A study on the amount of pilot injection and its effects on rich and lean boundaries of the premixed CNG/air mixture for a CNG/diesel dual-fuel engine

A sequential port injection, lean-burn, fully electronically-controlled compressed natural gas (CNG)/diesel dual-fuel engine has been developed based on a turbo-charged and inter-cooled direct injection (D.I.) diesel engine. During the optimisation of engine overall performance, the effects of pilot diesel and premixed CNG/air mixture equivalence ratio on emissions (CO, HC, NO>SUB align=right>>SMALL>x>/SMALL>>/SUB>, soot), knocking, misfire and fuel economy are studied. The rich and lean boundaries of the premixed CNG/air mixture versus engine load are also provided, considering the acceptable values of NO>SUB align=right>>SMALL>x>/SMALL>>/SUB> and THC emissions, respectively. It is interesting to find that there is a critical amount of pilot diesel for each load and speed point, which proved to be the optimum amount of pilot fuel. Any decrease in the amount of pilot diesel from this optimum amount results in an increase of NO>SUB align=right>>SMALL>x>/SMALL>>/SUB> emissions, because the premixed CNG/air mixture must be made richer, otherwise THC emissions would increase. However, the soot emissions remain almost unchanged at a very low level.