Effect of Port Fuel Injection of Methanol on the Combustion Characteristics and Emissions of Gas-to-Liquid-Fueled Engines

TLDR: In this article, an experiment was conducted on a single-cylinder diesel engine with the port fuel injection (PFI) of methanol and the results revealed that, because of the lower cetane number and larger latent evaporation heat value, the ignition timing delayed clearly, the maximum incylinder gas pressure decreased, and the maximum heat release rate increased with the PFI.

Abstract: A large number of published papers reveal that gas-to-liquid (GTL) fuel has the potential for reducing the particulate matter (PM), CO, and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions to a certain degree, and NOx emissions can also be reduced by optimizing the engine parameters or at a larger exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rate. To reduce the PM and NOx emissions simultaneously on a larger scale, an experiment was conducted of GTL combustion and emissions on a single-cylinder diesel engine with the port fuel injection (PFI) of methanol. The results revealed that, because of the lower cetane number and larger latent evaporation heat value of methanol, the ignition timing delayed clearly, the maximum in-cylinder gas pressure decreased, and the maximum heat release rate increased with the PFI of methanol. At a lower to medium overall equivalence ratio, the maximum in-cylinder gas temperature decreased linearly with the increase of the premixed ratio of methanol. At a large overall equivalence ratio, the maximum gas temperat...