ARTICLE IN PRESS

Energy 33 (2008) 256263 www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Experimental investigation and combustion analysis of a direct injection dual-fuel dieselnatural gas engine
A.P. Carlucci, A. de Risi, D. Laforgia, F. Naccarato
Department of Engineering for Innovation, University of Salento, CREA, via per Arnesano, 73100 Lecce, Italy Received 11 December 2006

Abstract A single-cylinder diesel engine has been converted into a dual-fuel engine to operate with natural gas together with a pilot injection of diesel fuel used to ignite the CNGair charge. The CNG was injected into the intake manifold via a gas injector on purpose designed for this application. The main performance of the gas injector, such as ow coefcient, instantaneous mass ow rate, delay time between electrical signal and opening of the injector, have been characterized by testing the injector in a constant-volume optical vessel. The CNG jet structure has also been characterized by means of shadowgraphy technique. The engine, operating in dual-fuel mode, has been tested on a wide range of operating conditions spanning different values of engine load and speed. For all the tested operating conditions, the effect of CNG and diesel fuel injection pressure, together with the amount of fuel injected during the pilot injection, were analyzed on the combustion development and, as a consequence, on the engine performance, in terms of specic emission levels and fuel consumption. r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Dual fuel; CNG injection; Pilot injection; Emissions; Fuel consumption

1. Introduction Nowadays the internal combustion engines are spread to the extent that they represent the main cause of pollutant production. Nevertheless, it is well known that the stocks of fuels traditionally used in this kind of engines will be able to satisfy the worlds needs for few more decades. This explains the massive research activity, drawn all over the world, addressed to the utilization of innovative fuels and injection concepts in order to either replace the traditional ones or obtain a more efcient and clean combustion. Compared to diesel engines, characterized by a high efciency but at the same time high levels of particulate, and to premixed charge gasoline engines, characterized by a low efciency because of knock limitations and pumping losses, lean burn engines can reach a higher efciency thanks to lower pumping losses and heat transfer [15]. On the contrary, lean mixtures generally imply higher levels of
Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0832 297756; fax: +39 0832 297777.

E-mail address: arturo.derisi@unile.it (A. de Risi). 0360-5442/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2007.06.005

both total unburned hydrocarbons (THC) and carbon monoxide. Nevertheless, mixing the fuel with an increasing quantity of air, a ame instability, sometimes leading to misring, is observed. Among the alternative fuels, methane is considered very promising either because it can work with high compression ratios without experiencing the knock phenomenon or because of its clean combustion. However, it is necessary to prime the combustion. This can be obtained either using a spark plug, similar to what happens in gasoline engines or spraying a certain quantity of diesel fuel, whose ignition and combustion sets the combustion of methane [6]. The latter allows using methane either to supply most of the thermal power required, therefore in percentages equal to about 8095% of the total required thermal power, or just to clean the diffusive combustion phase of diesel fuel, therefore in percentages not higher than 30%. Previous works have shown that, using diesel fuel and methane (dual-fuel) at the same time, allows to considerably improve the NOxparticulate trade-off, keeping substantially unchanged the total efciency, but increasing,

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Nomenclature A CNG injector cross-reference exit area (m2) Aht heat transfer area (m2) dQnet/dCAD rate of net heat release (J/CAD) dQw/dCAD rate of heat transferred to the walls (J/CAD) D CNG injector poppet diameter (m2) hc convective thermal coefcient (W/m2 K) k specic heats ratio L CNG injector poppet lift (m2) p combustion chamber pressure (N/m2) pinj CNG injection pressure (bar) pbomb bomb pressure (bar) T combustion chamber bulk temperature (K) Tw combustion chamber walls temperature (K) V combustion chamber volume (m3) W CNG ux direction (deg)

Abbreviations 1ATDC crank angle degrees After Top Dead Center (1) 1BTDC crank angle degrees Before Top Dead Center (1) BSCO brake specic carbon monoxide (g/kWh) BSTHC brake-specic total unburned hydrocarbons (g/kWh) BSNOx brake-specic nitric oxides (g/kWh) BMEP brake mean effective pressure (bar) CAD crank angle degree (deg) CNG compressed natural gas CO carbon monoxide ECU electronic control unit IVC inlet valve closing (deg) NOx nitric oxides ROHR rate of heat release (J/CAD) SOI start of injection THC total unburned hydrocarbons

and sometimes excessively, the levels of THC and CO in the exhausts [79]. This inconvenient, more evident running at low load is due to an air/methane mixture too lean and therefore not able to propagate sufciently fast in the whole combustion chamber [10]. In order to avoid this problem, Huang et al. in Ref. [11] have studied the effect of injection timing with respect to the timing of the spark priming on the combustion of a direct injection of natural gas inside a rapid compression machine. Tests have been done for different equivalence ratios. The authors observed that, when the injection is relatively advanced, the combustion is slow at the beginning and then it becomes fast at the end. Assuming that the combustion development is regulated either by the stratication of the fuel charge and by the decrease of the turbulence generated by the fuel jet, it has been inferred that this combustion, similar to the combustion observed in homogeneous charge engines, is produced by a low stratication and after the turbulence generated by the fuel jet is decreased. The authors observed a combustion development more similar to the diesel engine combustion if the ignition priming happened when the injection was still taking place. On the other hand, they observed the fastest combustion when the ignition priming coincided with the injection end. It was inferred, then, that the temporal interval between the end of the injection and the ignition priming is a control parameter for both the development and the lean limit of the combustion. The aim of the present work is to study the effect of compressed natural gas (CNG) and diesel fuel injection pressure, and the diesel fuel injected quantity, for different engine operating conditions, on combustion development and engine emission levels, when both the fuels are used to feed a direct injection diesel engine, and, in particular, the

diesel fuel is used in small quantities to ignite the indirect injection of natural gas.

2. Characterization of the injector Fig. 1 shows the scheme of the gas injection system used during the experiments. It consists of a commercial gas injector, a connecting steel duct and a spring-mounted poppet assembly. The poppet is held by a spring and it opens when the differential pressure overcomes the preload of the spring. The duration of the valve opening, the mass of the poppet and the characteristics of the injected gases determine the duration of the injection and the poppet oscillations. The value of the ow coefcient Cd was determined pumping air in the injector in steady-state conditions. The air ow rate was then measured for different values of valve opening and inlet air pressure (p0 in Fig. 2). The ow coefcient was then estimated as the ratio between the real air ow rate and the theoretical one, _ M th , calculated under the hypothesis of isentropic ow [12]. The reference ow cross-section, A, is equal to A pDL sin W , 2 (1)

where D is the poppet diameter, L the poppet lift and W is the angle between the direction of the ow and the axis of the injector. W/2 has been measured from pictures (see Fig. 3) of the ux taken by means of a CCD camera using the shadowgraphy technique. The dynamic behavior of the injection system has been characterized as well. In particular, the system has been mounted on the top of a constant volume vessel hereafter referred to as bomb as shown in the experimental layout of Fig. 2, and the

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Gas injector

Connecting steel duct Spring mounted poppet assembly

Fig. 3. Picture of the methane ux taken with a CCD camera using the shadowgraphy technique.

12 3 bar 10 2 bar 8
Fig. 1. Scheme of the gas injection system used during the experiments.

4 bar

5 bar

6 bar

pressure [bar]

High pressure air line

p0

T0

Electric driving signal

Injector tip

Piezoresistive pressure sensor

0 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 time [sec]

Fig. 4. Electric driving signal and pressure traces measured by a piezoresistive sensor (pinj 10 bar, pbomb 26 bar).

Fig. 2. Experimental layout for the dynamic behavior of the injection system.

in the injector body is equal to that downstream of the poppet. Fig. 5 shows the delay time between the start of the electric driving signal and the injector opening, as appeared on the CCD shootings, for different injection pressures and pressure within the pressurized vessel (bomb). 3. Engine tests For the engine tests, the injector was mounted on the intake manifold of a diesel engine about 80 mm upstream of the intake valves as shown in Fig. 6. The engine used for the tests is a four-valve singlecylinder research engine. This engine was equipped with an electronically controlled last-generation common-rail injection system that allowed a full control of the injection parameters.

solenoid valve of the injector has been driven with a square-like electric signal. The pressure at the exit of the gas injector was then measured by means of a piezoresistive absolute pressure sensor, for different values of injection pressure, bomb pressure and opening duration. Fig. 4 shows the pressure traces measured by the piezoresistive sensor when the injection pressure is equal to 10 bar and the bomb pressure is varied in the range 26 bar. Because of leaks on the poppet valve, the pressure

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The main characteristics of the engine are reported in Table 1. During the experimental tests, beside all engine parameters, methane and diesel fuel injector current and injection pressures have been measured. The electronic control of the methane injector was carried out by means of an FPGA device whose controlling code was on purpose realized to properly work together with the main engine electronic control unit (ECU). As for the main ECU, the FPGA module establishes the crankshaft angular position based on the signals of the same two inductive sensors used

by the main ECU and mounted on the ywheel and on the camshaft, respectively. To investigate the effect of phased CNG injection on the combustion development and performance of the engine, two among the most recurrent operating conditions in the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) (e.g. 1500 rpm with 4 bar brake mean effective pressure (bmep) and 2000 rpm with 8 bar bmep) were investigated. In the following, each operating condition will be referred with the notation engine speed bmep. For each of the two operating cases, three different operating parameters were varied. In particular, diesel fuel injection pressure and quantity and methane injection pressure were varied on three levels, for two different engine operating conditions. Therefore, the total number of tested parameter sets was equal to 54. Table 2 reports the matrix of experiments. For each engine parameter set, the start of injection (SOI) of the diesel pilot injection, when the engine was operated in the dual-fuel operating conditions, was varied until the cylinder pressure peak
Table 1 Engine characteristics Bore (mm) Stroke (mm) Compression ratio Injection system Max. injection pressure (bar) Number of nozzles per injector Nozzle diameter (mm) Spray angle (deg) Valve timing Intake Exhaust 90 85 17.1:1 Common rail 1300 5 0.170 142 Opening 13.51 BTDC 51.51 BBDC Closing 46.51 ABDC 16.51 ATDC

Fig. 5. Delay between the electric driving signal and the injector opening (pinj 810 bar, pbomb 26 bar).

PC Based Data Storage and Post-processing System Compressed Natural Gas Gas Injector

Data Acquisition Board

Angular Reference

Cylinder Pressure

PC Based Injection Control and E.C.U. Monitoring

E.C.U.

Pressure valve Control

Eddy-Current Dynamometer

PC Based Dynamometer Monitoring and Control

Fig. 6. Experimental layout for tests on the engine.

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260 Table 2 Engine parameter set matrix Engine operating condition (engine speed bmep) 1500 4 2000 8 Diesel injection pressure (bar) 1000800600 1000800600 Gas oil inj. quantity (mm3) 864 864 Methane inj. pressure (bar) 1075 1075 A.P. Carlucci et al. / Energy 33 (2008) 256263

occurred at 101 crank angle degrees After Top Dead Center (deg) (ATDC). A test with the normal diesel operation (e.g. without methane) was also carried out for the two selected engine operating conditions. The injection strategy for those tests consisted of a pilot and a main injection. The SOI of the injections, for the 1500 rpm test, were at 241 crank angle degrees Before Top Dead Center (deg) (BTDC) for the pilot injection and 7.51 BTDC for the main injection, while for the test at 2000 rpm, the SOI of the injections were at 391 BTDC for the pilot injection and 111 BTDC for the main injection. For all the investigated methane injection strategies, the end of the electrical signal driving the injector was set at 2101 BTDC while the SOI was adjusted to mach the desired injected methane mass. This was established in order to make sure that all the methane injected into the intake manifold could enter the cylinder. Please note that, as reported in Table 1, the inlet valve closing (IVC) is at 133.51 BTDC, thus the 76.5 crank angle degree (CAD) advance at 2000 rpm was just enough to compensate the 8.5 ms of delay between the end of the electrical signal and the effective closure of the methane poppet valve. Note that, hereafter, the results will be reported according to the following notation. Three numbers have been used to dene a test carried out at a particular parameter setup. The rst number indicates the methane injection pressure bar; the second the diesel injection pressure in bar and the third the injected diesel quantity mm3/stroke. For example, the notation 10_1000_6 indicates the test was carried out setting the methane injection pressure at 10 bar, the diesel injection pressure at 1000 bar and injecting 6 mm3 of diesel fuel per stroke. During tests, commercial diesel fuel and CNG with a methane percentage of 99% were used. Engine performance has been characterized in terms of exhaust emissions. In particular, NOx, CO and THC emission levels have been measured by sampling the exhaust gases and analyzing them by means of an AVL Digas 4000 exhaust gas analyzer. Smoke emissions have been characterized in terms of opacity of the exhaust gases; the opacity was measured by an AVL DiSmoke opacimeter. The error in measuring both THC and NOx levels was 1 ppm vol., while for the opacity measurement it was 0.1%. The quantity of diesel fuel to be injected in each cycle was obtained, once xed the injection pressure, estimating the energizing time of the injector opening valve on the basis of the characterization of the same injector done on a test bench. The low quantity of fuel injected, in

fact, did not allow a measure of fuel consumption based on the weighting method. The CNG mass injected per stroke was, on the contrary, estimated applying, during the transitory injector working conditions, the data obtained during the characterization of the injector in quasistationary operations. The in-cylinder pressure was measured using a Kistler 6053 piezoelectric pressure transducer. A Kistler 5044 charge amplier was used to convert the electrical charge yielded by the sensor into a proportional voltage. The sensor sensitivity was 19 pC/bar, while the calibration factor was 20 105 Pa/V. The signal of the cylinder pressure was digitized every 0.11 CA using an NI PCI 6052 data acquisition board. A mean combustion cycle was obtained by averaging 50 cycles acquired in sequence. This cycle was therefore ltered with a low-pass numeric lter and then the rate of heat release (ROHR) was estimated adding the net heat release rate, evaluated by means of the traditional single-zone rst law equation: dQnet k dV 1 dp p V dCAD k 1 dCAD k 1 dCAD to the rate of heat transferred to the walls: dQw Aht hc T T w , dCAD where hc was estimated by means of Woschni model. 4. Results and discussion Analyzing the data reported in the following, it can be assumed that the methane/air mixture is homogeneous, because of the methane injector location. Moreover, it is important to mention, as previously said, that the diesel fuel injection was performed only in order to ignite the methane charge; consequently, tests related to 1500 4 operating condition differ from the ones related to 2000 8 operating condition not only for the different engine speed, but also because of the methane/air ratio, which, for the 2000 rpm tests, is almost double than in the tests at 1500 rpm, being the diesel injected quantity the same for both tests. Brake specic emissions for both the 1500 4 and 2000 8 tests are compared in Fig. 7. Standard case emission levels (e.g. with the engine working only with diesel fuel) are reported for comparison in the gure on the left-end side of each graph with big spots. Fig. 7 shows that the variation of brake-specic carbon monoxide (BSCO) plot (a) and brake-specic nitric oxide (3) (2)

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120 100 BSCO [g/kWh] 80 60 40 20

standard 10_1000_8 10_1000_6 10_1000_4 7_800_8 7_800_6 7_800_4 7_600_8 7_600_6 7_600_4 5_800_8 5_800_6 5_800_4 10_800_8 10_800_6 10_800_4 10_600_8 10_600_6 10_600_4 7_1000_8 7_1000_6 7_1000_4 5_1000_8 5_1000_6 5_1000_4 5_600_8 5_600_6 5_600_4

1500x4_BSCO (g/kWhr) 2000x8_BSCO (g/kWhr)

reported in plot (c), increase when decreasing the pilot fuel amount for tests carried out at 1400 5, while they seem to be insensitive to the same parameter when the engine operates at 2000 8. BSPM emission levels, nally, reported in the plot (d), do not show well dened variations when varying the pilot fuel quantity.

150 120 ROHR [J/CAD] 90 60 30

1500x4_BSCO (g/kWhr) 2000x8_BSCO (g/kWhr)

120 100 BSCO [g/kWh] 80 60 40 20 0

standard 10_1000_8 10_1000_6 10_1000_4 7_800_8 7_800_6 7_800_4 7_600_8 7_600_6 7_600_4 5_800_8 5_800_6 5_800_4 10_800_8 10_800_6 10_800_4 10_600_8 10_600_6 10_600_4 7_1000_8 7_1000_6 7_1000_4 5_1000_8 5_1000_6 5_1000_4 5_600_8 5_600_6 5_600_4

50 40 30 20

0 -10

-5

5 Crank Angle []

10

15

20

150 120 ROHR [J/CAD] 90 60 30 0 -10 -5

10 BSHC [g/kWh] 8 6 4 2 0

1500x4_BSCO (g/kWhr) 2000x8_BSCO (g/kWhr)

50 40 30 20
0

standard 10_1000_8 10_1000_6 10_1000_4

7_800_8 7_800_6 7_800_4

7_600_8 7_600_6 7_600_4

5_800_8 5_800_6 5_800_4

10_800_8 10_800_6 10_800_4

10_600_8 10_600_6 10_600_4

7_1000_8 7_1000_6 7_1000_4

5_1000_8 5_1000_6 5_1000_4

5_600_8 5_600_6 5_600_4

5 Crank Angle []

10

15

20

14 12 BSPM [g/kWh] 10 8 6 4 2 0
standard 10_1000_8 10_1000_6 10_1000_4 7_800_8 7_800_6 7_800_4 7_600_8 7_600_6 7_600_4 10_800_8 10_800_6 10_800_4 10_600_8 10_600_6 10_600_4 7_1000_8 7_1000_6 7_1000_4 5_1000_8 5_1000_6 5_1000_4 5_800_8 5_800_6 5_800_4 5_600_8 5_600_6 5_600_4

1500x4_BSPM 2000x8_BSPM

150 120 ROHR [J/CAD] 90 60 30 0 -10

60 50 40 30 20

Fig. 7. Brake-specic emissions for the tested operating conditions at 1500 rpm (black big spots refer to baselineonly diesel fuelcase).

-5

10

15

20

Crank Angle []

(BSNOx) plot (b) levels, when varying the fuel quantity injected during the pilot injection, is opposite. Brake specic total unburned hydrocarbons (BSTHC) levels,

Fig. 8. Pressure and ROHR histories for the experiments in dual-fuel conguration (n 1500 rpm) when varying the diesel fuel quantity and pressure.

cylinder pressure [bar]

7_10 7_1000_4 00_4 7_10 7_1000_6 00_6 7_10 7_1000_8 00_8 7_10 7_1000_4 00_4 7_10 7_1000_6 00_6 7_10 7_1000_8 00_8

70

cylinder pressure [bar]

12

10_ 4 600_ 10_600_4 10_ 6 600_ 10_600_6 10_ 8 600_ 10_600_8 10_ 4 600_ 10_600_4 10_ 6 600_ 10_600_6 10_ 8 600_ 10_600_8

70 60

cylinder pressure [bar]

7_600_4 7_600_6 7_600_8 7_600_4 7_600_6 7_600_8

70 60

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Figs. 8 and 9 plot the pressure and ROHR histories as a function of the 1CA, respectively, for the 1500 4 and 2000 8 tests. An increase of the ROHR peak and a more intense premixed phase were observed when only the amount of fuel in the pilot injection was increased. The same behavior is observed for the two tested engine operating conditions. The remark that similar trends observed in the ROHR time histories do not imply similar

180 150 ROHR [J/CAD] 120 90 60 30 0 -10

7_600_ 4 7_600_4 7_600_ 6 7_600_6 7_600_ 8 7_600_8 7_600_ 4 7_600_4 7_600_ 6 7_600_6 7_600_ 8 7_600_8

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 -5 0 5 Crank Angle [] 10 15 20 cylinder pressure [bar]

180 150 ROHR [J/CAD] 120 90 60 30 0 -10

10_600 _4 10_600_4 10_600 _6 10_600_6 10_600 _8 10_600_8 10_600 _4 10_600_4 10_600 _6 10_600_6 10_600 _8 10_600_8

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 -5 0 5 Crank Angle [] 10 15 20 cylinder pressure [bar]

180 150 ROHR [J/CAD] 120 90 60 30 0 -10 7_100 7_1000_4 7_100 0_6 7_1000_6 7_100 0_8 7_1000_8 7_100 0_4 7_1000_4 7_100 0_6 7_1000_6 7_100 0_8 7_1000_8

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 -5 0 5 Crank Angle [] 10 15 20 cylinder pressure [bar]

Fig. 9. Pressure and ROHR histories for the experiments in dual-fuel conguration (n 2000 rpm) when varying the diesel fuel quantity and pressure.

trends in the CO and NOx emission levels means that the emission-level variations cannot be explained only on the basis of the ROHR analysis. As already observed, a homogeneous CNGair mixture is characterized by a ame propagation speed lower than the one exhibited by a diesel fuelair mixture. In our case, the CNGair combustion is initiated by the ignition of the pilot fuel. However, for lower engine speed and load, and in particular for the tests at 1500 4, the pilot injection ignites but the thermodynamic conditions inside the combustion chamber are not suitable for a proper ame propagation. The combustion is therefore slower and lower temperatures are reached. An increase of pilot fuel amount, with the following decrease of CNG percentage, promotes a more intense early phase of combustion, and therefore a higher temperature inside the combustion chamber. It is well known that CO, HC and NOx formation mechanisms strongly depend on temperature, the rst two species increasing when temperature drops down and the third specie, on the contrary, increasing when the temperature increases. The variations of the above pollutants when increasing the pilot amount, can be therefore explained by the signicant increase of combustion rate during the early phase of combustion. Increasing the engine speed and load (2000 8 engine operating condition), an enhanced ame propagation throughout the mixture is expected. In these conditions, in fact, the diesel fuel combustion spreads better into the combustion chamber, therefore being able to ignite more CNGair mixture sites. The more pilot fuel amount is injected, the more is the heat released during combustion inside the combustion chamber. In this way the increase of temperature will affect more CNGair mixture and the local temperature will be closer to the bulk temperature. This assumed mechanism would lead to the observed decrease of NOx levels and increase of CO levels. Moreover, it would explain why BSCO and BSTHC emission levels for 1400 8 tests are higher than those related to 2000 8 tests. Fig. 7 also reveals that the variation of the pilot fuel injection pressure affects the CO and NOx emission levels. In particular, decreasing the injection pressure, CO levels increase for tests at 1500 4 and decrease for tests at 2000 8. On the contrary, NOx always decrease. THC and PM levels are also affected by the pilot injection pressure, but the variation does not show a univocal behavior. Furthermore, from Figs. 8 and 9 it can be seen that ROHR too vary with the pilot injection pressure, and in particular a higher peak value of ROHR during the early combustion is observed increasing the pilot injection pressure. Finally, varying the methane injection pressure, only the CO emission levels related to the tests at 1500 4 show a signicant variation. All the other species, as well as CO for 2000 8, do not seem to be sensitive to this parameter, and the same can be said for the ROHR time histories, although the related curves are not reported for brevity.

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The variation, previously described, of BSNOx levels as a function of pilot and methane injection pressure suggests that, although the combustion development in dual-fuel engines depends on the combustion of both diesel fuel and CNGair mixture, BSNOx emissions are mainly produced during the combustion of the pilot injection. In particular, increasing the pressure of the pilot injection, the fuel, as well known, is better atomized. Therefore, when pilot fuel ignition takes placethe ignition angle appears to be constant once the engine operating condition is xedmore ignition nuclei are ready to burn, globally raising the ROHR peak of the combustion of the premixed phase. All these experimental evidences lead to the conclusion that the quantity of methane is barely enough to sustain a stable combustion for the tests at 1500 rpm, while it is rich enough to have stable ame propagation in the test at 2000 rpm. As a consequence, for the tests at 1500 rpm, the methane combustion can only happen in the proximity of the combustion locations of the diesel fuel. This is supported by the plots of Fig. 8, in which the initial slope of the ROHR curves does not change by changing the diesel fuel injection parameters. On the other hand, in the test at 2000 rpm, the ROHR curves of Fig. 9 show that the premixed combustion phase is not only dependent on the amount of diesel fuel injected, but also on the methane combustion which, in these tests, is able to self-propagate after ignition occurs, thus modifying the initial slope of the ROHR plots. The signicant overall increment of NOx is due to an increase in the combustion temperature. In fact, the mean temperature during the combustion, estimated with a single-zone model, was equal to about 1700 K for the 1500 rpm tests and about 2400 K for the 2000 rpm tests. 5. Conclusions Tests were carried out in order to study the combustion development and its implications on the engine performance, in terms of pollutant emission levels and fuel consumption, on a dual-fuel CNGair engine. During tests, the engine was operated at two different conditions and, for each of them, methane and diesel fuel injection pressure, together with pilot fuel amount, were varied. It was observed that an analysis of the ROHR is not sufcient to explain the effect of each of the injection parameters on the pollutant emissions. In the case of NOx, it was found that the penetration of the jet holds the same

importance as the quantity of pilot fuel injected. The more the jet penetrates into the combustion chamber, the more its combustion will spread into the same chamber, and then the local temperatures will be closer in value to the bulk temperature. Similar conclusions can be drawn for the CO and HC emission levels, although the latter specie seems sometimes not to be sensitive to the injection parameters. PM levels do not show a well dened dependence on the tested variables, but the corresponding levels, when operating the engine in dual-fuel mode, are remarkably lower than those observed with diesel fuel only. Acknowledgment This research has been supported by the Ministry of Instruction, University and Research (MIUR). References
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