Charles Chapman and the invention of the high speed diesel

Energy Conversion and Management, 2005

Biodiesel is a renewable and environmentally friendly alternative fuel that can be used in Diesel engines with little or no modification. Low cost feedstocks, such as waste oils, used cooking oil and animal fats, are important for low cost biodiesel production. The objective of this study was to investigate the engine performance and the road performance of biodiesel fuel originated from used cooking oil in a Renault Mégane automobile and four stroke, four cylinder, F9Q732 code and 75 kW Renault Mégane Diesel engine in winter conditions for 7500 km road tests in urban and long distance traffic. The results were compared to those of No. 2 Diesel fuel. The results indicated that the torque and brake power output obtained during the used cooking oil originated biodiesel application were 3-5% less then those of No. 2 Diesel fuel. The engine exhaust gas temperature at each engine speed of biodiesel was less than that of No. 2 Diesel fuel. The injection pressures of both fuels were similar. Higher values of exhaust pressures were found for No. 2 Diesel fuel at each engine speed. As a result of the No. 2 Diesel fuel application, the engine injectors were normally carbonized. After the first period, as a result of winter conditions and insufficient combustion, carbonization of the injectors was observed with biodiesel usage. As a result of the second period, since the viscosity of the biodiesel was decreased, the injectors were observed to be cleaner. Also, no carbonization was observed on the surface of the cylinders and piston heads. The catalytic converter was plugged because 0196-8904/$ -see front matter Ó of the viscosity in the first period. At the second period, no problem was observed with the catalytic converter.

Applied Energy, 2011

The control of transient emissions from turbocharged diesel engines is an important objective for automotive manufacturers, as stringent criteria for exhaust emissions must be met. Starting, in particular, is a process of significant importance owing to its major contribution to the overall emissions during a transient test cycle. On the other hand, biofuels are getting impetus today as renewable substitutes for conventional fuels, especially in the transport sector. In the present work, experimental tests were conducted at the authors" laboratory on a bus/truck, turbocharged diesel engine in order to investigate the formation mechanisms of nitric oxide (NO), smoke, and combustion noise radiation during hot starting for various alternative fuel blends. To this aim, a fully instrumented test bed was set up, using ultra-fast response analyzers capable of capturing the instantaneous development of emissions as well as various other key engine and turbocharger parameters. The experimental test matrix included three different fuels, namely neat diesel fuel and two blends of diesel fuel with either bio-diesel (30% by vol.) or n-butanol (25% by vol.). With reference to the neat diesel fuel case during the starting event, the bio-diesel blend resulted in deterioration of both pollutant emissions as well as increased combustion instability, while the n-butanol (normal butanol) blend decreased significantly exhaust gas opacity but increased notably NO emission.

When an I. C. engine is designed and manufactured, then it is tested in the laboratory. The purposes of testing include: to determine the information which cannot be obtained by calculation; to confirm the data used in design, the validity of which may be doubtful; and to satisfy the customer regarding the performance of the engine. By performance, we mean the operation of all variables relating to the working of the engine. These variables are power, fuel consumption, etc. An internal combustion engine is put to the thermodynamic tests, so as to determine the following quantities: indicated mean effective pressure, indicated power, speed of the engine, brake torque, brake power, mechanical losses, mechanical efficiency, fuel consumption, thermal efficiency, air consumption, volumetric efficiency, various temperatures, and heat balance sheet. It may be noted that these quantities (analytically determined) are measured after the engine has reached the steady conditions.

This paper focuses on the experimental study on performance and emission characteristic of an existing single cylinder four stroke overhead valve (OHV) spark ignition engine. The main advantage of this project is to reduce weight of the overhead valve engine components in two ways, one is selection of material and, other is to optimize the design layout within the design region, by using topology optimization. At first, the performance and emission characteristics of the single cylinder four stroke overhead valve engines with the help of eddy current dynamo meter and standard silencer was studied. Based on the experimental results, brake power, specific fuel consumption, mechanical efficiency, brake thermal efficiency and indicated thermal efficiency are calculated by using governing equations, and the valves are plotted graphically. Another perspective view of the project is to study and record the emission characteristic such as carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon dioxide (CO2).

Natural gas, referred to as green fuel, has emerged as a solution to depleting crude oil resources as well as to the deteriorating urban air quality problem. As a gaseous fuel, gains from natural gas have already been established in terms of low emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and particulate matter. Air-fuel ratio, operating cylinder pressure, fuel injection, and compression ratio are some of the parameters that need to be analyzed and optimally exploited for better engine performance and reduced emissions. In this study, a comprehensive review of various operating parameters and concerns have been prepared for better understanding of operating conditions (spark and compression ignited engines) and constrains for a natural gas fueled internal combustion engine.

Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2011

Energy is a basic requirement for economic development. Every sector of Indian economy-agriculture, industry transport, commercial and domestic needs input of energy. The economic development plans implemented since independence have necessarily required increasing amount of energy. As a result consumption of energy in all forms has been steadily rising all over the country. This growing consumption of energy has also resulted in the country becoming increasingly dependent on fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Rising prices of oil and gas and potential shortage in future lead to concern about the security of energy supply needed to sustain our economic growth. Increased use of fossil fuels also causes environmental problems both locally and globally. In view of the fast depletion of fossil fuel, the search for alternative fuels has become inevitable, looking at huge demand of diesel for transportation sector, captive power generation and agricultural sector, the biodiesel is being viewed a substitute of diesel. The vegetable oils, fats, grease are the source of feed stocks for the production of biodiesel. Biodiesel is an engine fuel that is created by chemically reacting fatty acids and alcohol. This usually means combining vegetable oil with methanol in the presence of a catalyst (usually sodium hydroxide). Biodiesel is much more suitable for use as an engine fuel than straight vegetable oil for a number of reasons, the most notable one being its lower viscosity. The aim of the present paper is to focus on the work done in the area of biodiesel and also the impact analysis of biodiesel on engine performance.

The scarcity of oil and gas reserves and the global warming phenomenon both urge the automotive industry toward a decrease in fuel consumption and thus a reduction in CO2 emissions. These factors will also determine the future Research and Development trends for Internal Combustion engines. The twenty first century started with many downsizing applications. Downsizing of ICE means simultaneous decreasing the displaced volume (usually by reducing the number of cylinders) and increasing the indicated mean pressure (IMEP) by means of turbocharger. This allows the preservation of power and torque performance while decreasing the engine size. As a result, the mechanical and thermal losses are reduced, the engine becomes lighter, leading to a drop in the overall weight of the vehicle, and the engine operates within its optimum fuel consumption zone. The downsizing of internal combustion engines is already recognized as a very suitable method for the concurrent enhancement of fuel economy and lowering of CO2 and NOx emissions. In this report, downsizing is introduced as an even higher stage of development of Internal combustion engines. This important trend in the engine has been constantly developed. The existing trends and the future of downsizing engines have been considered in the report. The downsizing impacts on the fuel economy and emission were analyzed. The main goal of downsizing is to reduce CO2 emissions, increase fuel efficiency, and cut weight. The use of boosting device like turbochargers along with other technologies like direct fuel injection and variable valve timing enable the reduction in size without the loss of power and performance.