Advanced Simulation and Environmental Impact Assessment of Combustion in Maritime Energy Systems

The current study aims to simulate the combustion process performance inside a diesel engine and then assess the environmental impact of variable methanol ratios on maximum and operational temperatures, as well as the emission performance of a diesel/methanol dual-fuel engine. The numerical simulation for combustion is conducted on a 3-D sector cylinder using Ansys Fluent to calculate the dynamic motion of air and combustion characteristics. Subsequently, diesel/ methanol dual-fuel combustion is performed to evaluate the distribution of essential mass fraction, operational temperature, and pollution inside the combustion engine, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), and soot emissions. The study illustrates that NOx emissions from diesel/methanol, including NO and N2O, are reduced by 57% and 65%, respectively, compared with pure diesel fuel. Additionally, there is a decrease in SOx and soot pollution by 52% and 53%, respectively. The mass fraction for oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide is reduced by increasing the methanol ratio. The convergence between the Computational Fluid Dynamics and experimental results indicates the feasibility of using numerical analysis in diesel engine design.