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Ignition and Combustion Characteristics of Automotive Fuels

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "B: Energy and Environment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 9379

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Dr. Goutham Kukkadapu

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Guest Editor

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94551, USA
Interests: combustion; automotive fuels; jet fuels; renewable fuels; bio-fuels; chemical kinetic modeling; IR spectroscopy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you and your family are safe in these testing times.

I am writing to announce an upcoming Special Issue “Ignition and Combustion Characteristics of Automotive Fuels” of Energies, an open access journal. Our global civilization’s reliance on automotive transportation for travel and economic activities is expected to continue growing in the foreseeable future due to further globalization and a rising population. Automotive transportation currently, and likely for several decades, heavily relies on internal combustion engines run on petroleum-derived and renewable hydrocarbon fuels. However, this dependence on hydrocarbon fueled transportation comes at the unacceptable cost of harmful emissions and associated climate change. Research that furthers our understanding of the ignition chemistry of hydrocarbon fuels can aid practical efforts to reduce these emissions and improve vehicle fuel economies. While much has been learned regarding the ignition chemistry of hydrocarbon fuels, some areas remain less explored. These areas include but are not limited to the following: multi-component fuel blends; variation in oxidizer composition, particularly related to the use of exhaust gas recirculation; homogeneous and inhomogeneous ignition; low temperatures (<~1000 K); elevated pressures (>1 bar); fuel lean to stoichiometric premixed mixtures.

This Special Issue will contribute to our understanding of ignition chemistry and I request your participation. The papers in this issue are expected to advance our understanding of the ignition of fuels (including conventional, alternative, and surrogate fuels) through new experimental, theoretical, and/or kinetic modeling studies which include but are not limited to the following:

Measurements and chemical kinetic simulations related to facilities such as burners, constant volume chambers, jet-stirred reactors, flow reactors, shock tubes, rapid compression machines, and engines
Ab-initio studies of important oxidative and pyrolytic reaction pathways including rate constants, species thermodynamic, and transport properties
Chemical kinetic modeling
Reactive computational fluid dynamic simulations of engines or other experimental facilities

Dr. Goutham Kukkadapu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Ignition
laminar flames
conventional fuels
biofuels
alternative fuels
renewable fuels
gasoline fuels
diesel fuels
emissions

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2841 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Influence of Oxymethylene Ethers (OME_n) in Mixtures with a Diesel Surrogate

by Sandra Richter, Trupti Kathrotia, Marina Braun-Unkhoff, Clemens Naumann and Markus Köhler

Energies 2021, 14(23), 7848; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14237848 - 23 Nov 2021

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 1422

Abstract

Within this work the effects of blending oxymethylene ethers (OME_n) to a diesel surrogate (50 mol% n-dodecane, 30 mol% farnesane, and 20 mol% 1-methylnaphthalene) were investigated by performing two different types of experiments: measurements of the sooting propensity and of the laminar burning velocity, each in laminar premixed flames. For the sooting propensity, OME₃, OME₄, and OME₅ were considered as blending compounds—each in mass fractions of 10%, 20%, and 30%. The sooting propensity was found to depend strongly on the OME_n blending grade but not on its chain length. In addition, the effect on the laminar burning velocity was studied for OME₄ and the admixture of 30% OME₄ with diesel surrogate for the first time. This admixture was found to lead to increased burning velocities; however, much less than might be foreseen when considering the respective values of the neat fuels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ignition and Combustion Characteristics of Automotive Fuels)

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13 pages, 4023 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Rapid Compression Machine Study of 2-Phenylethanol Autoignition at Low-To-Intermediate Temperatures

by Ruozhou Fang and Chih-Jen Sung

Energies 2021, 14(22), 7708; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14227708 - 17 Nov 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1773

Abstract

To meet the increasing anti-knocking quality demand of boosted spark-ignition engines, fuel additives are considered an effective approach to tailor fuel properties for satisfying the performance requirements. Thus, screening/developing bio-derived fuel additives that are best-suited for advanced spark-ignition engines has become a significant task. 2-Phenylethanol (2-PE) is an attractive candidate that features high research octane number, high octane sensitivity, low vapor pressure, and high energy density. Recognizing that the low temperature autoignition chemistry of 2-PE is not well understood and the need for fundamental experimental data at engine-relevant conditions, rapid compression machine (RCM) experiments are therefore conducted herein to measure ignition delay times (IDTs) of 2-PE in air over a wide range of conditions to fill this fundamental void. These newly acquired IDT data at low-to-intermediated temperatures, equivalence ratios of 0.35–1.5, and compressed pressures of 10–40 bar are then used to validate the 2-PE model developed by Shankar et al. (2017). It is found that this literature model greatly overpredicts the current RCM data. The comparison of experimental and simulated results also provides insights into 2-PE autoignition behaviors at varying conditions. Further chemical kinetic analyses demonstrate that the absence of the O₂-addition pathway of β-

\dot{R}

radical in the 2-PE model of Shankar et al. (2017) could account for the model discrepancies observed at low-to-intermediated temperatures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ignition and Combustion Characteristics of Automotive Fuels)

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22 pages, 5537 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Large-Eddy Simulation of Laser-Ignited Direct Injection Gasoline Spray for Emission Control

by Fabien Tagliante, Tuan M. Nguyen, Lyle M. Pickett and Hyung Sub Sim

Energies 2021, 14(21), 7276; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14217276 - 03 Nov 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1649

Abstract

Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) of a gasoline spray, where the mixture was ignited rapidly during or after injection, were performed in comparison to a previous experimental study with quantitative flame motion and soot formation data [SAE 2020-01-0291] and an accompanying Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulation at the same conditions. The present study reveals major shortcomings in common RANS combustion modeling practices that are significantly improved using LES at the conditions of the study, specifically for the phenomenon of rapid ignition in the highly turbulent, stratified mixture. At different ignition timings, benchmarks for the study include spray mixing and evaporation, flame propagation after ignition, and soot formation in rich mixtures. A comparison of the simulations and the experiments showed that the LES with Dynamic Structure turbulence were able to capture correctly the liquid penetration length, and to some extent, spray collapse demonstrated in the experiments. For early and intermediate ignition timings, the LES showed excellent agreement to the measurements in terms of flame structure, extent of flame penetration, and heat-release rate. However, RANS simulations (employing the common G-equation or well-stirred reactor) showed much too rapid flame spread and heat release, with connections to the predicted turbulent kinetic energy. With confidence in the LES for predicted mixture and flame motion, the predicted soot formation/oxidation was also compared to the experiments. The soot location was well captured in the LES, but the soot mass was largely underestimated using the empirical Hiroyasu model. An analysis of the predicted fuel–air mixture was used to explain different flame propagation speeds and soot production tendencies when varying ignition timing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ignition and Combustion Characteristics of Automotive Fuels)

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9 pages, 1318 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Is ortho-Cresol a Viable Lignocellulosic Blendstock? A Kinetic Study of Its Co-Oxidation within a Surrogate Fuel

by Carolina S. Mergulhão, Yann Fenard and Guillaume Vanhove

Energies 2021, 14(21), 7105; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14217105 - 01 Nov 2021

Viewed by 1793

Abstract

The viability of the use of ortho-cresol as a bio-blendstock or antiknock additive from lignocellulosic biomass is assessed; Ignition delays of ortho-cresol within blends with iso-octane are measured with the ULille rapid compression machine, and compared with results from the literature; It is shown that ortho-cresol has a strong inhibiting effect on the reactivity towards ignition, most notably in the Negative Temperature Coefficient region; This effect is found to originate from competition with iso-octane on the OH radicals, where the reactivity of ortho-cresol with these radicals does not lead to radical chain-branching. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ignition and Combustion Characteristics of Automotive Fuels)

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18 pages, 4656 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Experimental Kinetics Study of Isopropanol Pyrolysis and Oxidation behind Reflected Shock Waves

by Sean P. Cooper, Claire M. Grégoire, Darryl J. Mohr, Olivier Mathieu, Sulaiman A. Alturaifi and Eric L. Petersen

Energies 2021, 14(20), 6808; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14206808 - 18 Oct 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2061

Abstract

Isopropanol has potential as a future bio-derived fuel and is a promising substitute for ethanol in gasoline blends. Even so, little has been done in terms of high-temperature chemical kinetic speciation studies of this molecule. To this end, experiments were conducted in a shock tube using simultaneous CO and H₂O laser absorption measurements. Water and CO formation during isopropanol pyrolysis was also examined at temperatures between 1127 and 2162 K at an average pressure of 1.42 atm. Species profiles were collected at temperatures between 1332 and 1728 K and at an average pressure of 1.26 atm for equivalence ratios of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 in highly diluted mixtures of 20% helium and 79.5% argon. Species profiles were also compared to four modern C3 alcohol mechanisms, including the impact of recent rate constant measurements. The Li et al. (2019) and Saggese et al. (2021) models both best predict CO and water production under pyrolysis conditions, while the AramcoMech 3.0 and Capriolo and Konnov models better predict the oxidation experimental profiles. Additionally, previous studies have collected ignition delay time (τ_ign) data for isopropanol but are limited to low pressures in highly dilute mixtures. Therefore, real fuel–air experiments were conducted in a heated shock tube with isopropanol for stoichiometric and lean conditions at 10 and 25 atm between 942 and 1428 K. Comparisons to previous experimental results highlight the need for real fuel–air experiments and proper interpretation of shock-tube data. The AramcoMech 3.0 model over predicts τ_ign values, while the Li et al. model severely under predicts τ_ign. The models by Capriolo and Konnov and Saggese et al. show good agreement with experimental τ_ign values. A sensitivity analysis using these two models highlights the underlying chemistry for isopropanol combustion at 25 atm. Additionally, modifying the Li et al. model with a recently measured reaction rate shows improvement in the model’s ability to predict CO and water profiles during dilute oxidation. Finally, a regression analysis was performed to quantify τ_ign results from this study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ignition and Combustion Characteristics of Automotive Fuels)

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