Title: Lean burn natural gas engines as a possible power unit in urban fleets of heavy duty vehicles with low environmental impact

Authors: Pasquale Corbo, Michele Gambino, Sabato Iannaccone

Addresses: Instituto Motori - CNR, Via Marconi 8, 80125 Napoli, Italy. Instituto Motori - CNR, Via Marconi 8, 80125 Napoli, Italy. Instituto Motori - CNR, Via Marconi 8, 80125 Napoli, Italy

Abstract: This work aimed to examine the possibility of creating natural gas urban bus fleets by applying lean burn technology. Different engine configurations were tested, keeping in consideration the necessity to ensure suitable performance, and to meet the European regulations. With the target torque and power, the severe European limits were not met only for methane emissions. In addition, the GWI (global warming impact) values were also computed and compared with proposed limits expressly conceived for natural gas engines. The results showed that the NG lean burn engine at the present state of development does not appear able to meet the future requirements of both low NO_x emissions and GWI, because of the difficulty of resolving the trade-off between NO_x and HC.

Keywords: European emission limits; global warming impact; lean burn engine; natural gas.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.1998.001816

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 1998 Vol.20 No.1/2/3/4, pp.231-239

Published online: 18 Aug 2003 *

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