Title: LPG-diesel engine

Authors: Shinichi Goto, Hirohide Furutani, Masanori Komori, Moriyasu Yagi

Addresses: Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, Agency of Industrial Science & Technology, MITI, 1-2 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan. ' Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, Agency of Industrial Science & Technology, MITI, 1-2 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan. ' Research Manager, New ACE Co. Ltd., 2530 Karima, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan. ' Research Manager, New ACE Co. Ltd., 2530 Karima, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan

Abstract: The authors used the dual fuel method to experiment with the use of LPG, mainly butane, as the main fuel of diesel engines to reduce soot and to maintain high thermal efficiency. LPG was injected in the direction of the intake valve directly as a spray to prevent knocking and to maintain high charging efficiency. The newly developed electronic fuel injection provided accurate fuel control and injection timing. As a result, the dual fuel operation produced high thermal efficiency almost identical to that of diesel engines. Soot in the engine exhaust was almost negligible. The mean effective pressure of 0.6 MPa was obtained with LPG and only a small amount of gas oil, in spite of the high compression ratio of 17 for gas engines. Increasing the proportion of gas oil resulted in maximum output from the engine and almost no soot output. Moreover, mordenite catalyser reduced by 20% the NOx in the exhaust gas, and THC functioned as a reducing agent for NOx simultaneously.

Keywords: diesel engines; dual fuel; emissions control; liquid butane injection; liquid petroleum gas; LPG engines; vehicle emissions; vehicle design; electronic fuel injection; fuel control; injection timing; thermal efficiency; NOx; nitrogen oxides.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.1994.061861

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 1994 Vol.15 No.3/4/5, pp.279 - 290

Published online: 28 May 2014 *

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