Analysis of benefits of using internal exhaust gas recirculation in biogas-fueled HCCI engines

This paper describes a numerical study that analyzed the influence of combustion products (CP) concentration on the combustion characteristics (combustion timing and combustion duration) of a biogas fueled homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine and the possibility of reducing the high intake temperature requirement necessary for igniting biogas in a HCCI engine by using internal exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) enabled by negative valve overlap (NVO). An engine model created in AVL Boost, and validated against experimental engine data, was used in this study. The results show, somewhat counter-intuitively, that when CP concentrations are increased the required intake temperature for maintaining the same combustion timing must be increased. When greater NVO is used to increase the in-cylinder CP concentration, the in-cylinder temperature does increase, but the chemical dilution influence of CP almost entirely counteracts this thermal effect. Additionally, it has been observed that with larger fractions of CP some instability of combustion in the calculation was obtained which indicates that the increase of internal EGR might produce some combustion instability. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.