Comprehensive Analysis of eFuel Combustion in Large Diesel Engines

Two promising eFuels were investigated as 30% and 70% blend components with EN 590 diesel in injection chamber and single-cylinder engine tests: oxymethylenether (OME) and paraffinic diesel (HVO). Using a prototype injector from Woodward L’Orange GmbH that was equipped with a pressure sensing element in the control chamber we were able to gather information about fuel impacts on injector hydraulics. A high-pressure high temperature injection chamber was employed to assess the mixture formation, ignition and combustion behavior of the fuels. While the HVO-blends showed a very similar mixture and burning behavior, the OME-blends showed a significantly different flame structure with completely different soot oxidation behavior. Engine results showed high-quality drop-in behavior of HVO-blends with negligible impact on injection control and positive effects in terms of decreased ignition delay and reduced soot emission. OME-blends were significantly affecting the injection control and the needle dynamic due to their properties. OME-blends showed superior soot emission behavior at varying NO_x emissions.