What is DUAL FUEL ENGINE?

Internal combustion engines operating on gaseous fuel have for long been known. Many large stationary engines use two fuels. Normally of these two fuels, one is gaseous and other is a liquid fuels. The two fuels can be taken widely varying proportion to run engine; such as engine is usually called Duel fuel engine.

Why Dual fuel engine required ?

First Diesel Engine A Duel Fuel

1st DFE came in 1935 due to shortage of liquid fuel & its cost.

2 types of fuel Gaseous fuel primary fuel.

Liquid fuel secondary fuel or pilot fuel. charge of diesel fuel is introduced to start the engine until the engine reaches idle state Gaseous fuel is introduced as the load increases

Duel fuel operation

Dual-fuel operation is achieved by the burning of both a gaseous fuel and diesel at the same time in a CI engine. diesel fuel is used as an ignition source. power output of the engine is normally controlled by changing the amount of primary gaseous fuel added to the inlet manifold 5 to 7 percent of the total heat of the engine at full load released by liquid fuel dual fuel engine is capable of running on either gas or diesel oil or a combination of these two

Gas fuel is added to the air inducted by the engine or supplied by the supercharger at a pressure slightly above atmospheric homogeneous mixture form between gas and liquid fuel

Gas air mixture is compressed like normal air in diesel engine and its temperature and pressure rises. The mixture will not ignite on compression because the gas has a high self ignition temperature than diesel

As the piston approaches TDC a small amount of diesel (1%) is injected through the pilot nozzle. Ignition of this pilot fuel then ignites the gas air mixture. Charge of liquid fuel acts as the source of ignition, gas- air mixture ignites in the vicinity of the injected spray at number of places and number of flame fronts which starts combustion smoothly and rapidly

At full power diesel fuel is 10% of total fuel and natural gas utilization is around 85% Uses a standard electronicallycontrolled engine Maintains electronic control of both gas and diesel injection Dual-Fuel ECU controls gas operation and modifies diesel demand for the diesel engine ECU

How ECU works??

Electronic control unit (ECU) is a generic term for any embedded system that that determines the amount of fuel, ignition timing and other parameters an internal combustion engine needs to keep running. It does this by reading values from multidimensional performance maps (so called LUTs), using input values (e.g. engine speed) calculated from signals coming from sensor devices monitoring the engine. function of Engine Control Unit Control of fuel mixture by regulating the supply of gas Control of ignition timing Control of idle speed

Knock sensor
Knock sensor detects the engine knock and sends a voltage signal to the ECM. The ECM uses the knock sensor signal to control the timing of injection of gas and hence control the quantity of gas Knock sensor located in the cylinder head Consists of a piezoelectric element which generates a voltage when pressure or vibration applied to them Introduction of knock sensor limits the supply of gas as load increases and reduces the wear and tear of engine

Duel fuel engine is also equipped with back up fuel Injection of back up fuel is similar to normal diesel injection process. Supply is regulated by the fuel pump which operates on cam mechanism

Less operation cost main fuel natural gas.

Environmental friendly reduction of emissions.

drastic

30-40% less 95% less 20% less 60-90% less

Smog producing polutants

On comparing with diesel firing.

Clean combustion Effective utilization of existing fuel.

Factors effecting emissions in duel fuel engine

Effect of speed: CO emission increased with increase of rotate speed. NOx emission was decreased with increasing rotate speed.

Effect of quantity of CNG CO emissions reduced on Increasing CNG quantity. NOx emissions were increased with quantity of CNG due to high load, heat release and temperature are higher

 1. 2.

Combustion is broadly divided into 3 stages: Burning of pilot fuel to initiate combustion. Burning of gaseous fuel after initiation of combustion. Burning of gas-diesel mixture which is

3.

dispersed inside the cylinder.

As the gaseous fuel is introduced, the weak gas air mixture comes in contact with the injected spray of the pilot fuel. Only this part of the mixture which is in the combustion zone of the spray gets oxidised. The rest of the gas remains unaffected and goes in exhaust. This results in a very low efficiency at part load operation of the engine.

As the amount of the gaseous fuel is increased,. Flame fronts start travelling from these ignition points and combustion takes place rapidly and almost completely.

Increased admission of the gaseous fuel results in very fast reaction rates. This produces high rates of pressure rise and combustion becomes uncontrollable. This is the onset of knock.

Capable of producing as much power as diesel engine At full load, slightly superior to the diesel engines Maximum output of the engine is about the same whether the engine is running on diesel or dual fuel The engine operation is smoother and more efficient particularly at high engine loads

At lower loads, mechanical, brake thermal efficiencies of the engine are low but reverse is true for higher load More economical at higher loads than at lower loads The smoke density is negligible on the dual-fuel mode with higher LPG energy substitutions Stationary diesel engines can be conveniently operated on the dual-fuel mode at higher loads

The ignition delay in gas-fueled diesel engines of the dualfuel type depends strongly on both the quantity and quality of the pilot fuel used. Lower initial cost and lower operating costs than a dedicated natural gas engine Dual-fuel engine performance is improved with the employment of high cetane number pilots. For stationary application, diesel substitution of 70% is possible by using dual fuel engine which is quite considerable and also economical

Increased admission of primary fuel results in very fast reaction rates. This is followed by ignition with very high rates of pressure rise & combustion becomes uncontrollable. This is the onset of knocking.

Very high peak pressure results in combustion noise. Knocking in dual fuel engine is similar to knocking in S.I. engines. Transition from normal to knocking conditions is very sharp i.e. small increase in primary fuel beyond a limit can result in a severe knocking.

 Diesel

knock due to combustion of premixed pilot fuel Spark knock due to auto ignition of end gas Erratic knock due to secondary ignition of the alternative fuel

KNOCK IN DUAL-FUEL ENGINE IS CONTROLLED BY ANY OF THE FOLLOWING METHODS: Excess

supply of air. Use of cold combustion air. Increased cooling of piston. Reducing the pressure of the gaseous fuel.

Dual-Fuel is easier to implement than Spark Ignited Natural Gas Commercial Engines

Dual-Fuel Requirements

SI Natural Gas Requirements New cylinder head, piston, lower compression ratio (CR), turbocharger, modified cooling system & ignition system Potentially lower cost ignition system with higher maintenance requirement Requires new dedicated gas engine and high production cost

No changes are required to the base engine a modification is carried out on the induction system only Retains diesel FIE (Fuel Injection Equipment) as the ignition source

Easy to retro-fit, lower cost production

Dual-Fuel Requirements

SI Natural Gas Requirements

Can fall back to 100% diesel Neither an air throttle nor spark plugs are required

Dedicated to gas, very difficult to retro fit or dealer fit Both air throttle and spark plugs are required

Caterpillar 3176B Dual-Fuel CNG 10.3 L Engine

Engine System Hardware

Gas injection system

Electronically controlled gas

Turbocharger Air Bypass (TAB)

injectors installed in modified air inlet manifold

Dual-Fuel Electronic Control Unit (ECU)

fuel-ratio

Controls/Integrated with engine

Dual-Fuel Vehicle System Gas Storage

LNG is stored at about temperature of -163 C CNG is typically stored at 3,600 psi (248.211263 bar) at 70F

Dual-Fuel & Bio-Fuels

Dual-Fuel can operate on Bio-Diesel and Bio-Gas Bio-Diesel pilot injection Bio-Gas is methane usually higher purity than natural gas Dual-Fuel enables the practical use of Bio-Fuels Requires much less Bio-Diesel (6085% less) Efficient combustion of wasteproduced Bio-Gas

Case Study

The Clean Air Express Commuter Bus Service

Four buses were used to carry out study(3 equipped with dual fuel engine & 1 with diesel engine) Vehicle operation Bus driver reported slight reduction in power Experienced three break downs(mainly due to water intrusion in computers) Engine used 86% of CNG substitution in dual fuel mode (56% was overall substitution) Noise and vibration were similar between the two engines

PERFORMANCE OF DUAL FUEL ENGINES

Efficiency at part load is poor because increase in delay period at low mixture strength Efficiency can Increase by increase pilot fuel quantity at part load Effective compression ratio of dual fuel engine is lesser . Pressure of inlet air is increase

ADVANTAGES OF DUAL FUEL ENGINES

are very low Reduces wear in engine parts Lubricating oil consumption decreases Instantaneous change over from gas to diesel

Small amount of liquid fuel uses In engines of LPG tanker s gas evaporate during transportation can be use Diesel engine can be easily converted into dual engines

Disadvantages of dual fuel engines

is slightly higher than diesel engine cooling of fuel injector is difficult Temperature at the end of compression is lower Volumetric efficiency decreases Higher compression ratio require

Overall Conclusions
The ignition delay in gas-fueled diesel engines of the dual-fuel type depends strongly on both the quantity and quality of the pilot fuel used. Dual-fuel engine performance is improved with the employment of high cetane number pilots. For stationary application, diesel substitution of 70% is possible by using dual fuel engine which is quite considerable and also economical

The engine operation is smoother and more efficient particularly at high engine loads. At higher loads, mechanical and brake thermal efficiency is more than diesel engine. The operation is more economical at higher loads. Smoke density is negligible.

Queries???