i

ABSTRACT

The increase in electricity demand in Brazil and the frequent interruptions in its

supply forced the industry and commerce use stationary generator sets, mainly in

large urban centers like So Paulo. This city established a decree in order that these

devices use cleaner fuels than diesel oil, or adopt post-gas treatment systems, since

there are no national regulations for generator sets emissions. To meet this decree,

ethanol appears as a good option because it is an environmentally friendly fuel, does

not a ect the ozone layer, since it is obtained from sugarcane, which helps to reduce

the carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere through photosynthesis in sugarcane

eld. Within recommended speci cations ethanol can be blended with diesel and

gasoline, but can also be used without additives, without damaging the engine. The

ethanol availability in Brazil and its consolidation in the automotive market make it an

alternative for use in generator sets. The aim of this work was to characterize the

performance of a heavy duty Otto cycle engine, developed based on 12 l diesel

longblock, prepared to run on ethanol without additives, as a prototype generator set.

The performance tests of the generator set were conducted at three di erent altitudes.

A load bank was used to simulate the real electrical load in ve di erent power settings.

The performance characteristics obtained experimentally were compared with results

obtained with a one-dimensional model using the commercial software GT-Power. The

results obtained during the development phase showed that the engine achieve up to

39.6percentage of the brake e ciency and a peak power of the 326 kW. The maximum

electrical power achieved by the generator set was 302 kW at sea level and 278 kW at

1640 m, according to the employed methodology. The results showed that is feasible

to use ethanol without additives for the energy generation, replacing diesel oil in

heavy-duty engines, operating in the evaluated steady state condition.

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CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION 1

2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2

3 OBJECTIVES 3

4 METHODOLOGY 4
4.1 Hardware con guration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.2 Experimental development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4.3 Engine modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 8

5.1 Experimental analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
5.2 Model analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

6 CONCLUSIONS 15

REFERENCES 21

iii
LIST OF FIGURES

4.1 Engine technical characteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

4.2 Generator technical characteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.3 Scheme of the experimental apparatus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4.4 Schematic diagram of test procedure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

5.1 Engine torque versus brake power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

5.2 Expanded uncertainties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5.3 Lambda factor and fuel mass ow versus electric power output. . . . . 10
5.4 Throttle angle, turbocharger rotational speed and inlet air pressure as a
function of electric power output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.5 Brake speci c fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency versus brake
power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
5.6 Mean e ective pressure versus electric power output. . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.7 Throttle and turbocharger rotational speed versus electric power output
at barometric pressure of 101.9 kPa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
5.8 Throttle and turbocharger rotational speed versus electric power output
at barometric pressure of 84.8 kPa. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5.9 Comparison between experimental and simulation results for electric
power output at di erent barometric pressure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

iv
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

Although Brazil has duplicated the energy generation in the last ten years,
interruptions in its supply are not uncommon. In January 2014 peaks of demand
have reached 86,000MW and many interruptions over 100MW have been
registered. To mitigate this problem the industry, hospitals and residential buildings
have been using generator sets to prevent power outages. The generator sets
manufacturers estimated 30 percentage of growth on its sales in 2013.

A study conducted by EMBRAPA, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation,

reveals the use of sugarcane ethanol can reduce by 73 percentage the emissions of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere compared to gasoline .Brazil is the world leader in
ethanol production and the technology has gone beyond the automotive market, which
53 percentage of vehicles are exible and can be powered with this fuel alone or with a
mixture of ethanol and gasoline by any proportion ratio. Ethanol is also being applied
in airplanes and stationary industrial engines, representing an alternative to reduce the
greenhouse emissions. Its application in heavy-duty engines may have a significant
impact in the reduction of this emissions once these engines are basically powered
with fossil fuels, such as diesel and natural gas.

In this analysis it was considered all the ethanol production process,

measurement of total amount of gases causing the greenhouse e ect from
preparing the soil for planting sugar cane, including transportation to gas stations.
It was also considered steps such as the construction of the ethanol production
plant and the manufacture of machines and tractors. The same was done for
ethanol and for diesel oil. The study indicates that the replacement of diesel by
ethanol could decrease by up to 68 percentage the emission of carbon dioxide.

1
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

Lei et al(2011) carried out investigation of ethanol-diesel blends and altitude effects
on the performance of diesel engine. The experimental results indicate that the
equivalent brake-specific c fuel consumption (BSFC) of ethanol diesel blends are
better than that of diesel under different atmospheric pressures and that the
equivalent BSFC gets great improvement with the rise of atmospheric pressure
when the atmospheric pressure is lower than 90 kPa.

Sarjovaara(2014) examined the possible use of ethanol for heavy-duty engines in dual
fuel concept, where ethanol was injected to intake manifold to form homogenous pre-
mixed charge to engine cylinder. Near to engine top-dead centre, high-reactive diesel
fuel was injected into cylinder to initialize the ignition. The concept proved its potential,
however main challenges were the maximum ethanol (E85) share with acceptable
cylinder pressure rise ratio and high CO and TCH emissions.

2
CHAPTER 3
OBJECTIVES

This paper presents the performance characterization of a heavy-duty Otto cycle

engine, developed based on 12 l diesel long block, prepared to run only on ethanol
without additives as a prototype generator set. The engine was designed to use
diesel as fuel, therefore all the necessary bench tests were realized to support the
necessary modifications in the engine to operate with ethanol. The performance
results obtained from test campaign was compared with the results obtained using
a commercial software for engine simulation.
The main objective is the conversion of heavy-duty diesel long-block in to an
ethanol fuelled Otto cycle engine and effects of altitude in engine performance and
the turbocharger limitations .To prove the feasible use of ethanol without additives
in heavy-duty engines for generator sets.

3
CHAPTER 4
METHODOLOGY

4.1 Hardware configuration

The generator set consists of the following main components mounted in a frame:
piston engine, generator, control panel, fuel tank, fuel pump, batteries, cooling
system and fairing. As the piston engine is a generators set main component and it
will be characterized in this study, a brief description of its development to operate
with ethanol is presented in this section. The engine description was based on the
work of Britto et al, in which more detailed information regarding the engine
development can be found.
The ignition system should be able to comply with the design requirement of
lean burn combustion, providing high output energy. Thermometric test were
performed to determine the correct heat range, which the temperature was
measured in the spark plug centre electrode, inside de cylinder, at maximum
power output. Temperatures range obtained have proved that the thermal
performance of the spark plug is within the main limits set by supplier.
The fuel injection system uses two injectors per cylinder. It was selected because it
is used as automotive fuel injector and it was chosen from the market in order to
reduce cost and development time. The positioning of the injector was a concern for
mixture preparation optimization once the cylinder head intake ports were designed for
better diesel combustion efficiency through small radius curves for swirl
intensification. PFI (Port Fuel Injection) engines are normally straight focused in fuel
lm avoidance.
The choice of the engine was made and the experimental study was carried out
in a six-cylinder, four stroke, turbocharged and port fuel injection engine, whose
characteristics are shown in Table 4.1 The electrical generator was chosen from
the market based on the engine power and upon the Brazilian electrical standards.
Table 4.2 shows electric generator characteristics.

4.2 Experimental development

The established methodology consists on the use of a bank of electric resistances, which
supplies pure resistive load to the generator set. Electrical loads were applied in ve di
erent powers: 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 kW. At the same time, engine parameters were
monitored with a data acquisition system. Tests were carried out in three di erent
locations, representing extreme altitudes in Brazil: 0 m (sea level); at approximately 600

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 CHARACTERIZATION OF AN ETHANOL FUELED HEAVY-DUTY ENGINE
POWERING A GENERATOR SET

Figure 4.1: Engine technical characteristics.

Figure 4.2: Generator technical characteristics.

m and at 1640 m. As the turbocharger was developed to this application, altitude

tests were a form to evaluate its behaviour concerning the rotational speed
limitations, and to verify that the developed calibration was able to attend different
barometric pressures, providing the correct power output within generator set
specifications. Fig.4.3 shows the scheme of the experimental apparatus, which
were transported and installed on the test locations.

Figure 4.3: Scheme of the experimental apparatus.

Besides the evaluation of the engine performance at positive power settings, the
maximum electrical power achieved at sea level and at altitude of 1640 m was measured.
Thereby, the measure begins in 250 kW and it was increased in steps of approximately

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 CHARACTERIZATION OF AN ETHANOL FUELED HEAVY-DUTY ENGINE
POWERING A GENERATOR SET

5 kW, in each load step the stability of the engine speed were checked (1800
RPM) until the maximum power was achieved.
Additional sensors were installed on the engine and they were monitored by the
data acquisition system. The installation of these sensors aims to monitor in real
time quantities, such as pressure and temperature at different points of the engine,
fuel consumption and rotational speed of the turbocharger. Also, a linear position
transducer was installed parallel to the axis of the waste gate valve actuator; this
procedure was made to measure its displacement and to investigate its behaviour.

Figure 4.4: Schematic diagram of test procedure.

4.3 Engine modelling

In order to evaluate and compare the experimental results a computational model
of the engine was used. The commercial software used in the calculations was
developed by Gamma Technologies, GT-Power version 7.1. The model creation
consists into dividing the powertrain in its major components as: intake manifold;
throttle; fuel injectors; exhaust manifold; turbocharger and engine. All pipe bends,
flow splits and components were modelled based on geometrical measurements
obtained experimentally, or as from manufacturer data.
Input data and sub models consistency is fundamental to the improvement of
re-liability of computational model results. Thus, besides geometrical
measurements, information about combustion, and heat transfer, a brief
explanation of data obtainment from major components will be indicated below:
Throttle: data about throttle diameter and discharge coefficient as a function of
throttle opening were obtained from manufacturer.
Cylinder head: discharge coefficient as a function of the valve lift were measured
in a flow bench. In the software both are indicated as a function of crank angle.

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 CHARACTERIZATION OF AN ETHANOL FUELED HEAVY-DUTY ENGINE
POWERING A GENERATOR SET

Turbocharger: flow, efficiency, compression ratio, axis inertia and friction,

controller type and waste gate definition were obtained from manufacturer.
Engine: cylinder number, ring order sequence and dimensions were obtained from
manufacturer. A friction model was used, in which it considered the parameters that in
hence mean effective pressure, such as average piston speed and cylinder peak
pressure. Some of the parameters were defined accordingly to software default values. A
heat transfer model for cylinders based on Woschini model was used, however swirl
effects were not considered. This model considers heat transfer coefficients during the
period when the valves are open, where the heat transfer is increased by in flow velocities
through the intake valves and also by back flow through the exhaust valves
After experimental tests and data processing, some of the measured engine
parameters were inserted in the model. This allows simulating each operational
condition at the three atmospheric pressures. Therefore, parameters used to
simulate the engine with corresponding electrical power of 50, 100, 150, 200 and
250 kW were: environ-mental pressure and temperature, intake air temperature,
pressure before and after compressor, throttle opening angle, rotational speed of
the turbocharger, ignition advance, mass of fuel injected, engine speed and
lambda, a parameter for defining mixture composition as the relative air/fuel ratio.

7
CHAPTER 5
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

5.1 Experimental analysis

Experimental results obtained at the three barometric pressures for brake specific
fuel consumption (BSFC), lambda, turbocharger rotational speed, break efficiency
and mean effective pressure (MEP) are presented in this section. The results are
plot-ted as a function of load and some of them as a function of engine brake
power, in order to improve their understanding. An analysis concerning the
maximum achieved output power is also shown. Afterward, a comparison between
experimental and engine model results is presented. Uncertainties calculated for
all parameters shown in this paper are presented on Table 5.2. These values were
not plotted together with results to improve graphs reading.
Fig. 5.1 presents the engine torque versus brake power, calculated based on engine
speed and brake power for three different altitudes: 0 m, 600 m and 1,640 m. These
altitudes correspond to 84.8 kPa, 94.3 kPa and 101.9 kPa, respectively. Once the electric
power output setting is the same for each altitude and engine speed is constant, the
torque has to be similar at each altitude, providing the same brake power as expected.
The aim of presenting this figure to show that torque and brake power were the same at
the three different altitudes, and variations in the engine parameters presented in the next
figures can be compared for the same engine operational conditions.

Figure 5.1: Engine torque versus brake power.

Fig.5.3 shows two important parameters, lambda and fuel mass flow rate plotted
as a function of electric power output for the three evaluated atmospheric conditions. It
can be seen that lambda values are between 1.3 and 1.4 as of 100 kW, indicating a

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 CHARACTERIZATION OF AN ETHANOL FUELED HEAVY-DUTY ENGINE
POWERING A GENERATOR SET

Figure 5.2: Expanded uncertainties.

slight increasing trend at higher power. At 50 kW, the lambda value at the condition of
84.8 kPa was about 7 percentage lower than at 101.9 kPa. This can be explained due
to the engine calibration that has been performed at barometric pressure of 94.3 kPa,
where lambda was adjusted to 1.3. At lower ambient pressure, of 84.8 kPa, where the
inlet air mass flow is lower, the combustion becomes richer for the same amount of
fuel injected, indicating a lambda value lower than 1.3. The opposite happens at sea
level, where the inlet air mass flow is higher and causes a lean-burn for the same
amount of fuel injected at ambient pressure of 94.3 kPa.
The calculated fuel mass flow rate values do not show variations for different
altitudes and electric power output because the engine was calibrated to inject the
same quantity of fuel for each range of electric power output.
Fig. 5.4 presents the throttle angle, turbocharger rotational speed and intake air
absolute pressure as a function of electric power output for the three conditions of
barometric pressure. At barometric pressure of 101.9 kPa, throttle angle from 50 to
250 kW is lower than in the other barometric pressures. At 250 kW, this value is
approximately 25 percentage smaller than in the other conditions. As there were no
changes in the engine, this behaviour may be explained due the higher barometric

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 CHARACTERIZATION OF AN ETHANOL FUELED HEAVY-DUTY ENGINE
POWERING A GENERATOR SET

Figure 5.3: Lambda factor and fuel mass flow versus electric power output.

pressure at sea level.

increment of the turbocharger rotational speed when the altitude increases is
caused by the pressure decrement at the turbine outlet, but the pressure of
exhaust gases at the turbine inlet has no significant changes, increasing
expansion ratio. In a diesel engine, the turbocharger rotational speed increases
from 6 percentage to 8 percentage at each 1000 m. The ethanol engine presented
an increase of 7 percent and 12 percent for electric power output of 50 kW and
250 kW respectively, corresponding to altitude increases from 600 m to 1639 m
(94.3 kPa and 84.8 kPa). Between the sea level and the altitude of 1640 m (101.9
kPa and 84.8 kPa), increase in turbocharger rotational speed was between 12
percent and 18 percent for electric power output of 50 kW and 250 kW,
respectively. The turbocharger worked within the maximum rotational speed at the
three atmospheric conditions, 130,000 RPM and was able to attend the application
providing the required charge air and consequently electrical power output.
Absolute intake pressure, this value is measured after the throttle, at the intake of
the engine. For electric power output values between 150 kW and 250 kW, the inlet air
pressure values overcomes the ambient pressure in all the three barometric
conditions, indicating that supercharging has greater effectiveness in this power range.
Fig.5.5 shows brake specific fuel consumption and the engine brake thermal
efficiency as a function of the brake power. BSFC is given by dividing the calculated
fuel mass flow rate by the brake power. A decreasing trend when increasing load is
due to the less percentage influence of mechanical losses in the total power. There
were no significant changes between each atmospheric condition evaluated. The
figure also shows brake efficiency, calculated by dividing engine brake power by fuel
mass flow rate multiplied by fuel lower heating value. It is observed that at
atmospheric pressure of 84.8 kPa the efficiency values are 12 percent higher than at
the other conditions. This difference could be attributed to the different fuel lower
heating values used in calculations, according to laboratorial analysis. The fuel was
acquired from different

10
 CHARACTERIZATION OF AN ETHANOL FUELED HEAVY-DUTY ENGINE
POWERING A GENERATOR SET

Figure 5.4: Throttle angle, turbocharger rotational speed and inlet air pressure as a
function of electric power output.

suppliers for the old tests and the laboratorial analysis in accordance to ASTM D240-
09 indicated a difference in the fuel lower heating values between them. The ethanol
used at ambient pressure of 101.9 kPa and 94.3 kPa had lower heating value of about
6 percent higher than the fuel used at pressure of 84.8 kPa, for the same fuel mass
flow injected, as can be seen in Fig.5.3. However, no significant differences in
volumetric fuel flow between the three evaluated conditions were measured.

Figure 5.5: Brake specific fuel consumption and brake thermal efficiency versus
brake power.

Fig.5.6 shows the mean effective pressure calculated in all test conditions versus
the electric power output. Hiereth and Prenninger [15] indicate that the mean effective

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 CHARACTERIZATION OF AN ETHANOL FUELED HEAVY-DUTY ENGINE
POWERING A GENERATOR SET

pressure decrease 12 percentage for each 1000 m of altitude increase, since all
the other engine parameters are kept constant. As the calculation of mean
effective pressure depends on the brake power and the engine speed, any
variation on these parameters do not allow results comparison. Because of the
small variation in the electric power output due to the limitation of the load bank
and the engine speed ranged up to 40 RPM, it is not possible to infer that the
altitude factor cause any influence in the mean effective pressure .To determine
the maximum brake power achieved at sea level and at 1640 m is important to
compare the engine behaviour in these conditions and ensure the integrity of its
components.

Figure 5.6: Mean effeective pressure versus electric power output.

Fig. 5.7 shows that the maximum electrical power output achieved at
barometric pressure of 101.9 kPa was 302 kW, corresponding to the engine brake
power of 326 kW. The turbocharger rotational speed at this condition was 93,800
RPM and the throttle angle was 50 percentage.

Figure 5.7: Throttle and turbocharger rotational speed versus electric power output
at barometric pressure of 101.9 kPa.

Fig.5.8 shows that the maximum electrical power output achieved at barometric
pressure of 84.8 kPa was 278 W, corresponding to the engine brake power of 299 kW.
The turbocharger rotational speed at this condition was about 106,800 RPM and the
throttle angle was 95 percentage. To investigate the cause of the discrepancy in the
brake power between the two ambient pressures, a linear position transducer was
installed at the turbocharger waste gate valve to monitor its operation. It could be seen
that, at ambient pressure of 84.8 kPa, even when the ECU signal was sent to the
solenoid controller to close 100 percentage the waste gate valve and increase boost
pressure, the waste gate was incorrectly kept open. After pressure measurements, it
12
 CHARACTERIZATION OF AN ETHANOL FUELED HEAVY-DUTY ENGINE
POWERING A GENERATOR SET

was concluded that the waste gate actuator spring was not able to overcome exhaust
gas pressures. This makes the exhaust gases bypass the turbocharger and led to a
lack of boost pressure when required. Therefore, the turbocharger waste gate valve
actuator had to be redesigned to meet engine altitude operation requirements.

Figure 5.8: Throttle and turbocharger rotational speed versus electric power output
at barometric pressure of 84.8 kPa.

5.2 Model analysis

Table 5.9 presents a comparison between experimental and simulation results for
electric power output at different barometric pressure as a function of the important
performance parameters, as: power, torque, brake specific fuel consumption,
turbocharger rotational speed, mean effective pressure, lambda, brake thermal
efficiency and volumetric efficiency. All the parameters values are compared and
percentage error was calculated.
Since the cylinder pressure mapping in the test bench was executed at intake
pressure of 100 kPa, which is above the corresponding intake pressure of 50 kW and
100 kW of electric power output, these conditions are not indicated. Extrapolating
cylinder pressure for these conditions does not provide results with high correlation. It
can be seen a great correlation between experimental and model results for 150, 200
and 250 kW of electric power output. Due to the unavailability of an air mass flow
meter during tests, only simulated volumetric efficiency is shown.

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 CHARACTERIZATION OF AN ETHANOL FUELED HEAVY-DUTY ENGINE
POWERING A GENERATOR SET

Figure 5.9: Comparison between experimental and simulation results for electric
power output at different barometric pressure.

14
CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSIONS

In this study it was possible to demonstrate the performance characterization of

the prototype ethanol fueled heavy-duty engine used for power generation at three
diffeent barometric pressure conditions, which represent locations of extreme
altitudes for application in Brazil.
The first step of the work was to select an engine that ful lls all the
requirements. The chosen engine was designed to operate initially with diesel,
therefore the next steps were to evaluate the engine in test bench and make the
necessary modifications in order to be able to operate with ethanol.
The engine achieved brake thermal efficiency of 39.6 percentage and specific fuel
consumption of 362 g/kW h at 1763 RPM, obtained at atmospheric pressure of 84.8
kPa. The calculated values of engine thermal efficiency are, in this case, directly de-
pendent on the values of electric generator efficiency, as indicated by the
manufacturer, since electrical power output was used to calculate engine brake power.
The simulation results presented good correlation with experimental data at the
electrical power of 150, 200 and 250 kW. To improve correlation at 50 and 100 kW,
the engine cylinder pressure needs to be measured in accordance to the engine
intake pressure corresponding to these electrical powers.
The prototype heavy-duty engine operating with ethanol without additives is a
feasible alternative for power generation, since the local of installation complies
with generator set classification concerning power quality and, moreover, places
where environmental factors are fundamental.

15
REFERENCES

[1] J. Lei, Y. Bi, L. Shen, Performance and emission characteristics of diesel

engine fueled with ethanol diesel blends in different altitude regions, J.
Biomed. Biotech-nol. (2011)

[2] T. Sarjovaara, Studies on heavy duty engine fuel alternatives, Aalto University
publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS 208/2015, Helsinki, ISSN
(pdf) 17994942

[3] R. Britto et al., Development of heavy duty Otto cycle engine powered by
ethanol. In: Proceedings of the SAE Brasil Congress and Display, 2013, So
Paulo, SP. SAE, Washington, DC, 2013

[4] J.B. Heywood, Internal Combustion Engines Fundamentals, McGraw-hill, New

York, 1988.

[5] International Standardization Organization, ISO 17025:2005: general

requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, 2005.
[6] Gamma Technologies, GT-POWER: users manual, version 6.2. [S.l.], 2006.

[7] H. Hiereth, P. Prenninger, Charging the Internal Combustion Engine, Springer,

NewYork, 2003. 268p.

16