Effects of N-Heptane/Toluene Ternary Fuel Blends on Combustion, Operating Range and Emissions in Premixed Low Temperature Combustion

Abstract

Low temperature combustion engines are a new combustion model that the reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions and the increasing of the thermal efficiency can be observed simultaneously. In addition, the problem of misfire at low engine loads and knocking at high engine loads occurs. The fuels have low octane number can be used to eliminate the misfire problem at low engine loads, and the fuels have high octane number can be used to eliminate knocking problem at high engine loads. In this study, the operating ranges of low and high reactivity fuel mixtures with different chemical properties were experimentally investigated in a low temperature combustion engine. While high reactivity n-heptane, T10 and E10 fuels were used, it was seen to be suitable for HCCI strategy in wider and leaner mixing conditions, while low reactivity E20 and E30 showed good performance at high engine loads close to the knocking zone. The highest brake thermal efficiency was obtained as 44.5% with E30 fuel under extremely lean mixture conditions (? = 2.95). While E20 fuel shows a good performance like E30, the fact that most of the combustion takes place before TDC in the use of high reactivity fuel caused low efficiency due to knock and heat losses. It can be stated that ethanol has low reactivity needs high inlet air temperature, high compression ratio or combustion improving additives such as n-heptane and toluene to be used in HCCl applications. The results obtained support the idea of fuel flex vehicles for the current engine.