Engine Emission Control Technologies

Design Modifications and Pollution Mitigation Techniques

G. Amba Prasad Rao, T. Karthikeya Sharma

• Publisher: Apple Academic Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000448993
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Science General
• Index: Biological Sciences

This new volume covers the important issues related to environmental emissions from SI and CI engines as well as their formation and various pollution mitigation techniques. The book addresses aspects of improvements in engine modification, such as design modifications for enhanced performance, both with conventional fuels as well as with new and alternative fuels. It also explores some new combustion concepts that will help to pave the way for complying with new emission concepts.
Alternative fuels are addressed in this volume to help mitigate harmful emissions, and alternative power sources for automobiles are also discussed briefly to cover the switch over from fueled engines to electrics, including battery-powered electric vehicles and fuel cells. The authors explain the different technologies available to date to overcome the limitations of conventional prime movers (fueled by both fossil fuels and alternative fuels).
Topics examined include:
• Engine modifications needed to limit harmful emissions
• The use of engine after-treatment devices to contain emissions
• The development of new combustion concepts
• Adoption of alternative fuels in existing engines
• Switching over to electrics—advantages and limitations
• Specifications of highly marketed automobiles
• Emission measurement methods

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CHAPTER 1

Basic Review of Internal Combustion Engines

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1.1 INTRODUCTION: REVIEW OF IC ENGINES: COMBUSTION ENGINES DEVELOPMENT

Energy has become an essential component of human beings for meeting the requirements in day-to-day life. The lifestyle of modern days cannot be thought of without energy. Among different energy sources, fuels have been explored majorly to develop power, motive power, heat, etc. Motive power is essentially met by automobiles, trains, and aircraft. Automobiles are predominantly powered by petroleum-derived liquid fuels for around 150 years. These liquid fuels have been extracted from the crude obtained from the earth’s crust. As the demand for mobility has increased, so also the automobile population has seen tremendous growth in its population. India is one among the fastest growing economies in the world, meets its fuel requirement for transportation sector majorly from liquid fossil sources and marginally through gaseous fuels. The situation exists among other nations too. The exponential growth in the automotive population undoubtedly brought a large market for the industries which would be supplying to the auto or transportation sector. Energy is synonymous with the consumption of fossil fuels. So for meeting energy demand in the transportation sector; the automobile is synonymous with fossil fuel. So also, the population has become synonymous with pollution.

Energy is a basic need to survival for any living being on the earth. However, the required energy is either be directly used or is transformed from one form to another for better and efficient usage. Energy consumption has become a yardstick to rate country a developed or an under-developing one. In general, the transformation of primary into secondary energy through a technical process in an energy conversion plant. Here, the energy conversion plant is the engine. For making an engine, firstly, the energy is derived from fuel (available as stored energy in the form of chemical energy) and is first burnt or combusted to release thermal energy and finally, thermal energy is converted to mechanical energy.

Thus, the energy conversion process takes place from primary energy to secondary energy as depicted in Figure 1.1.

FIGURE 1.1 Primary energy to secondary energy.

The primary energy is obtained from sources such as liquid fuel and its derivatives, natural gas, etc. Similarly, hydro energy or solar energy, wind energy, etc. are used to obtain mechanical energy. But our main concern is from fuel energy to mechanical energy (Figure 1.2).

FIGURE 1.2 Pyramid depicting representative conversion efficiencies.

In general, the process of thermal energy conversion is done adhering to the laws of thermodynamics and can be described formally. The internal combustion engine (ICE) and the gas turbine are specialized energy conversion units, in which the chemical energy bound in the fuel is at first transformed into thermal energy in the combustion space or chamber, this being then transformed into mechanical energy by the electric motor. Preferably, for electrical energy production, the stationary gas turbine plants are normally used in addition to or in combination with steam turbines. Here, it can be said that owing to conversion losses, the quantities could be represented with the help of pyramid (Figure 1.2). The sizes are representative of conversion efficiencies. The conversion efficiencies are from thermal to mechanical, it can be regarded as thermal efficiency or fuel conversion efficiencies. Moreover, these are based on fundamentals of the first law of thermodynamics.

Basically, an engine is an energy conversion device that converts the chemical energy inherently available in fuel upon combustion with an oxidizer (mostly air) into mechanical energy. The engine used for powering automobiles called prime movers. Prior to the invention of ICE, external combustion engines (ECE) were in use such as steam engines. ICEs are quite different from ECEs, such as steam or stirling engines, in which the energy is delivered to a working fluid not consisting of, mixed with, or contaminated by combustion products. ICEs are usually powered by energy-dense fuels such as gasoline or diesel, liquids derived from fossil fuels. While there are many stationary applications, most ICEs are used in the dominant power supply for cars, aircraft, and boats.

The lifestyle of human beings has substantially changed with the invention of automobile. The development of automobile has undergone a multitude of developments in design since its discovery. This development is credited to the inventors and researchers who made available the present automobile. Basically, the energy required for motive power by the automobile is obtained from the heat engine or simply an engine. The engine performance is constrained by the second law of thermodynamics. The engine develops mechanical energy at the expense of thermal energy produced by combusting fuel with an oxidizer. The fuel could be either liquid or gas. Thus, engine in an automobile is simply a thermal energy conversion device.

In the early stages, human civilizations, people were largely depending on mobility of either human or goods on either human power or animal power. Subsequently, with the invention of steam engines, the scenario has shifted to machine-driven mobility. The steam engine, which is an ECE, is also a prime mover but it solely runs with steam as working fluid, for generating steam and consequent expansion of high pressure, high temperatures had to done through steam generators and steam engines respectively.

However, owing to the low power to weight ratio of ECEs and bulky, after the invention of ICEs started emerging and were preferred over the years. The mechanical energy thus produced is usually made available on a rotating output shaft. The name internal combustion refers also to gas turbines except that the name is usually applied to reciprocating internal combustion (IC) engines like the ones found in everyday automobiles. The chemical energy of fuel gets converted into thermal with consequent exothermic reactions.

The real benefit of ICE was realized after the discovery of petroleum crude. The resources of liquid fuels have been concentrated in limited pockets of earth, majorly dominated by OPEC nations. Due to this, the countries which have limited or no sources are heavily dependent on OPEC nations and thus, in turn, are losing their hard revenue in the import of petroleum-derived products. Therefore, there exists a mismatch between demand and supply. Moreover, there were instances of oil embargo (crisis) of the early 1970s and industry recession of 2008, fluctuating barrel prices in the international market. The studies by Hubbert sent shocks among many that supply of oil has reached a peak, thereby the existence of liquid fuels has been under severe threat as the demand is far more than supply.

Basically, the prime mover used in different sectors, does the job of energy conversion, considering a prime mover, energy requirement is met for the engine is obtained from combustion of fuel and air. Fuel has a large amount of chemical energy within it This chemical energy is transformed into thermal energy and then mechanical energy. Therefore, engine is primarily an energy conversion device. In the process of developing mechanical energy...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• About the Authors
• Table of Contents
• Energy Quotes
• Abbreviations
• Foreword
• Preface
• Inventors, Prominent Researchers, Manufacturers, and Authors in the Area of Internal Combustion Engines
• Introduction
• 1. Basic Review of Internal Combustion Engines
• 2. Formation Mechanism of Pollutant Emissions
• 3. Emissions Measurement Methods and Instrumentation
• 4. SI-in-Cylinder Measures
• 5. SI-Aftertreatment Measures
• 6. Diesel-in-Cylinder Measures
• 7. Diesel-Aftertreatment Measures
• 8. Alternative Fuels
• 9. Alternative Combustion Concepts
• Index