Article

Cite This: Energy Fuels 2019, 33, 12421−12430 pubs.acs.org/EF

Analysis of Cycle-To-Cycle Combustion Variations in a Spark-

Ignition Engine Operating under Various Biogas Compositions
Sachin Kumar Gupta* and Mayank Mittal
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India

ABSTRACT: Biogas is a renewable energy fuel (which can also be upgraded to biomethane), and it has the potential to
substitute fossil fuels. In the present study, the effect of various biogas compositions on cycle-to-cycle variations (CCVs) of
combustion is investigated while operating a spark-ignition engine at a compression ratio of 8.5:1 and engine speed of 1500
See https://pubs.acs.org/sharingguidelines for options on how to legitimately share published articles.

rpm. In addition, the percentage of CO2 that could be removed from a typical biogas composition (i.e., 60% CH4 and 40% CO2,
Downloaded via AUCKLAND UNIV OF TECHNOLOGY on July 14, 2020 at 04:25:02 (UTC).

by volume) as a compromise between the biogas upgrading cost and engine combustion characteristics is also determined. For a
better understanding of the combustion process, a CFD model of the engine was also developed with detailed chemical kinetics,
and it was validated with the experimental data. For various biogas compositions (including biomethane), carbon dioxide (CO2)
percentage was varied from 0 to 40% in the fuel mixture of methane and CO2. The study showed that a linear relationship
existed between peak cylinder pressure and its location, which was weakened with the increase of the CO2 percentage in the fuel
mixture, and a hook-back phenomenon was observed for the case with 40% CO2 in the fuel mixture. The CCVs of indicated
mean effective pressure (IMEP), flame initiation, and combustion durations were increased with the increase of the CO2
percentage in the fuel mixture. The CFD model showed that this is due to the degradation in the flame propagation process, as
the concentrations of OH, H, and O radicals were found to decrease with the increase in the CO2 percentage. At a low load of 8
Nm, coefficient of variation of IMEP was increased from 3.4 to 3.6% when the CO2 percentage was increased from 0 to 20% in
the fuel mixture, which, however, was significantly increased to 7.5 and 12.7% for 30 and 40% of CO2, respectively. Overall, the
combustion process was significantly degraded when CO2 was more than 20% in the fuel mixture. Therefore, the removal of
20% of CO2 from a typical biogas composition provides a good compromise between the biogas upgrading cost and engine
combustion characteristics.

1. INTRODUCTION compared to biogas) and the remaining is CO2.13 However,

A significant increase in the demand of internal combustion
engines is leading to energy security and environmental
concerns. Hence, it becomes important to utilize alternative
approaches which can provide replenishable source(s) with
minuscule impact on the environment. Biogas is an attractive
alternative to fossil fuels due to its renewable characteristics and
lower carbon footprint.1 In addition, production of biogas
requires lower capital investment and also has lower production
cost as compared to other renewable sources such as solar and
wind.2 Biogas is produced by the anaerobic decomposition of
biomass, which is an effective way to manage biomass (such as
municipal waste, crop residue, and animal manure). Prom-
inently, biogas is an attractive fuel for the engines that drive
generators and pump sets in the areas where its production is
possible near the consumption point. It consists of methane and
carbon dioxide (CO2) along with a small amount of impurities.
The methane percentage can vary from 45 to 80% (by volume)
in a biogas composition depending on the digestion method and
biomass material.3−5 However, 60% of methane and 40% of
carbon dioxide (by volume) is a typical biogas composition.6,7
The high CO2 percentage in the typical biogas composition
causes high cycle-to-cycle variations (CCVs) of combustion in a
spark-ignition (SI) engine,8,9 which degrades the vehicle’s
drivability, durability, and noise, mainly at lower loads.10 It is
worth noting that biogas can be upgraded to biomethane using
various methods such as membrane separation11 and water
scrubbing.12 Biomethane consists of methane for 96 to 98% (by
volume) (hence lower CCVs of combustion in engines
capital investment for the requirement of an upgrading
technology (biogas to biomethane) and its maintenance can
increase the production cost of biomethane by around 60% as
compared to biogas.14 The CCVs of a parameter “X” can be
represented in terms of coefficient of variation (COV) of X,
defined as15
standard deviation of X
COV of X (in %) = × 100
mean of X (1)
A review of the literature on CCVs of combustion in a SI
engine fueled by biogas is discussed here. Shigarkanthi et al.16
conducted experiments on an SI engine with biogas as the fuel
while varying the equivalence ratio at 50% of wide-open throttle
and engine speed of 1500 rpm. They found that COV of
indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) and peak cylinder
pressure (Ppeak) increased when the equivalence ratio of the
mixture was becoming lean. Karagöz et al.17 evaluated the effect
of two biogas compositions (13 and 49% of CO2 by volume in
the fuel mixture of CH4 and CO2) on engine vibrations at 1500
rpm and found that the amplitude of vibrations was higher for
higher amount of the inert gas in the fuel mixture. Jaramillo et
al.18 studied the engine combustion instabilities fueled with
biogas at 1800 rpm for the equivalence ratios of 0.6, 0.85, and 1.
Received: July 16, 2019
Revised: October 28, 2019
Published: November 10, 2019

© 2019 American Chemical Society 12421 DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02344

Energy Fuels 2019, 33, 12421−12430
Energy & Fuels
They also found out that the COV of IMEP increased from 0.6
to 7.7% when the equivalence ratio was reduced from 1 to 0.6.
However, it is to be noted that no literature is available on a
deeper understanding over a wide range of biogas compositions
on CCVs of combustion in an SI engine, which is particularly
important to reduce noise, improve engine durability, and to
generate a stable frequency output for stationary application.
The CCVs of combustion is a complex phenomenon as it is
affected by variations in various factors such as residual gas
fraction, turbulence intensity, flow fields, spark discharge, and
cylinder charge.19 A better understanding of the effect of biogas
composition variations on CCVs of combustion utilizing various
pressure- and combustion-related parameters is required. In
addition, while upgrading biogas to biomethane, it is important
to understand regarding the amount of CO2 that should be
removed as a compromise between the upgrading cost and
engine characteristics. Therefore, in the present work, the effect
of various biogas compositions on CCVs of combustion is
investigated through statistical analysis, mainly at a low
operating load. Also, the percentage of CO2 that could be
removed from a typical biogas composition is determined as a
compromise between the biogas upgrading cost and engine
combustion characteristics. Further, experimentally validated
CFD model is utilized for understanding of the combustion
process inside the engine cylinder. An SI engine (modified from
a compression ignition version) was utilized for present
investigation. For a wide range of biogas compositions, the
CO2 amount (by volume) was varied from 0 to 40% in the fuel
mixture of CH4 and CO2 with 10% of increments. The engine
was operated at compression ratio of 8.5:1 and 1500 rpm for
stationary application while maintaining stoichiometric air−fuel
ratio.
2. EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS
A water-cooled, four-stroke, single-cylinder, SI engine of 661 cm3 with
bore and stroke lengths of 87.5 and 110 mm, respectively, was used for
conducting the experiments. The reader may refer to refs20−22 for more
details of the engine used. The schematic layout of the experimental set-
up is shown in Figure 1. The combustion chamber incorporated bowl-
Figure 1. Schematic layout of the experimental set-up.
12422
Article
in-piston type design with a flat cylinder head, as the engine was
modified from a compression ignition version (see Figure 2). Various
biogas compositions were obtained via blending methane and carbon
dioxide in desired proportions. Gas delivery lines for methane and
carbon dioxide were established and were connected to the intake
manifold of the engine, refer refs 20 and 21 for more details of the
delivery lines. High-pressure gas cylinders of methane (99.97% purity)
and carbon dioxide (99% purity) were used. A pressure reducer was
used for metering the fuel, depending on the pressure of the intake
manifold.
A piezoelectric-type sensor (Kistler) was used to measure the
pressure inside the engine cylinder with a resolution of 0.1 crank angle
degree (CAD). A piezo-resistive-type sensor (Kistler) was utilized to
measure the absolute pressure of the engine intake manifold. It is worth
noting that the cylinder pressure was pegged to the measured value of
absolute intake manifold pressure at the bottom dead center of intake.23
A crank angle encoder with 0.1 CAD resolution was coupled to the
crankshaft and was used to trigger the data acquisition system (National
Instruments) to acquire data from different sensors with respect to
crank angle. Equivalence ratio was measured using a wideband lambda
sensor (Bosch), which was installed in the exhaust manifold.
In the present study, the engine was operated from low load (limited
by CCVs of combustion) to high load (limited by preignition) for a
wide range of biogas compositions (including biomethane) which was
obtained by varying the percentage of CO2 from 0 to 60% in the fuel
mixture of CH4 and CO2, refer ref 20. for more details. It is, however, to
be noted that due to severe deteriorations in the combustion process,
the engine was not operable for 60% of CO2 in the fuel mixture. The
engine speed of 1500 rpm was maintained for the purpose of stationary
application to produce 50 Hz frequency using a four-pole generator
while maintaining stoichiometry air−fuel ratio for utilizing a three-way
catalytic converter in the future. The operable range of the engine was
varied from 1.5−12 Nm to 13−18 Nm when the percentage of CO2 was
increased from 0 to 50% in the fuel mixture.20 A low operable load of the
engine fueled with the typical biogas composition was selected to study
the CCVs of combustion. Therefore, in further sections, results are
discussed for 8 Nm (i.e., low operating load) while varying the
percentage of CO2 from 0 to 40% in the fuel mixture.
3. CFD MODEL
Figure 2 shows the geometry used for the development of the
CFD model using Converge CFD software. Full engine cycle
simulation was performed starting before the intake valve opens.
Physical parameters like bore, stroke, connecting rod length, and
compression ratio were provided to the model. To simulate the
flow between the cylinder, piston rings, and piston, a crevice
model was also included.24 Crank-angle resolved measured
intake and exhaust manifold pressures were specified as inflow
and outflow boundary conditions, respectively. The lift profiles
of intake and exhaust valves were measured and specified to the
model. The Converge CFD software automatically generates
structured orthogonal grids during the runtime depending on
the defined inputs to fixed embedding, adaptive mesh
refinement (AMR), and grid scaling, which eliminates the
manual control of grid size.25 Fixed embedding is to refine the
grids at specific locations in the domain where a finer resolution
is critical to the accuracy of the solution. Grid scaling refers to
changing the base grid size between desired CAD during a
simulation, which reduces the runtime by coarsening the grids
during noncritical simulations and can help capture a critical
flow phenomenon by refining the grids at specific times using eq
2.
base grid
Scaled grid =
2grid scale (2)
DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02344
Energy Fuels 2019, 33, 12421−12430
Energy & Fuels
Figure 2. (a) Computational model of the engine, along with (b) computational mesh, and the variation in grid size at (c) spark instance, and (d)
during the combustion process.
AMR refines the mesh based on fluctuating and moving
boundary conditions such as velocity and temperature.25 Table 1
Table 1. Grid Details for Grid Scaling and Automatic Mesh
Refinement (AMR)
engine location scale
cylinder 2
temperature based AMR 3
velocity based AMR 3
spark plug location (region 1) 4
spark plug location (region 2) 5 associated rate coefficient expressions and thermochemical
shows the grid details for grid scaling and automatic mesh
refinement used in the CFD model. It is to be noted that a
decrease in the base grid size refines the mesh and leads to an
exponential increase of computational time due to fixed
embedding, AMR, and grid scaling parameters. Badra et al.26
showed that a decrease in base grid size below 4 mm resulted in a
significant increase in the computational time without any
noticeable improvement of accuracy. Therefore, a base mesh
size of 4 mm is used in the present study, which refines the mesh
size (according to the grid details) of the cylinder to 1 mm,
regions 1 and 2 in the vicinity of the spark plug location (Figure
2c) to 0.25 and 0.125 mm, respectively. Figure 2c also shows the
mesh inside the engine cylinder at the instance of spark, and
Figure 2d shows the refinement of mesh during the flame front
propagation.
For the simulations, mass, momentum, energy, and species
conservation equations, along with turbulence and heat transfer
models, were solved using the pointwise successive over-
Figure 3. Comparison of predicted and measured cylinder pressure traces for (a) 0% CO2 and (b) 40% CO2 (by volume) in CH4 and CO2 mixture at 8
Nm load.
12423
Article
relaxation algorithm. For the modeling of turbulence,
Reynolds-Averaged Navier−Stokes-based Re-Normalization
Group k-ε sub-model was used.27 To simulate the combustion
process, SAGE detailed chemical kinetics solver was used.28 A
detailed chemical kinetics mechanism of methane, that is GRI-
Mech 3.029 is used in the present study for simulating the
combustion of various biogas compositions, as it is capable of
predicting the ignition delay time for methane and CO2 mixture
more accurately than any other reaction mechanisms.30 The
mechanism consists of 325 elementary chemical reactions and
parameters for 53 species.
The full engine cycle simulation was carried out for four cycles
before evaluating the results. It is to be noted that 0 CAD refers
to the top dead center (TDC) of compression in the present
work. The CFD model was validated for the cases with engine
operating at 8 Nm and 1500 rpm, fueled with 0% of CO2 and
40% of CO2 (by volume) in the fuel mixture of CH4 and CO2 to
check the validity of the reaction mechanism over a wide range
of biogas compositions. Figure 3 shows the comparisons of
predicted and measured cylinder pressure traces for fuel
mixtures containing 0% of CO2 (Figure 3a) and 40% of CO2
(Figure 3b) at 8 Nm load while maintaining the stoichiometric
air−fuel ratio with engine speed of 1500 rpm. The predicted and
measured cylinder pressure traces showed a good agreement in
terms of IMEP and peak cylinder pressure comparisons.
However, the location of the peak cylinder pressure for the
case with 60% CH4 and 40% CO2 (predicted curve in Figure 3b)
is found to be relatively earlier when compared to its respective
measured pressure trace (Figure 3b), which could be due to a
DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02344
Energy Fuels 2019, 33, 12421−12430
Energy & Fuels Article

Figure 4. Cylinder pressure traces of 120 consecutive cycles for (a) 0% CO2, (b) 20% CO2, (c) 30% CO2, and (d) 40% CO2 in the CH4 and CO2
mixture at 8 Nm load.

Figure 5. CCVs of Ppeak for (a) 0% CO2, (b) 20% CO2, (c) 30% CO2, and (d) 40% CO2 in the CH4 and CO2 mixture at 8 Nm load.

12424 DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02344

Energy Fuels 2019, 33, 12421−12430
Energy & Fuels
Figure 6. Interrelationship between Ppeak and θPpeak for (a) 0% CO2, (b) 20% CO2, (c) 30% CO2, and (d) 40% CO2 in CH4 and CO2 mixture at 8 Nm
load.
Figure 7. Interrelationship between dp/dθ|max and θdp/dθmax for (a) 0% CO2, (b) 20% CO2, (c) 30% CO2, and (d) 40% CO2 in CH4 and CO2 mixture at
8 Nm load.
slight overprediction of flame speed, as GRI-Mech 3.0 is mainly
for methane and natural gas.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Pressure-Related Parameter. The combustion
process inside the engine cylinder affects the development of
the cylinder pressure. Thus, CCVs of the combustion process
vary the cylinder pressure traces from one cycle to the next.
Figure 4 shows the cylinder pressure traces of 120 consecutive
cycles, and Figure 5 shows the CCVs of peak cylinder pressure
(Ppeak) for the engine operated under 0, 20, 30, and 40% of CO2
(by volume) in the fuel mixture of CH4 and CO2 at 8 Nm load. It
can be observed that CCVs of cylinder pressure was increased
with the increase in the CO2 percentage in the fuel mixture. This
is due to a degradation in the combustion process with an
increase in the CO2 percentage. The COV of Ppeak was increased
from 9.5 to 18.5% when the CO2 percentage was increased from
12425
Article
0 to 40% in the fuel mixture for this low operating load of 8 Nm.
It is, however, to be noted that there is only a slight increase in
COV of Ppeak, that is from 9.5 to 10.5% when the CO2 percentage
was increased from 0 to 20% in the fuel mixture. However, a
further increase in the CO2 percentage (i.e., increment from 20
to 30%) resulted in a drastic increase in COV of Ppeak (i.e. from
10.5 to 16.3%), which showed that the combustion process was
significantly deteriorated.
Figure 6 shows the interrelationship between Ppeak and its
corresponding location (θPpeak) for the engine operated under 0,
20, 30, and 40% of CO2 (by volume) in the fuel mixture of CH4
and CO2 at 8 Nm load. A linear relationship existed between
Ppeak and θPpeak for 0 and 20% of CO2 (by volume) in the fuel
mixture, which is for the case of fast burning of the cylinder
charge-statistically, correlation coefficients were greater than
99.5%. When the CO2 percentage was increased to 30% in the
DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02344
Energy Fuels 2019, 33, 12421−12430
Energy & Fuels
Figure 8. CCVs of IMEP for (a) 0% CO2, (b) 20% CO2, (c) 30% CO2, and (d) 40% CO2 in CH4 and CO2 mixture at 8 Nm load.
Figure 9. Return map of IMEP for (a) 0% CO2, (b) 20% CO2, (c) 30% CO2, and (d) 40% CO2 in the CH4 and CO2 mixture at 8 Nm load.
fuel mixture, θPpeak for few cycles was observed to be near TDC,
and the number of these cycles were increased for 40% of CO2
and resulted in hook-back phenomenon (see Figure 6d).
Variance of θPpeakis an indicator of flame speed variation.21 The
variance of θPpeak was increased with an increase of the CO2
percentage in the fuel mixture. It is to be noted that standard
deviation (=√variance) of θPpeakwas slightly increased from 2.5
to 2.6% when the CO2 percentage was increased from 0 to 20%
in the fuel mixture, whereas it has been significantly increased to
4.7 and 5.5% for 30 and 40% of CO2 in the fuel mixture. This can
be attributed to a degradation in the combustion process with an
increase in the CO2 percentage in the fuel mixture, which
became more severe when the CO2 percentage was 30% and
more.
Figure 7 shows the interrelationship between maximum rate
of in-cylinder pressure (dp/dθ|max) and its corresponding
location (θdp/dθmax) for the engine operated under 0, 20, 30,
and 40% of CO2 (by volume) in the fuel mixture at 8 Nm.
12426
Article
Variance of θdp/dθmax and dp/dθ is an indicator of flame speed and
heat release rate variations, respectively.21 It was observed that
variance of dp/dθ|max and θdp/dθmax were increased with the
increase in the CO2 percentage in the fuel mixture. The θdp/dθmax
was concentrated in a narrow region until the percentage of CO2
was 20% in the fuel mixture. On the other hand, for 30 and 40%
of CO2 in the fuel mixture, the region of θdp/dθmax was widened
and yielded a tail-region phenomenon (see Figure 7c,d).
4.2. IMEP-Related Parameter. Figure 8 shows the variation
of IMEP from one cycle to the next for the engine operated
under 0, 20, 30, and 40% of CO2 (by volume) in the fuel mixture
of CH4 and CO2 at 8 Nm load. It is clear that the CCVs of IMEP
were increased with the increase in the CO2 percentage in the
fuel mixture. The COV of IMEP was 3.4 and 3.6% for the engine
operated under 0 and 20% of CO2 in the fuel mixture, which,
however, was significantly increased to 7.5 and 12.7% for 30 and
40% of CO2. This shows that there is a significant degradation in
combustion characteristics when the engine was operated with
DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02344
Energy Fuels 2019, 33, 12421−12430
Energy & Fuels
Figure 10. CCVs of FID for (a) 0% CO2, (b) 20% CO2, (c) 30% CO2, and (d) 40% CO2 in the CH4 and CO2 mixture at 8 Nm load.
Figure 11. CCVs of CD for (a) 0% CO2, (b) 20% CO2, (c) 30% CO2, and (d) 40% CO2 in the CH4 and CO2 mixture at 8 Nm load.
30% or more amount of CO2 in the fuel mixture. According to
Heywood,31 for a partial burn cycle, IMEP of a cycle is
considered to be less than 46% of the average IMEP. Note that
IMEP of any given cycle is not below the partial burn line, which
means that the increase in CCVs is mainly due to an increase in
the number of slow-burning cycles. In addition, the average
IMEP of the engine was increased with the increase in the CO2
percentage in the fuel mixture. The average IMEP was increased
from 2.68 to 2.76 bar when CO2 was increased from 0 to 20%,
whereas it was increased to 2.79 and 2.94 bar when CO2 was
increased to 30 and 40%, respectively. This can be attributed to
an increase in negative work from piston to cylinder charge, as
flame speed was decreased and total combustion duration (CD)
was increased with an increase in the CO2 percentage in the fuel
mixture.
Figure 9 shows the return map of IMEP for the case when
engine was operated under 0, 20, 30, and 40% of CO2 (by
volume) in the fuel mixture of CH4 and CO2 at 8 Nm load. The
return map is a method to determine the interaction between
12427
Article
combustion events, which represents the correlations between
each individual pair of events in a data set. It can be observed that
the values are more concentrated like a “shot-gun” pattern for 0
and 20% of CO2 in the fuel mixture, which represents the stable
combustion. In addition, the values were largely scattered for 30
and 40% of CO2, which means that there exists a strong
relationship between the IMEP values of successive cycles. This
illustrates that there exists a relationship between slow (or lower
IMEP) and fast (or higher IMEP) burn cycles, that is, slower
burn cycle leads to higher exhaust gas temperature (i.e., lower
density) and higher amount of unburned fuel, hence resulted in
lower amount of residual gas, and therefore, faster burning in the
next cycle.32 Further, faster burn cycle leads to lower exhaust gas
temperature (i.e., higher density), hence resulted in higher
amount of residual gases, and therefore, slow burning in the next
cycle.
4.3. Combustion Related Parameters. The flame
initiation duration (FID) is the CAD interval between spark
instance and 10% of mass fraction burned (MFB), whereas CD
DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02344
Energy Fuels 2019, 33, 12421−12430
Energy & Fuels Article

Figure 12. In-cylinder temperature distribution at various crank angle positions after the SA for 0, 20, and 40% of CO2 in the CH4 and CO2 mixture at
8.5:1 CR.

is the CAD interval between 10% of MFB and 90% of MFB.31 and consequently improving the local laminar flame speed.36
MFB was calculated from cylinder pressure traces using the net The simulation showed that the total concentration of these
pressure method.33 Figures 10 and 11 show the CCVs of FID radicals was decreased with the increase in inert gas. Figure 13,
and CD, respectively, for the case when the engine was operated
under 0, 20, 30, and 40% of CO2 in the fuel mixture of CH4 and
CO2 at 8 Nm load. The average and variance of FID and CD
were increased with the increase in the CO2 percentage in the
fuel mixture. This can be attributed to a decrease of in-cylinder
temperature with an increase in the CO2 percentage in the fuel
mixture, see Figure 12 for the distribution of in-cylinder
temperature predicted from the CFD model at various CADs
after the spark advance (SA) for 0, 20, and 40% of CO2 in the
fuel mixture. It is to be noted that the flame speed was decreased
with the increase in the CO2 percentage. As CO2 shares energy
released by the fuel mixture and undergoes highly endothermic
dissociation reactions,34 the flame temperature of the fuel
mixture is reduced. It can be observed from Figure 12 that the
volume captured by the flame inside the engine cylinder after a
Figure 13. Variation of the concentrations of OH, H, and O radicals
given CAD interval from the spark instance was decreased with
inside the engine cylinder operating under pure methane and a mixture
the increase in the CO2 percentage. It is worth noting that the of 60% methane and 40% CO2.
location of the end of combustion for the slowest burning cycle
for the case of 40% of CO2 in the fuel mixture was 100 CAD
ATDC of compression, which clearly showed that the for example, shows the variation in the concentrations of OH, H,
combustion ended before the opening of the exhaust valve. and O radicals inside the engine cylinder while operating under
Therefore, the increase in CCV is mainly due to an increase in pure methane and the mixture with 60% methane and 40% CO2.
the number of slower burning cycles. It can be observed that the generation of these radicals is lesser
For the combustion of the methane and air mixture, there are under the mixture of 60% CH4 and 40% CO2 as compared to
few important radicals, such as OH, H, and O, which directly that under pure methane. This can be attributed to dilution,
attack the methane molecules to produce methyl radicals.35 thermal-diffusion, and chemical effects of diluent (i.e., CO2) on
These radicals are effective in accelerating the chain reactions the flame velocity.37 However, the contribution of the dilution
12428 DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02344
Energy Fuels 2019, 33, 12421−12430
Energy & Fuels
effect (for CO2) is more dominant than the other effects in
decreasing the OH radicals. Moreover, the contribution of the
dilution effect was increased with the increase in the percentage
of CO2 in the fuel mixture, therefore, flame speed was decreased
with the increase in the percentage of CO2.
5. CONCLUSIONS
In the current study, the effect of various biogas compositions on
the cycle-to-cycle variations (CCVs) of combustion in a single-
cylinder, water-cooled, spark-ignited engine is evaluated. In
addition, the percentage of CO2 that can be removed from a
typical biogas composition (i.e., 60% of methane and 40% of
CO2, by volume) as a compromise between the biogas
upgrading cost and engine combustion characteristics was
determined. To generate various biogas compositions (includ-
ing biomethane)the CO2 percentage was varied from 0 to
40% in the fuel mixture of methane and CO2. The engine was
operated at a compression ratio of 8.5:1 and 1500 rpm while
maintaining a stoichiometric air−fuel ratio. Further, for better
understanding of the combustion process inside the engine
cylinder, a CFD model was also developed and validated with
the experimental data.
The results showed that CCVs of peak cylinder pressure
(Ppeak) and its corresponding location (θPpeak) were increased
with the increase in the CO2 percentage. Also, there exists a
linear relationship between Ppeak and θPpeak, which was weakened
with the increase in the CO2 percentage, and showed the hook-
back phenomenon for 40% of CO2. The COV of IMEP was also
increased with the increase in the CO2 percentage in the fuel
mixture. At 8 Nm, COV of IMEP was increased from 3.4 to 3.6%
when the CO2 percentage was increased from 0 to 20%, which,
however, was significantly increased to 7.5 and 12.7% for 30 and
40% of CO2, respectively. Statistical analysis showed that this is
due to the occurance of slow-burning cycles when the CO2
percentage was increased to 30%, and the number of slow-
burning cycles increased in the case of 40% CO2 in the fuel
mixture. The flame initiation and combustion durations and
their variations were increased with the increase in the CO2
percentage in the fuel mixture. The CFD model showed that the
flame propagation process inside the engine cylinder was
degraded with the increase in the CO2 percentage. Also, the
concentrations of OH, H, and O radicals, which are effective in
accelerating the chain reactions, were decreased with the
increase in the CO2 percentage. Overall, it was found that the
removal of 20% of CO2 from a typical biogas composition
provides a good compromise between the biogas upgrading cost
and engine combustion characteristics, as combustion degrada-
tion was more significant when the CO2 percentage was more
than 20% in the fuel mixture.
■
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail: sachin93gupta@gmail.com.
ORCID
Sachin Kumar Gupta: 0000-0002-9651-9450
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
■
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The financial support from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Madras under Project Number MEE/15-16/661/NFSC/
12429
Article
MAYA for setting up the engine test facility and the
computational resources from High-Performance Computing
Environment (HPCE) of IIT Madras are gratefully acknowl-
edged.
■
REFERENCES
(1) Mohseni, F.; Magnusson, M.; Görling, M.; Alvfors, P. Biogas from
renewable electricity − Increasing a climate neutral fuel supply. Appl.
Energy 2012, 90, 11−16.
(2) Schröder, P.; Herzig, R.; Bojinov, B.; Ruttens, A.; Nehnevajova, E.;
Stamatiadis, S.; Vangronsveld, J. Bioenergy to save the world. Environ.
Sci. Pollut. 2008, 196, 196.
(3) Deublein, D.; Steinhauser, A. Biogas from Waste and Renewable
Resources: An Introduction; Wiley-VCH, 2008.
(4) Tekin, A. R.; Dalgıç, A. C. Biogas production from olive pomace.
Resour., Conserv. Recycl. 2000, 30, 301−313.
(5) Rasi, S.; Veijanen, A.; Rintala, J. Trace compounds of biogas from
different biogas production plants. Energy 2007, 32, 1375−1380.
(6) Porpatham, E.; Ramesh, A.; Nagalingam, B. Effect of compression
ratio on the performance and combustion of a biogas fuelled spark
ignition engine. Fuel 2012, 95, 247−256.
(7) Bedoya, I. D.; Saxena, S.; Cadavid, F. J.; Dibble, R. W. Numerical
Analysis of Biogas Composition Effects on Combustion Parameters and
Emissions in Biogas Fueled HCCI Engines for Power Generation. In
ASME 2011 Internal Combustion Engine Division Fall Technical
Conference 2011, USA, 2011; pp 423−440.
(8) Arroyo, J.; Moreno, F.; Muñoz, M.; Monné, C.; Bernal, N.
Combustion behavior of a spark ignition engine fueled with synthetic
gases derived from biogas. Fuel 2014, 117, 50−58.
(9) Kim, Y.; Kawahara, N.; Tomita, E.; Oshibe, H.; Nishikawa, K.
Effect of Bio-Gas Contents on SI Combustion for a Co-generation Engine,
SAE Technical Paper 2015-01-1946, 2015.
(10) Young, M. Cyclic Dispersion in the Homogeneous-Charge Spark-
Ignition EngineA Literature Survey, SAE Technical Paper 810020,
1981.
(11) Molino, A.; Migliori, M.; Ding, Y.; Bikson, B.; Giodano, G.;
Braccio, G. Biogas upgrading via membrane process: Modelling of pilot
plant scale and the end uses for the grid injection. Fuel 2013, 107, 585−
592.
(12) Budzianowski, W. M.; Wylock, C. E.; Marciniak, P. A. Power
requirements of biogas upgrading by water scrubbing and biomethane
compression: Comparative analysis of various plant configurations.
Energy Convers. Manage. 2017, 141, 2−19.
(13) Li, H.; Larsson, E.; Thorin, E.; Dahlquist, E.; Yu, X. Feasibility
study on combining anaerobic digestion and biomass gasification to
increase the production of biomethane. Energy Convers. Manage. 2015,
100, 212−219.
(14) Murphy, J. D.; Power, N. M. An argument for using biomethane
generated from grass as a biofuel in Ireland. Biomass Bioenergy 2009, 33,
504−512.
(15) Barton, R.; Kenemuth, D.; Lestz, S.; Meyer, W. Cycle-by-Cycle
Variations of a Spark Ignition Engine-A Statistical Analysis, SAE
Technical Paper 700488, 1970.
(16) Shigarkanthi, V.; Porpatham, E.; Ramesh, A. Experimental
Investigation and Modeling of Cycle by Cycle Variations in a Gas Fuelled
S.I. Engine, SAE Technical Paper 2005-01-3480, 2005.
(17) Karagöza, M.; Sarıdemirb, S.; Denizc, E.; Ç iftçi, B. The effect of
the CO2 ratio in biogas on the vibration and performance of a spark-
ignition engine. Fuel 2018, 214, 634−639.
(18) Jaramillo, J.; Zapata, J.; Bedoya, I. D. Interactive control of
combustion stability and operating limits in a biogas-fueled spark
ignition engine with high compression ratio. Int. J. Interact. Des. Manuf.
2018, 12, 929−942.
(19) Ozdor, N.; Dulger, M.; Sher, E. Cyclic Variability in Spark Ignition
Engines A Literature Survey, SAE Technical Paper 940987, 1994.
(20) Gupta, S. K.; Mittal, M. Effect of Biogas Composition Variations
on Engine Characteristics Including Operational Limits of a Spark-
Ignition Engine. J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power 2019, 141, 101002.
DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02344
Energy Fuels 2019, 33, 12421−12430
Energy & Fuels Article

(21) Gupta, S. K.; Mittal, M. Effect of Compression Ratio on the

Performance and Emission Characteristics, and Cycle-to-Cycle
Combustion Variations of a Spark-Ignition Engine Fueled with Bio-
Methane Surrogate. Appl. Therm. Eng. 2019, 148, 1440−1453.
(22) Gupta, S. K.; Mittal, M. Assessing the Effect of Compression Ratio on
the Performance, Combustion and Emission Characteristics of a Spark-
Ignition Engine, and Optimum Spark Advance at Different Operating
Conditions, SAE Technical Paper 2018-01-1668, 2018.
(23) Burnt, M.; Pond, C. Evaluation of Techniques for Absolute Cylinder
Pressure Correction, SAE Technical Paper 970036, 1997.
(24) Namazian, M.; Heywood, J. B. Flow in the Piston-Cylinder-Ring
Crevices of a Spark-Ignition Engine: Effect on Hydrocarbon Emissions,
Efficiency and Power. SAE Technical Paper Series, 1982; Vol. 91, pp
261−288.
(25) Convergent Science. Converge 2.3.0 Theory Manual.
(26) Badra, J.; Viollet, Y.; Elwardany, A.; Im, H. G.; Chang, J. Physical
and chemical effects of low octane gasoline fuels on compression
ignition combustion. Appl. Energy 2016, 183, 1197−1208.
(27) Yakhot, V.; Orszag, S. A. Renormalization group analysis of
turbulence. I. Basic theory. J. Sci. Comput. 1986, 1, 3−51.
(28) Senecal, P. K.; Pomraning, E.; Richards, K. J.; Briggs, T. E.; Choi,
C. Y.; Mcdavid, R. M.; Patterson, M. A. Multi-Dimensional Modeling of
Direct-Injection Diesel Spray Liquid Length and Flame Lift-off Length
Using CFD and Parallel Detailed Chemistry, SAE Paper 2003-01-1043,
2003.
(29) Frenklach, M.; Bowman, T.; Smith, G. GRI-Mech 3.0, retrieved 5,
2019, from http://combustion.berkeley.edu/gri-mech/.
(30) Fischer, M.; Jiang, X. An investigation of the chemical kinetics of
biogas combustion. Fuel 2015, 150, 711−720.
(31) Heywood, J. B. Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals; Tata
McGraw-Hill: New Delhi, 2012.
(32) Russ, S.; Lavoie, G.; Dai, W. SI engine operation with retarded
ignition: Part 1-cyclic variations. SAE Technical Paper Series, 1999; Vol.
108, pp 1522−1531.
(33) Mittal, M.; Zhu, G. G.; Schock, H. J.; Stuecken, T. T.; Hung, D. S.
Burn Rate Analysis of an Ethanol-Gasoline, Dual Fueled, Spark Ignition
Engine. ASME proceedings, Combustion Science and Engineering, 2008;
Vol. 3, pp 3−11.
(34) Karim, G. A.; Wierzba, I. Methane-Carbon Dioxide Mixtures as a
Fuel, SAE Technical Paper 921557, 1992.
(35) Turn, S. R. An Introduction to Combustion: Concepts and
Applications; McGraw-Hill, 2000.
(36) Iorio, S. D.; Sementa, P.; Vaglieco, B. M. Experimental
investigation on the combustion process in a spark ignition optically
accessible engine fueled with methane/hydrogen blends. Int. J.
Hydrogen Energy 2014, 39, 9809−9823.
(37) Hu, E.; Jiang, X.; Huang, Z.; Iida, N. Numerical Study on the
Effects of Diluents on the Laminar Burning Velocity of Methane-Air
Mixtures. Energy Fuels 2012, 26, 4242−4252.

12430 DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02344

Energy Fuels 2019, 33, 12421−12430