Seoul 2000 FISITA World Automotive Congress June 12-15, 2000, Seoul, Korea

F2000A171

Development of LPG SI and CI Engines for Heavy Duty Vehicles

Shinichi Goto1)* Daeyup Lee1) Naoya Harayama2) Fumitaka Honjo2) Hiroki Ueno2) Hidekazu Honma3) Yoshitaka Wakao3) Makihiko Mori3)
Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, 1-2 Namiki, Tsukuba, Japan 2) Nissan Diesel Motor Ltd., 1-1, Ageo-shi, Saitama, Japan 3) Iwatani International Corporation, 21-8 Nishi-shimbashi 3-Chome, Minato-Ku, Tokyo, Japan Development of LPG SI and CI engines for heavy duty vehicles has been carried out. In order to measure the performance and emissions of an LPG lean burn SI engine, the piston cavity, swirl ratio, and propane-butane fuel ratio were varied and tested. Compared to the bathtub and dog dish cavities, the nebula type cavity showed the best performance in terms of cyclic variation and combustion duration. High swirl improved combustion by achieving a high thermal efficiency and low NOx emissions. A feasibility study of an LPG DI diesel engine also has been carried out to study the effectiveness of the selected cetane enhancing additives: Di-tertiary-butyl peroxide (DTBP). When more than 5 wt% DTBP was added to the base fuel, stable engine operation over a wide range of engine loads was possible. The thermal efficiency of LPG fueled operation was found to be comparable to diesel fuel operation at DTBP levels over 5 wt%. Exhaust emissions measurements showed that NOx and smoke levels can be significantly reduced using the LPG+DTBP fuel blend compared to a light diesel fuel at the same experimental conditions. KEYWORDS: Liquefied Petroleum Gas(LPG), Lean-burn, Diesel engine, Cetane number, Ignition delay
1)

INTRODUCTION
Emissions reduction and engine performance improvement for heavy duty vehicles using LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) fuel have been studied, in particular for the 1 to 2 Ton (load capacity) class vehicles, such as delivery vehicles. Since these vehicles are operated primarily in urban areas, the emissions from these medium duty vehicles are very important. In order to help widen the use of LPG vehicles, the study of engine performance and fuel consumption enhancements are also necessary. Work has been carried out involving development of an LPG SI(spark ignition) engine and an LPG CI (compression ignition) engine for heavy duty vehicles at the Combustion Engineering Division of Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, Japan (1-6)+. For an LPG SI engine the lean burn strategy was implemented to overcome the degraded thermal efficiency that occurs when an LPG fueled engine is operated with a stoichiometric mixture. A stoichiometric LPG fueled engine is also known to have durability problems due to an excessively high exhaust gas temperature. The effects of the various piston cavities and swirl ratios on combustion characteristics have been tested. Fuel composition effects on engine performance was also investigated.
* +

LPG has been primarily a SI rather than CI engine fuel, due to LPGs low cetane number. However, it has been desirable to adopt LPG as a diesel engine fuel, to capitalize on the enhanced thermal efficiency of CI engines. A feasibility test of LPG fueled CI engines also has been carried out. A cetane enhancing additive, DTBP (Di-tertiary-butyl peroxide) was added to an LPG base fuel, to improve the autoignition characteristics and achieve stable engine operation. Measurements were carried out to investigate the effects of various additive levels on the engine performance and emissions, which were compared to a conventional diesel fueled engine. This paper summarizes the experiments in developing a lean-burn SI and a diesel engine fueled by LPG in Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, Japan in collaboration with Nissan Diesel Motor Ltd and Iwatani International Corporation. The engine performance and emission characteristics of each engine system are presented. A brief description of the prototype LPG fueled truck developed in this work is also made.

LPG LEAN-BURN SI ENGINE

EXPERIMENTAL

Corresponding author. e-mail: goto@mel.go.jp Numbers in parentheses designate references at the end of paper.

25 20 15 10 5 0

1.0

1.2 1.4 1.6 Excessive air ratio,

1.8

Figure 2 - Engine performance comparison for 100, 40 and 5% load cases by varying excessive air ratio. The bathtub piston cavity (Figure a(b)) was used.

(a) Dogdish cavity

(b) Bathtub cavity

(c) Nebula cavity

Figure 1 - Configuration of piston cavities. Specifications for the engine used in this work are listed in Table 1. A single cylinder research engine (Nissan Diesel Co. FD1L) was modified for use in this work. The test LPG fuel consisted of propane/butane = 20/80% by mass. This composition is currently being used in the Tokyo area. LPG was vaporized and introduced to the intake port upstream of the throttle valve. In order to prevent the engine power from decreasing with lean burn operation, the intake flow was supercharged with a screw-type compressor. A helical intake port, which has a standard swirl ratio of 2.0, was used. In addition, various swirl ratios (S/R=1.0, 3.0 and 3.7) were also tested. The temperature of the engine cooling water was maintained at 75oC. In addition to the standard bathtub type piston cavity shown in Figure 1(b), the low turbulence dog dish type (Figure 1(a)) and high turbulence nebula type (Figure 1(c)) were also tested. The spark plug was positioned off the cylinder axis due to the cylinder head configuration, which was designed for two valves. To maintain an uniform distance from the spark plug to the cylinder wall periphery (or for the shortest flame propagation distance), the piston cavity center was positioned close to the spark plug, which in turn was offset from the cylinder axis. The spark timing was varied between the advanced and retarded limits. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 2

LEAN BURN : In order to investigate the effect of lean burn on the engine performance and emissions, the experiments were carried out for various air/fuel ratios from stoichiometric to the lean limit (where engine operation became almost impossible). The standard piston cavity (bathtub type, Figure 1(b)), was used for these measurements. The engine performance test results are presented in Figure 2 for 100(79.6 Nm), 40(29.4 Nm) and 5 % load (0.0 Nm). The spark timing for the 100 % load case was limited by knocking, whereas for the 40 and 5 % load cases, the spark timing was adjusted for best fuel efficiency. It is apparent that the fuel efficiency was generally improved. Note that for 5% load case, the heat consumption (QJ) is reported here instead of efficiency, because of the difficulty in measuring torque near idling condition. The exhaust gas temperature, which decreased as the mixture was leaned, directly led to a significant reduction of NOx emissions. However, as the air/fuel mixture became leaner, the cyclic variation increased, which had a negative effect upon combustion stability. Although hydrocarbon emissions increased gradually as the mixture became leaner, the amount exhausted was small enough to be able to be removed by the oxidation catalyst. At stoichiometric operation and 100% load, engine operation was very difficult due to knocking and increased exhaust gas temperature. For mixtures leaner than =1.8, an increase of the cylinder pressure, due to increase of supercharge pressure, caused misfiring, because the insulation resistance in the cylinder became high and thus spark ignition was difficult to occur. For the 40% load case, the thermal efficiency was highest at = 1.6. The thermal efficiency decreased for =

Pi variation (%)

Table 1 - Specifications of engines used in this study Spark ignition Diesel engine engine Type 4cycle, SI 4cycle, CI Valve OHV, 2valve Fuel delivery Port mixing DI Borestroke 108115 mm 130140 mm Displacement 1053 mm3 1858 mm3 Compression ratio 10.0 17.0 Swirl ratio 1.0-3.7 2.7 Piston cavity Dog dish, Re-entrant bathtub, toroidal nebula Injection pressure 25.5 MPa Plunger diameter 12 mm Engine speed 1680 rpm 1500 rpm

Efficiency (%)

100% load
40 35 30 25 20 700 600 500

40% load

5% load
800 700 600 500

Exhaust o temp ( C)

100 80 60 40 20 0

500 400 300 200 100 0

HC (g/h)

NOx (g/h)

QJ (J/st-cyl)

900

Efficiency (%)

Stoichiometric 800 QJ (J/st-cyl) 700 600 500 400 800 600 400 200

Lean burn 30 20 10 0 Efficiency (%) 40

Dog dish 35.0 32.5 30.0 27.5 25.0

Bathtub

Nebula

100 50 Pi variation (%) 15 10 5 0 50 40 30 20 10 0 10.0 0

Exhaust temp. (oC)

NOx (g/h)

g/h Target level 100 32.5g/h 10 2g/h 1 5% load 40% load 100% load 15g/h -5.0 -2.5 0.0 2.5 5.0 7.5 Spark timing (deg BTDC)

Figure 3 - Comparison of engine performance between stoichiometric and lean burn operations. 1.7, since the cyclic variation increased due to misfire. The 5% load case also showed the same behavior. The thermal efficiency peaked (or QJ was minimized) at = 1.5, and combustion variation became significantly worse at = 1.6. The best excessive air ratio for each load was determined from a criterion that cyclic variation below about 5% would be acceptable for actual vehicles: =1.4, 1.6 and 1.6 for 5%, 40% and 100% load, respectively. Figure 3 compares the engine performance at each load for the stoichiometric and lean burn cases with best excessive air ratios for each load. The target levels for NOx emissions at each load are also shown in the figure. Note that in this comparison, the best-fuel-efficiency spark timing was used. With lean burn operation, the fuel consumption was improved for both the full and half-load points, and the exhaust gas temperature was significantly reduced. Therefore, if a heavy duty engine is operated with lean LPG combustion with best excessive air ratios, it becomes apparent that the fuel consumption and durability can be significantly improved compared to an engine operated near stoichiometric with a three-way catalytic converter. Regarding NOx, the high load target level could be achieved, whereas NOx reduction technologies for part load operation still need to be carried out. CAVITY EFFECT : The effect of piston cavity on engine performance and emissions characteristics was investigated. Engine performance test results are shown in Figure 4 for 100% load. The excessive air ratio was kept at 1.4, while the spark timing was varied. As the in-cylinder flow became more turbulent by varying the piston cavity, it can be seen that the cyclic variation was minimized and the combustion duration became shorter. The dog dish cavity, which showed moderate combustion speed, had the lowest thermal efficiency, whereas the bathtub cavity case showed the highest value. Although the nebula cavity showed improved (in terms of cycle variation and combustion duration) combustion characteristics, it indicated almost 3

Figure 4 - Comparison of engine performance with each piston cavity by varying spark timing for 100% load. same thermal efficiency as that of the bathtub cavity. This presumably resulted from the fact that the nebula cavity has a complicated piston surface, which apparently enhanced heat loss due to an increased surface area. The dog dish cavity case showed the lowest NOx emissions at full load, but also had the worst fuel efficiency. The nebula cavity, however, showed the most stable combustion, but had the highest NOx. This trend could be observed for other load conditions as well. For instance, stable engine operation at leaner conditions than the best excessive air ratio for the bathtub cavity, was possible. Figure 5 compares NOx emissions for the bathtub and nebula cavity for 100% load. Note that the bathtub cavity tests were carried out at best excessive air ratio, and the nebula cavity case corresponded to a leaner mixture. When compared at each load condition, the nebula cavity satisfied the target NOx emissions level and showed better thermal efficiency than that of the bathtub cavity. Lower cyclic variation was also achieved by the nebula cavity. It can be thus concluded that the nebula cavity, which enhanced the combustion, could implement leaner combustion and was thus capable of achieving lower NOx
Bathtub: =1.6 Nebula: Efficiency (%) 38 36 34 32 30 28 =1.7 =1.8

10

20 NOx (g/h)

30

10 8 6 4 2 0 40

Figure 5 - Comparison of engine performance between the bathtub and nebula cavities by varying NOx emissions for 100% load.

Pi variation (%)

10-90% Burn duration (CAD)

0 1000

NOx (g/h)

150

Efficiency (%)

Pi variation (%)

-10

-5

10

40 30 20 10 0 15

Spark timing (deg BTDC)

Figure 6 - Comparison of engine performance with each swirl ratio by varying spark timing for 100% load. emissions. It should be noted that the engine performance tests were carried out at somewhat different excessive air ratios for each piston cavity in Figure 5, because each excessive air ratio represents a best value in term of combustion stability. SWIRL EFFECT : The swirl intensity was varied to investigate its effect on engine performance and emissions characteristics. Compared to the standard swirl (S/R = 2.0), low swirl (S/R = 1.0) and high swirl (S/R = 3.0, 3.7) cases were tested for the bathtub cavity at an excessive air ratio of 1.4. Table 2 - Best air/fuel ratio for high swirl S/R 5% load 3.7 1.5 40% load 3.0 1.7 100% load 3.0 1.7
S/R=2.0, =1.6 Efficiency (%) 38 36 34 32 30 S/R=3.0, =1.7

10-90% Burn duration (CAD)

8 6 4 2 0

NOx (g/h)

34 32 30 28 26 24

Swirl ratio: 1.0

2.0

3.0

3.7

200 150 100 50 0

was held at 1.4. As the swirl increased from 1.0 to 3.0, the cyclic variation declined and the combustion duration became shorter, whereas combustion was adversely affected by high swirl (S/R = 3.7). The S/R = 2.0 case generally showed the best thermal efficiency. An increase in heat transfer losses at the cylinder walls for the high swirl case (S/R = 3.7) reduced the thermal efficiency. For the 5% load case, combustion appears to have improved as the swirl increased. For S/R = 3.7, the cyclic variation was minimized and combustion duration was the shortest. High swirl improved the fuel consumption, although its increase was not significant due to enhanced heat transfer losses. NOx emissions were gradually increased by higher swirl. These tests show that compared to the standard swirl (S/R=2.0) case, an increase of swirl ratio up to 3.0 improved combustion in terms of Pi variation and burn duration. This implied that the lean limit may be extended by increasing swirl. Figure 7 shows best excessive air ratio results for both 2.0 and higher swirl ratios. Table 2 presents the best air/fuel ratios (corresponding to cyclic variation less than 5%, and best fuel consumption) for high swirl cases. For the 100% load case, an optimized air/fuel ratio for high swirl achieved sub-target level NOx emissions, higher thermal efficiency, and lower cyclic variation, compared to the best air/fuel ratio at standard swirl. For the 40% load case, low-NOx operation was possible, but the thermal efficiency and cyclic variation were not significantly improved. As expected, high swirl helped achieve lower indicated pressure variation and higher thermal efficiency, and enabled engine operation at lower NOx. Also, enhanced combustion by high swirl was clearly observed at the low load range, where air motion was not very vigorous. FUEL COMPOSITION EFFECT : LPG fuel composition in Japan varies from 100% propane to 100% butane, depending on area and season. In cold regions, such as the
Ratio between propane and butane: P/B=50/50 P/B=100/0 P/B=20/80 P/B=0/100

Efficiency (%)

38 36 34 32 30 28

Pi variation (%)

8 6 4 0 10 20 NOx (g/h) 30 2 40

Pi variation (%)

12 9 6 3 0

250 200 150 100 50 0

Figure 7 - Comparison of engine performance for each swirl and air/fuel ratio by varying NOx emissions. Excessive air ratios correspond to the best excessive air/fuel ratio for high swirl and 100% load. Engine performance is shown in Figure 6 for 100% load. Spark timing was varied, but the excessive air ratio 4

50 40 30 20 10 0

10

15

20

25

30

Spark timing (deg BTDC)

Figure 8 - Comparison of engine performance by varying spark timing for each fuel blend. Load = 100 % and =1.6.

10-90% Burn duration (CAD)

NOx (g/h)

northern part of Japan, more propane is favored due to its lower boiling point, whereas more butane is present in warmer regions. Therefore, this study included varying the propane - butane fuel composition to investigate its effect on engine performance. Fuel composition was varied from 100/0, 50/50, 20/80 to 0/100 (propane/butane by mass ratio). The bathtub cavity was used in these tests. Figure 8 (at 100% load, = 1.6) show the experimental results. As the propane composition increased, cyclic variation declined and NOx emissions increased up to 50/50, which indicates that the chemical reactions became more active, and thus a higher thermal efficiency was obtained. Occurrence of knock limited the butane composition for high load conditions; hence, engine operation with 0% propane fuel (100% butane) was not possible due to knocking. For the 20/80 propane/butane case, the knocking limit was extended to 19 degrees BTDC (before top dead center), and for both the 100/0 and 50/50 cases, knocking was not observed when the spark timing was advanced all the way to MBT.

LPG DI DIESEL ENGINE EXPERIMENTAL

Table 1 lists the engine specifications. This engine is a modified version of the inline 6 cylinder four cycle DI diesel engine (Mitsubishi Motors type 6D22(T6)), which is actually used in ten-ton class trucks. A jerk type injection pump was used, with a plunger diameter of 12mm, due to the low calorific value of LPG, compared to that of diesel fuel. In order to reduce the possibility of cavitation at the injection pump inlet, the LPG fuel tank was pressurized to 1.5 MPa with nitrogen. The LPG fuel consisted of 100% butane. It may be noted that the typical composition of LPG fuel used in Japan is 20% propane and 80% butane (by mass). A lubrication improver (100 wt ppm of long-chain alkyl ester) was added to the base fuel due to the lower lubricity of LPG compared to diesel fuel. In the experiments, the cetane improver concentration and engine load were varied, and the ignition delay was measured from cylinder pressure data. Various amounts of DTBP relative to the base fuel (butane) were tested, and the effects on combustion characteristics were investigated. The weight percentage (wt%) of DTBP The DTBP (>98% KAYAKU AKZO) relative to the base fuel was set at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 or 15 wt%. For each blend of base fuel and cetane improver, the cylinder pressure, needle lift, fuel consumption and exhaust gas characteristics (exhaust gas temperature, THC, CO, NOx, Smoke) were measured. The BMEP was varied from 0.03 to 0.6 MPa (or torque from 0.5 to 9 kg-m).

injected immediately after the injection valve opens at 27 BTDC, whereas the LPG injection is delayed to about 20 BTDC. Figure 9 shows the cylinder pressure and heat release rate for various levels of DTBP at a BMEP of 0.46 MPa (or 7 kg-m torque). As the concentration of DTBP increases, the ignition delay becomes notably shorter. When 1 wt% DTBP was added, normal operation of the engine was not possible due to misfire at lower BMEPs. As evident in the figure, LPG+DTBP fuel blends show very stable combustion, compared to conventional diesel fuel operation, although there exists a delay in the onset of injection for LPG+DTBP, as described above. When 7 wt% of DTBP was used, the onset of combustion was observed near TDC. Also, as the ignition delay became shorter, which may be associated with less complete mixing of the in-cylinder charge, the maximum cylinder pressure decreased gradually. When the DTBP concentration was low: e.g. 3 or 5 wt%, a fairly sharp increase in heat release rate was observed, and the peak value was higher than the other cases. At these conditions, knocking was prone to occur. At more than 7 wt% DTBP, the ignition delay becomes shorter, and diffusion combustion prevails, which causes the heat release rate to gradually decrease. That is, smoother combustion was observed. PERFORMANCE AND EMISSIONS : By varying the concentration of DTBP and BMEP, the measured brake thermal efficiency was obtained, as shown in Figure 10. A higher DTBP concentration was associated with a higher thermal efficiency. Note that the measurements at a 1 wt% DTBP concentration, at BMEPs under 0.34 MPa were not available due to excessive misfire. As shown in the plot, the brake thermal efficiency remains below 40% due to relatively high parasitic mechanical losses in the test engine. However, the efficiency of DTBP and conventional diesel operation at the same experimental conditions was remarkably similar. Figure 10 also shows the exhaust temperature, CO, NOx, THC and smoke measurements for DTBP. It can be seen that an addition of 1 or 3 wt% DTBP
1 wt% 7 wt% 15 wt% BMEP=0.46 MPa Tinj=27 BTDC
o

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

3 wt% 9 wt% light diesel

5 wt% 11 wt%

Pressure (MPa)

butane+DTBP

motoring 50 30 20 10 0 -10 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 Heat release rate (kJ/kg air /deg) 40

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

For LPG fuel, it was observed that there exits a time delay between the start of injector pump plunger motion and the onset of fuel injection into the cylinder via the injection nozzle due to larger compressibility of LPG. Diesel fuel is 5
CA (deg ADTC)

Figure 9 - Comparison of cylinder pressure and heat release rate for butane with DTBP.

at low torque ranges resulted in abnormal combustion. Thus, the NOx emissions were very low but THC and CO emissions were very high. Note that virtually no smoke was observed for BMEPs below 0.5 MPa. Above that, the smoke levels were about 10% of those observed for light diesel fuel operation when more than 4~5 wt% DTBP was added. This confirms that the smoke emissions of an LPG diesel engine are very low compared to conventional light diesel fuel operation. The cyclic variation for DTBP, denoted by Pi variation (or percentage change of IMEP), is also shown in Figure 10. When 1 or 3 wt% DTBP was added, unstable combustion and misfire were observed at low torque conditions, because the cetane number enhancing effect was not sufficient. Stable engine operation (Pi variation under 5%) was available over a wide range of torque output when more than 4~5 wt% DTBP was added, as shown in the
light diesel 7 wt% 40 30 20 10 Exhaust temp. (K) 0 800 700 600 1 wt% 9 wt% 3 wt% 11 wt% 5 wt% 15 wt%

(a) Brake thermal efficiency

3000 CO (ppm) 2000 1000 0

500 400

1200 800 400 4000 THC (ppm) 3000 2000 1000 0 0

NOx (ppm)

1600

figure. In order for an LPG fueled diesel engine to be comparable to a conventional diesel engine (in terms of engine performance and efficiency), it can be concluded that an addition of at least 4 ~ 5 wt% DTBP is necessary to achieve equivalently stable engine operation over a wide torque range. Figure 11 compares the measured ignition delay for DTBP and known cetane number diesel fuel blends. It also shows the effect of increasing the engine load on ignition delay. The fuel blends were made by adding -methyl naphthalene (CN=0) to a light diesel (CN=53.2) base, although the actual procedure to define the cetane number includes n-hexadecane (CN=100) and heptamethylnonane (CN=15). Cetane number of 20, 30 and 40 were blended and tested in this work. In these measurements, the light diesel blends was injected at 20 BTDC to realize the same actual injection of a fuel into the cylinder as that of LPG. With the CN = 20 blend, engine operation was not possible due to misfire at a range of low BMEPs (below 0.2 MPa). As shown in Figure 10, when DTBP is added to butane, an addition of 7 wt % DTBP corresponds to CN = 30, and with 11 wt%, CN = 40. Thus, in order to make a cetane enhanced LPG (100% butane) fuel having CN = 53.2 (cetane number of current commercially available diesel fuel), an addition of about 15 wt% DTBP may be necessary. Since as the load is increased, the residual gas temperature and the wall temperature increase, the delay decreases approximately linearly with increasing load. Within the cetane number range of 30 to 53, an approximately linear variation is evident, but decreasing fuel cetane number below 30 may result in a more rapid increase in ignition delay. EFFECT OF FUEL COMPOSITION : LPG currently used as an automotive fuel consists primarily of propane and butane, with an exact composition depending on the climate and supply environment. In Japan, the propane/butane ratio of so-called autogas on the market is about 20:80 to 30:70

Brake thermal efficiency (%)

7 light diesel + -MN : 6 CN=20 CN=30 CN=40 CN=53.2

(b) Butane+DTBP by adiabatic analysis

5 Smoke (%) 30 20 10

Igntion delay (ms)

LPG + DTBP : 1 wt% 3 wt% 5 wt% 7 wt% 9 wt% 11 wt% 15 wt%

20 Pi variation (%) 15 10

1 5 0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0 0.0

BMEP (MPa)

Figure 10 - Comparison of efficiency, exhaust emissions and pi variation by varying BMEP and concentration of DTBP. 6

Figure 11 - Comparison of ignition delay for various BMEP (MPa) concentrations of DTBP. Ignition delays of various blend ratios of light diesel (CN = 53.3) and -methyl naphthalene (CN = 0) are also shown.

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

10

10
8 3.0 2.5 2.5 2.0

8 12

Pressure (MPa)

autogas+9 wt% DTBP

Pressure (MPa)

butane+5 wt% DTBP autogas+5 wt% DTBP

butane+9 wt% DTBP

16

2.5 2.0

Pressure (MPa)

Autogas: propane/butane=25/75 6 4 2 0 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 Tinj=27 BTDC BMEP=0.46 MPa
o

12 8

1.5 2.0 2.0 1.5 2.02.0 1.5 1.5 2.0 1.0

0.1 700

800

900 1000 1100 1200

0.1 700

800

900 1000 1100 1200

Temperature (K)

Temperature (K)

(a) Adiabatic analysis

(b) Isothermal analysis

CA (deg ATDC)

Figure 12 - Comparison of cylinder pressures between autogas and butane base fuels when DTBP is added. by mass. In this study, although most tests were carried out using 100% butane as a base fuel, a propane butane blend (25:75 ratio) was also tested to investigate the fuel composition effect on cetane number enhancement. Figure 12 shows the cylinder pressures for butane + DTBP and autogas + DTBP. It is evident that when propane (25%) was added, the ignition delay increased (about 1 CAD in the figure). This measurement confirms that when propane is used as a compression ignition fuel, more cetane enhancing additive is necessary than required for 100% butane. ROLE OF DTBP IN BUTANE OXIDATION : The analyses were made to investigate the role of DTBP in reduction of the ignition delay for a butane fuel. The ignition delays of both mixtures of butane + air and butane + DTBP + air were calculated, using both the isothermal and adiabatic analysis. The chemical kinetic mechanism used in this study includes 778 reactions and 164 species for butane (7), and 67 reactions and 32 species for DTBP (8-10). CHEMKIN subroutines (11) were used to solve the energy and species equations with given engine parameters to calculate the pressure profiles. Thermodynamic properties were from the CHEMKIN database, or calculated using THERGAS(12). By comparing the isothermal and adiabatic analyses, the effect of heat release from chemical reactions on ignition delay can be identified. For example, if there is a negligible heat release from the chemical reactions, both calculations should give a similar ignition delay. Note that for an adiabatic analysis, the end of ignition delay was defined as the point at which the temperature increased by 300K from the initial value, while for an isothermal analysis, when the rate of d[OH]/dt concentration was maximized. As shown in Figure 13(b), when 7% DTBP is added to the base butane fuel, the ignition delay is shortened by a factor of about two in the isothermal analysis, i.e. when the heat release effect is excluded. Note that in Figure 13 an enhanced ratio of an ignition delay is defined as 'ignition delay by isothermal calculation' divided by 'ignition delay by adiabatic calculation'. Thus, numbers in the figure indicate that the ignition delays become shorter by the factor of the corresponding number. However, when the heat release effect on ignition delay is included, as can be seen in Figure 13(a), the ignition delay due to addition of 7

Figure 13 - Comparison of the fact by which the ignition delay is reduced, between (a) adiabatic and (b) isothermal calculations. The number indicates 'ignition delay by isothermal calculation' divided by 'ignition delay by adiabatic calculation'. DTBP is reduced by a factor of more than ten, depending on the exact pressure and temperature conditions. Especially, at low pressures and high temperatures, a decrease of ignition delay by DTBP is not significant, but at high pressures and low temperature ranges, it is apparent that DTBP significantly reduces the ignition delay of butane. From these analyses, it can be concluded that DTBP enhances(or reduces) the ignition delay of a base butane fuel, not only via enhancement of chain branching reactions, producing more free radicals during the induction period, but via thermal explosion due to higher heat release. DEVELOPMENT OF PROTOTYPE TRUCK : Figure 14 shows an external view of the prototype truck, developed in Table 3 - Specifications of the prototype truck Specifications load capacity 2,000 kg engine output 130 PS/3200 rpm number of cylinder 4 compression ratio 18 borestroke 108115 mm plunger diameter 10 mm injection timing 25o BTDC injection holes 50.32 mm injection pressure 15.7 MPa

Figure 14 - An external view of the prototype truck developed in this work.

this work, equipped with an LPG fueled diesel engine and an oxidation catalyst. Table 3 lists some specifications of the vehicle. The vehicle has passed the 13 mode emission test for Japan, the results of which revealed that the prototype truck emits about 0.2 g/kWh CO, 1.1 g/kWh HC and 3.6 g/kWh NOx. Note that several modifications of fuel supply system including a fuel tank have been made.

CONCLUSIONS LPG LEAN-BURN SI ENGINE

1. Lean burn operation of an LPG SI engine resulted in improved fuel consumption for both the full and half load cases. 2. As the in-cylinder flow was made more turbulent by suitable piston cavity modification, the cyclic variation and combustion duration both declined. The dog dish cavity achieved the lowest thermal efficiency, whereas the bathtub cavity showed the highest value. Although the nebula cavity showed improved combustion characteristics, it had almost same thermal efficiency as the bathtub cavity. 3. The piston cavity tests showed that the dog dish cavity produced lower NOx emissions, and the nebula cavity, which showed improved combustion stability, had the highest NOx emissions. The nebula cavity satisfied the target NOx emissions level and showed a better thermal efficiency than the bathtub cavity, since the nebula cavity could achieve leaner combustion. 4. High swirl improved combustion stability and thermal efficiency, and enabled engine operation at low NOx levels. Enhanced combustion by high swirl was also clearly observed at the low load range, where air motion was not very vigorous. 5. The propane butane fuel content was varied to determine its effect on engine performance. For the 100% load case, as the propane composition increased, cyclic variation declined and NOx emissions increased. For high load conditions, engine operation with 0% propane fuel (100% butane) was not possible due to knocking. For the propane/butane = 20/80 case, the knocking limit was at 19 degree BTDC, and for both 100/0% and 50/50% case, knocking was not observed.

was comparable to conventional diesel operation, when the concentration of DTBP exceeded 5 wt%. Also, exhaust emissions showed that NOx and the smoke emissions could be significantly reduced using the DTBP doped LPG fuel, compared to a light diesel fuel at the same experimental conditions . 4. A cetane number of about 53, comparable to commercially available diesel fuel, was possible when 15 wt% of DTBP was added to the butane base fuel. 5. When propane was added to the butane base fuel, the ignition delay increased. Thus, if propane is used for a compression ignition fuel, more cetane enhancing additive is necessary than that required for 100% butane. 6. The calculated ignition delay contours showed that an increased heat release at relatively high pressure and low temperature conditions enhances butane+DTBP oxidation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge their help in conducting experiments from Kouseki Sugiyama, Masataka Kajiwara, and Makoto Sagara in Iwatani International Corporation, and Masamitsu Motohashi and Kazuhisa Sugimoto in Ibaraki University.

REFERENCES
[1] Goto, S. et al. 1996 LPG engine research and development in Japan. Int'l Congress on Transportation Electronics (Convergence 96). [2] Lee, D. et al. 1999 Observation of Flame Propagation in an LPG Lean Burn SI Engine. SAE paper 1999-01-0570. [3] Goto, S. et al. 1999 Performance and emissions of an LPG lean-burn engine for heavy duty vehicles. SAE paper 1999-01-1513. [4] Lee, D. et al. 1999 Spectroscopic Investigation of the Combustion Process in an LPG Lean-Burn SI Engine. SAE paper 1999-01-3510. [5] Goto, S. et al. 1999 Development of an LPG DI Diesel Engine using Cetane Number Enhancing Additives. SAE paper 1999-01-3602. [6] Lee, D. et al. 2000 Chemical Kinetic Study of a Cetane Number Enhancing Additive for an LPG DI Diesel Engine. SAE paper 2000-01-0193. [7] Warth, V. et al. 1998 Computer aided design of gas-phase mechanisms- Application to the modeling of normal butane oxidation. Combust. Flame 114:81. [8] Griffiths, J.F. et al. 1990 Experimental and numerical studies of the combustion of ditertiary butyl peroxide in the presence of oxygen at low pressures in a mechanically stirred closed vessel. Combust. Flame 81: 304-316. [9] Hidaka, Y. et al. High-temperature pyrolysis of ketene in shock waves Combust. Flame 99:18-28. [10] Inomata, T. et al. 1990 The role of additives as sensitizers for the spontaneous ignition of hydrocarbons. Twenty-third Symp. (Int') on Combust., The Combustion Institute 1759-1766. 8

LPG DI DIESEL ENGINE

1. Since LPG has higher compressibility and lower viscosity compared to light diesel fuel, the injection timing needs to be advanced. The onset of actual injection is delayed by about 7 CAD in this work. 2. The cetane number of LPG is so low that normal diesel engine operation on LPG alone is not possible. Increasing the concentration of cetane number improver (DTBP) resulted in shorter ignition delays, and lower cyclic variation. When more than 5 wt % DTBP was added to the 100% butane base fuel, stable engine operation over a wide range of engine loads (BMEP of 0.03 to 0.60 MPa) was possible. 3. The thermal efficiency with cetane enhanced LPG fuel

[11] Kee, R.J. et al. 1993 Chemkin-II: A FORTRAN Chemical Kinetics Package for the Analysis of Gas Phase Chemical Kinetics, Sandia Laboratories Report, SAND 89-8009B. [12] Muller, C. et al. 1995 THERGAS: a computer program for the evaluation of thermochemical data of molecules and free radicals in the gas phase. J.Chem. Phys. 92:1154-1178.