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A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 25613

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Nag Jung Choi

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Guest Editor

Jeonbuk National University
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Jun Cong Ge

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Guest Editor

Division of Mechanical Design Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, 567 Baekje-daero, Deokjin-gu, Jeonju-si, Jeollabuk-do 54896, Republic of Korea
Interests: alternative fuels; diesel engine; combustion; emission; particle morphology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Energy shortages and environmental pollution caused by fossil-fueled vehicles have become a global concern. Especially in recent years, the sharp decline in urban air quality has been reported to be directly related to these vehicles. The main harmful air pollutants emitted by fossil-fueled vehicles are carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbons (HC), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM). These are regulated exhaust emissions, and they can be effectively controlled by exhaust aftertreatment devices such as Three-Way Catalytic Converters (TWC), Diesel Oxidation Catalysts (DOC), Diesel Particulate Filters (DPF) and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) catalysts. However, they will lead to increased vehicle purchase costs and maintenance costs, which are obviously uneconomical. Moreover, the exhaust aftertreatment devices have no detailed information for the control of some unregulated emissions such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and trace metals. Therefore, finding an alternative fuel to replace fossil fuels can effectively reduce environmental pollution and energy shortages in a short period of time. Alternative fuels such as biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen, propane, and their blends have great application value in reducing harmful emissions and carbon dioxide (CO₂) from vehicle cars. Therefore, the Special Issue aims to study the application characteristics of alternative fuels, including physicochemical properties (e.g. density and viscosity), sources, energy policies, and their application to engines (e.g. performance, combustion and emission characteristics. Hereby, we sincerely welcome all colleagues at home and abroad to submit your contributions to this Special Issue.

Topics for this Special Issue include but are not limited to the following:

Biodiesel
Bioalcohol
Oxygenated fuels
Wood and biomass
Hydrogen
Fuel additives
Batteries and fuel cells
Other non-fossil fuels

Prof. Nag Jung Choi
Prof. Dr. Jun Cong Ge
Guest Editors

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Keywords

alternative fuel
vehicle emissions
engine performance
combustion characteristics
regulated and unregulated emissions
PM morphology

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 6424 KiB

Open AccessArticle

NOx–Smoke Trade-off Characteristics in a Palm Oil-Fueled CRDI Diesel Engine under Various Injection Pressures and EGR Rates

by Guirong Wu, Jun Cong Ge, Min Soo Kim and Nag Jung Choi

Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(3), 1069; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12031069 - 20 Jan 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1492

Abstract

Palm oil is one of the most common and productive vegetable oils, so it is often used as an excellent feedstock for biodiesel production. However, due to the high viscosity and other issues of palm oil, it cannot be directly used as an alternative fuel for diesel engines unless some treatment is carried out. In this study, the effects of palm oil-diesel blend fuel on the nitrogen oxides (NOx)–smoke trade-off characteristics were investigated in a common rail direct injection (CRDI) diesel engine under various injection pressures and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) rates. It was found that NOx and smoke from the combustion of fuel containing 50% palm oil (P50D50) were simultaneously suppressed by 3% and 3.1% compared with diesel fuel at an injection pressure of 400 bar, respectively. The performance of P50D50 was comparable to that of diesel, but at high injection pressure and high EGR rate, it showed shorter ignition delay (ID) and lower smoke emission. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Alternative Fuels)

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19 pages, 7529 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study of Indicators of CI Engine Running on Conventional Diesel and Chicken Fat Mixtures Changing EGR

by Alfredas Rimkus, Tadas Vipartas, Jonas Matijošius, Saulius Stravinskas and Donatas Kriaučiūnas

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(4), 1411; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11041411 - 4 Feb 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1798

Abstract

This article presents a change in the indicators of a compression ignition (CI) engine by replacing conventional diesel fuel (D100) with pure chicken fat (F100) and mixtures of these fuels. Mixtures of diesel and fat with volume ratios of 70/30, 50/50 and 30/70 were used. Research of the fuel properties was conducted. In order to reduce the fuel viscosity, blends of fat and diesel were heated. The experimental research was conducted at different engine loads with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) both off and on. The conducted analysis of the combustion process revealed a significant change in the rate of heat release (ROHR) when replacing diesel with chicken fat. Chicken fat was found to increase the CO₂ and CO emissions, leaving hydrocarbon (HC) emissions nearly unchanged. Having replaced the D100 with diesel and chicken fat mixtures or F100, a significant reduction in smoke and nitrogen oxide (NO_x) emissions was observed when EGR was off. When EGR was on, the smoke level increased, but the blends with chicken fat reduced it significantly, and the increased fat content in the fuel mixture reduced the NO_x emissions. The engine’s brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) increased while the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) decreased, having replaced conventional diesel with chicken fat due to differences in the fuel energy properties and the combustion process. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Alternative Fuels)

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18 pages, 2703 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Study on Volatile Organic Compounds from Diesel Engine Fueled with Palm Oil Biodiesel Blends at Low Idle Speed

by Ho Young Kim and Nag Jung Choi

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(14), 4969; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10144969 - 19 Jul 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3640

Abstract

This paper presents the combustion and emissions characteristics including volatile organic compound (VOC) of a common rail direct injection diesel engine fueled with palm oil biodiesel blends contained 0%, 10%, 30%, and 100% (by volume) biodiesel at low idle speed, i.e., 750 rpm. The nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions of biodiesel blends were lower than that of pure diesel and NOx tended to decrease as the blending ratio increased. Soot opacity and hydrocarbon (HC) were reduced with an increasing blend ratio. Carbon monoxide (CO) varied with the engine load conditions. Under low load, CO emissions tended to decrease with increasing blending ratio and increased under high load. Alkane and aromatic VOCs were mostly emitted. Benzene and tetrahydrofuran accounted for the largest percentage of total detected VOCs in all test conditions. Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene (BTEX, toxic aromatic VOCs) were detected for all tests. Among BTEX, benzene has the highest emission ratio, followed by xylene, toluene, and ethylbenzene. Benzene increased for all tests. At low engine load, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene decreased with increasing blend ratio. However, these increased at high engine load. When pure palm oil biodiesel was applied at high engine load, benzene decreased. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Alternative Fuels)

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18 pages, 3737 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Comparison of Diesel and Crude Rapeseed Oil Combustion in a Swirl Burner

by Viktor Józsa

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(14), 4907; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10144907 - 17 Jul 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2378

Abstract

In pursuing maximum energy efficiency, local utilization of various crude fuels came into view. The present paper compares the combustion characteristics of standard diesel oil and crude rapeseed oil; the latter is an excellent model for high-viscosity liquid fuels. The combustion tests were performed in a 15 kW atmospheric turbulent swirl burner; the liquid fuels were atomized by a plain-jet airblast atomizer. Firstly, the acoustic signal is evaluated, since the instabilities of swirl combustion are accompanied by characteristic pressure fluctuations. The spectral analysis was performed by Wavelet transform, which fits excellently to the acoustic spectrum of combustion noise. This multi-scale technique features increased spectral resolution at lower frequencies at the expense of lower temporal resolution, providing excellent performance at both low-frequency, well-localized components and high-frequency, broadband phenomena. The joint probability density function of two characteristic frequencies was plotted with the result that flame acoustics match for the two fuels. Secondly, their pollutant emissions were compared and evaluated under similar conditions with the conclusion that crude rapeseed oil can substitute diesel oil in a limited operating range. Note that the distinct material properties already mean differences in all atomization, evaporation, and mixing characteristics, hence, the latter result is not intuitive. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Alternative Fuels)

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15 pages, 4066 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Ethanol–Diesel on the Combustion and Emissions from a Diesel Engine at a Low Idle Speed

by Ho Young Kim, Jun Cong Ge and Nag Jung Choi

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(12), 4153; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10124153 - 17 Jun 2020

Cited by 43 | Viewed by 12638

Abstract

In this study, detailed experiments were conducted on the combustion and exhaust characteristics of ethanol–diesel blended fuels. The four-stroke four-cylinder common-rail direct injection diesel engine was used. The experiment was carried out at 750 rpm at a low speed idle, and a 40 Nm engine load was applied to simulate the operation of the accessories during the low idle operation of the actual vehicles. The test fuels were four types of ethanol-blended fuel. The ethanol blending ratios were 0% (DE_0) for pure diesel, and 3% (DE_3), 5% (DE_5) and 10% (DE_10) for 3%, 5% and 10% ethanol mixtures (by vol.%). Blending ethanol with diesel fuel increased the maximum combustion pressure by up to 4.1% compared with that of pure diesel fuel, and the maximum heat release rate increased by 13.5%. The brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) increased, up to 5.9%, as the ethanol blending ratio increased, while the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) for diesel-ethanol blended fuels remained low, and was maintained at 23.8%. The coefficient of variation (COV) of the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) was consistently lower than 1% when ethanol was blended. The blending of ethanol increased the ignition delay from a 12.0 degree crank angle (°CA) at DE_0 to 13.7 °CA at DE_10, and the combustion duration was reduced from 21.5 °CA at DE_0 to 20.8 °CA at DE_10. When ethanol blending was applied, nitrogen oxides (NOx) reduced to 93.5% of the level of pure diesel fuel, the soot opacity decreased from 5.3% to 3% at DE_0, and carbon monoxide increased (CO) by 27.4% at DE_10 compared with DE_0. The presence of hydrocarbon (HC) decreased to 50% of the level of pure diesel fuel, but increased with a further increase in the ethanol blending ratio. The mean size of the soot particulates was reduced by 26.7%, from 33.9 nm for pure diesel fuel, DE_0, to 24.8 nm for DE_10. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Alternative Fuels)

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15 pages, 3501 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dynamic Frequency Support from a DFIG-Based Wind Turbine Generator via Virtual Inertia Control

by Dejian Yang, Enshu Jin, Jiahan You and Liang Hua

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(10), 3376; https://doi.org/10.3390/app10103376 - 13 May 2020

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 2706

Abstract

As the penetrated level of wind in power grids increases, the online system inertia becomes weak. Doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG)-based wind turbine generators (WTGs) are required to provide virtual inertia response to support system frequency. The present inertia control strategy with fixed control gain is not suitable and may cause stall of the DFIG-based WTG, as the virtual inertia response potential from the DFIG-based WTG is different with various wind speed conditions. This paper addresses a virtual inertia control method for the DFIG-based WTGs to improve the system frequency stability without causing stalling of the wind turbine for various wind speed conditions. The effectiveness of the proposed virtual inertia control method is investigated in a small system embedded with the DFIG-based WTG. Results demonstrate that the proposed virtual inertia strategy improves the frequency stability without causing the rotor speed security issue. Thus, the proposed control strategy can secure the dynamic system frequency security of power systems under the scenarios of full and partial loads, and, consequently, the proposed method provides a promising solution of ancillary services to power systems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Alternative Fuels)

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