, the lean limit has raised from AFR 19 to 22 as compare to original engine. The tumble baffle makes better COV of IMEP than original engine. Effects of emulsion on engine performance and emissions have been analyzed. At 13.23 AFR condition, 5% and 10% water-gasoline emulsion slightly increase engine torque, otherwise, 15% water-gasoline emulsion decrease it. However, higher water concentration and leaner mixture deteriorate the combustion characteristic including cylinder pressure. It also decreases the lean limit of the engine. Water-gasoline emulsion creates good reduction of NOx and CO emissions near the stoichiometric AFR while increases HC emission. During the using time of emulsion, mixing factor must be carefully concerned to avoid the deposit of substances within the emulsion. An appropriate concentration of water in emulsion with gasoline which is good for reducing NOx and CO emissions in lean burn engine while slightly decrease engine performance has been found. With 5% water-gasoline emulsion compare with pure gasoline, NOx and CO emissions are reduced 35.0% and 28.7% respectively. But the HC emission is increased 13.5%. That problem could be improved by using new fuel injection strategy that can be done in the future works. 5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors would like to thank the Department of Industrial Technology Ministry of Economic Affairs, of Taiwan, R.O.C. for financial support under Project Contract No. 96-EC-17-A-16-S1-051-B3.

6. REFERENCES 1. Kim, T., Noh, S., Yu, C. and Kang, I., Optimization of Swirl and Tumble in KMC 2.4L Lean Burn Engine, SAE World Congress, (1994), SAE paper number 940307. 2. Swamy, K.R., Harne, V., and Gunjegaonkar, D.S. and Gopalkrishnan, K.V., Study and Development of Lean Burn Systems on Small 4- Stroke Gasoline Engine, SAE Small Engine Technology Conference and Exposition, , (2001), SAE paper number 2001 01 1801/4222. 3. Yamamoto, H., Investigation on Relationship between Thermal Efficiency and NOx Formation in Ultra-Lean Combustion, SAE Small Engine Technology Conference and Exposition, (1999), SAE paper number 1999-01-3328. 4. Floch, A., Frank, J.V. and Ahmed, A., Comparison of the Effects of Intake-Generated Swirl and Tumble on Turbulence Characteristics in a 4-Valve Engine, SAE fuel & Lubricant meeting, (1995), SAE paper number 952457. 5. Kim, S.S., Kim, C.G., Kim, C.U., Pang, S.H., Han, J.O. and Cho, Y.S., A Study on Efficiency and Emission Enhancements in a 4-Stroke Natural Gas Lean Burn Engine, SAE International Congress & Exposition, (1996), SAE paper number 960849. 6. Tabata, M., Yamamoto, T. and Fukube, T., Improving NOx and Fuel Economy for Mixture Injected SI Engine with EGR, SAE International Congress & Exposition, (1995), SAE paper number 950684. 7. Bruce, P. and Stebar, R.F., Water Gasoline Fuels Their effect on Spark Ignition Engine Emissions and Performance, Meeting of the SAE on combined fuels and power plant, (1976), SAE paper number 760547. 8. Manuel, A., Gonzalez, D., Rivas, H., Gutierrez, X. And Leon, A., Performance and Emissions Using Water in Diesel Fuel Microemulsion, SAE International Fall Fuels and Lubricants Meeting and Exposition, (2001), SAE paper number 2001-01-3525. 9. Tomita, M., Iwakiri, Y., Sakai, E., Urushihara, T. and Kojima, K., Effect of Gas Flow and Mixture Properties on Engine-out HC Emissions, SAE International fall fuel & Lubricant meeting, (1996), SAE paper number 961952. 10. Xu, H., Some Critical Technical Issues on the Steady Flow Testing of Cylinder Heads, SAE World Congress, (2001), SAE paper number 2001-01-1308. 11. Chen, L.C., Lai, H.W., Huang, Y.T., Chang, J.C., Chang, C.C. and Chen, J.L., Dynamic Nano-cale Surface Profilometry Using Stroboscopic Interferometry, The 33rd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON), (2007), pp. 3027-3032. 12. Ishida, M. and Chen, Z.L., An Analysis of the Added Water Effects on NO Formation in D.I. Diesel Engines, International Off-Highway & Powerplant Congress & Exposition, (1994), SAE paper number 941691.

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