Dedicated natural gas vehicle with low emission
conference paper
In the introduction an overview is given of international activities in the field of natural gas vehicles. The main incentives for the use of natural gas in vehicles are: emission reduction in urban areas, fuel diversification, and long term availability. Heavy duty natural gas engines are mainly engines made dedicated but derived from diesel engines. In light duty vehicles most applications so far are retrofits on petrol vehicles in which, with respect to the compression ratio and very often the ignition timing, the engine is far from optimal. Manufacturers in the United States mainly optimize for emission but leave the compression ratio unchanged as in the petrol vehicle. This paper describes the work on the Volskwagen AAF engine fitted in a T-4 transporter in which the engine has been made dedicated to natural gas and has been optimized for power, emission and fuel consumption. The baseline petrol engine has a compression ratio of 8.5. Based on Volkswagen's and TNO's experience and calculations made with regard to NOx formation, exhaust temperature, effciency and power, a compression ratio of 11.5 was defined for the dedicated natural gas engine.
Topics
TNO Identifier
362637
Publisher
SIA
Source title
5th International EAEC Congress on Powertrain and the Environment, 21-23 June 1995, Strasbourg, France
Collation
13 p.
Files
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