Effect of hydrogen sulfide content on the combustion characteristics of biogas fuel in homogenous charge compression ignition engines

The use of biogas fuel in homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines has been promoted recently due to the environmental advantages. However, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) forms a non-environment friendly content and biogas impurity that its removal is associated with high costs. In this study, the effect of using biogas fuel in the HCCI engines under different operating conditions is investigated to shed light on the best scenarios of biogas combustion, even with the presence of H2S contents. A modified reaction mechanism is introduced by considering the reactions of H2S with other species in the air-fuel mixture. The new chemical kinetics model, and a multi-zone combustion approach, have been validated against experimental data from the literature and then used to simulate the HCCI combustion of biogas fuel. It was obtained that having up to 3.8% content of H2S in the intake charge can enhance the rate of heat release and combustion pressure. However, it had no significant effect on the in-cylinder temperature profile. Higher rates of H2S contents led to produce higher rates of sulfur oxides (SOx) emissions. Increasing the equivalence ratio (up to 0.50) results in a higher in-cylinder temperature and pressure as well as a higher SOx and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions. Also, the HCCI combustion is influenced by the intake temperature and pressure, where increasing those parameters leads to an increase in the in-cylinder temperatures and pressures, as well as the NOx emissions. However, SOx emissions are affected only when the intake temperature reaches over 400 K and the intake pressure is over 1.5 bar.