DE VELO PMENT FUEL s

INVESTIGATING A RANGE EXTENDER RUNNING ON BIODIESEL

As part of a development project, Steyr Motors has begun investigating the use of biodiesel in a range extender engine. In this article, the company presents the results of simulations and tests of the combustion and injection systems.

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AUTHORS

ENGINES TO MEET SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS OF THE CUSTOMERS

function of the injection system when using biodiesel shall be discussed to evalu ate the possibilities to design an electronic compensation of these inuences.
INFLUENCES ON THE INJECTION QUANTITY

DIPL.-ING. MICHAEL ASCHABER is Head of Research and D evelopment at the Steyr Motors GmbH in Steyr (Austria).

DIPL.-ING. WOLFGANG BEUER was Manager Fuel and Injection S ystems at the Steyr Motors GmbH in Steyr (Austria).

Steyr Motors develops and produces high-performance diesel engines for niche applications all over the world, . The engine control unit and the fuel injection system are included in the development scope. The current diesel engine product range, with the same single-cylinder swept volume of 0.53l, ranges from two-cylinder in-line engines with 25kW power output, over four- and six-cylinder in-line engines to V8 engines with 240kW. The specic performances reach up to 70kW/l and a specic torque up to 215Nm/l for two-stage charged engines. Based on the existing product range the mostly very special customer requirements are implemented. Beside mechanical ro bustness of the engines especially the suitability for various fuel types like ma rine distillates or kerosene and their vary ing fuel quality is one of the main requirements. Most of the so far combustion investigated fuels are of fossil origin. The engine compatibility with biodiesel fuels was covered so far on the material denition of engine components. During the development of the two-cylinder multifuel range extender engine the need to cover different fuel types automatically on engine power targets and emission limits was given. This article will give a short report especially on the biodiesel activities within Steyr Motors.
INFLUENCES ON THE COMBUSTION WHEN USING BIODIESEL

In the following, the inuences on the combustion of a diesel engine and the

A prerequisite for a comparable combustion under otherwise comparable conditions usually is, that the injection fuel mass stays constant independent from the fuel density. Steyr Motors faces the challenge within different applications, to full exactly that demand for different fuels of fossil origin (all of them usually have a heating value of 42 to 43MJ/kg, even if this is not always guaranteed through the specication) ofa very wide range of different densities. The density compensation function,developed to meet this requirement, uses an actual measurement value from a sensor (using the principle of oscillating u-tube [1]) to calculate theinjection volume demand (in mm3) from the demanded injection mass (in mg) instead of using an applicable constant. By doing so, the engines deliver the same maximum power with very different fuels such as turbine jet fuels according to Jet A-1 or the military equivalents MIL-JP-8 or NATO F-34 or marine distillates of class DMX or DMA according to ISO 8217 [2]. This compensation is as well useful if only one type of fuel is to be used but within a wide range of temperatures, . The inuence of the fuel density onthe injection system is as well compensated by using reference mappings fordifferent densities and interpolating for the measured density. Inuences on

Application overview of installed Steyr Motors

engines and the two-cylinder engine

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DE VELO PMENT FUEL s

Fuel density [kg/m3]

injection pressure or injection duration are not compensated by this function. There is also no correction for any changes in the combustion result despite same fuel mass injected, such as different heating values. gives a short overview over the most relevant fuels for Steyr Motors.
INFLUENCES ON THE COMBUSTION WHEN USING BIODIESEL

1000.00 950.00 900.00 850.00 FAME 800.00 DIN EN 590 750.00 F-34 700.00 650.00 600.00 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

In the beginning, the term biodiesel shall be concretised. It is well known, that fuels for diesel engines may not only be made from fossil oils but also from vegetable oils and even from vegetable waste. It can be roughly distinguished between pure vegetable oils, esteried vegetable oils (Fatty Acid Methyl Ester, FAME) and bio fuels of 2ndgeneration (e.g. BTL and GTL). The scope of Steyr Motors currently is on FAME according EN14214. While also these fuels bear a risk of unwanted side effects due to the worse chemical sta bility compared to fuels of fossil origin, this risk increases with the use of pure vegetable oils, causing Steyr Motors to rate these pure vegetable oils as not in teresting for use in range extender en gines. Bio fuels of 2nd generation on the other hand are not yet commercially available, why the discussion of these fuels is not yet worthwhile. Obviously, it is necessary to detect the use of biodiesel to be able to compensate the inuences on the combustion. Steyr Motors is planning to measure the di electric constant to be able to determine the percentage of fossil diesel and biodiesel. On one hand, there are already positive results from research available [3], on the other hand, Steyr Motors currently is favouring the use of a combined sensor measuring exactly all necessary

Temperature [C]

Fuel density over temperature for different fuel types

values (beside dielectric constant also density and temperature). While fossil fuels mainly are of pure hydrocarbon content (parafnic and aromatic), biofuels according to EN14214 are characterised by their oxygen containing ester groups. These ester groups are a reason for the reduced heating value of biodiesel compared to fossil diesel. As an average, the heating value is reduced from 11.78kWh/kg (42.4MJ/kg, fossil diesel) to 10.25kWh/kg (36.9MJ/kg, biodiesel) [4]. The oxygen from the ester groups in the biodiesel not only causes a reduced heating value but also increases the amount of available oxygen atoms to enable a cleaner and more efcient combustion, because the free oxygen atoms are available as additional ligands during the combustion (independent from spray pattern and mixture with the in take air always directly in the fuel). These insights lead to the expectation,

that by using biodiesel with same fuel mass and same intake air mass not only the power will be reduced, but also the formation of nitrogen oxides should increase while the formation of particles should decrease. The reduced power shall be compensated by increasing the injected fuel mass. The increased formation of nitrogen oxides can be compensated using a wide selection of parameters (e.g. de creasing the charge air pressure, decreasing the injection pressure, adopting the amount and position of the single injection events of a common rail multiple injection) it appeared to be most feasible to use the adoption of the begin of injection as single variation parameter for rst tests, however. Any of the mentioned options would anyway lead to an increased formation of particles. This increase shall not exceed the initial de crease to ensure at least an equal emission behaviour compared to the use of fossil diesel.

EN590 CETANE NUMBER DENSITY AT 15 C HEATING VALUE LUBRICITY

ISO 8217 DMX

NATO F-34

EN14214

kg/m MJ/kg m

>50 820-845 Typ. 42-43* <460

>45 <890 Typ. 42-43* **

Typ. 35-40* 775-840 >42.8 Typ. >700*

>51 860-900 Typ. 37* <460***

* Not specified, values are typical values of fuels as used by Steyr Motors testing department ** Not specified, not evaluated by Steyr Motors *** Not specified, not evaluated by Steyr Motors, general consensus is, that lubricity of biodiesel is better than of diesel

Data overview of different fuel types

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AUTOMATIC BIODIESEL COMPENSATION

240 210 180 Injection pressure [MPa] 150 120 90 60 30 0 -30 -60 -40 -32 -24 -16 -8 0 CA [] 8 16 24 32 40 Biodiesel Diesel

Based on the inuences discussed, an automatic compensation for the use of biodiesel, consisting of a few single adoption functions, shall be developed at Steyr Motors. As already explained, some of these inuences to be compensated depend on the type of injection system used. First tests at Steyr Motors were done with a mechanical unit injector system. At the same time, the necessary adoptions of the functions for use with a common rail system have been considered. The already explained function to compensate the inuence of the fuel density [2] was also used for these tests and is considered as a pre-requisite without further notice.
INFLUENCES OF THE FUEL DENSIT Y

Inuence of different fuel densities on injection pump pressure

As already explained, the increased density has an inuence on the injected quantity. The inuence on the injection pressure has as well been mentioned butwithout further quantication. This

inuence has been investigated by measuring the injection force. By doing so, it was realised that the maximum injection pressure increases by 10 to 15% when using biodiesel instead of fossil diesel, . This signicant increase

can however not be compensated but has to be considered during the layout of the unit injector that shall be used. Obviously, this leads to increased exhaust emissions when using fossil diesel.

FUEL TEMPERATURE

INJECTION VOLUME

BSFC

FUEL

FUEL

DIELECTRIC

UNIT INJECTOR

RELATIVE BEGIN OF

NOX

HC

CO

PM

LAMBDA

AIR MASS

CONSUMP- DENSITY TION

CONSTANT ACTUATION INJECTION

mm/cycle

g/kWh

kg/h

g/cm

mm

CA

g/h

g/h

g/h

g/h

kg/h

TEST POINT 1: 207 kW / 3800 rpm DIESEL EN590 BIODIESEL EN14214 RANDOM MIXTURE

30 30 30 54

90.7 98.4 93.2 99.9

245.4 280.6 264.9 267.8

50.9 58.5 54.8 55.3

0.823 0.870 0.857 0.837

2.3 3.4 3.0 2.9

12.049 12.370 12.198 12.369

7.5 6.4 6.6 6.6

1358 1359 1347 1336

8.4 6.2 5.7 6.4

252.9 220.3 211.9 237.2

35.5 10.0 15.0 17.5

1.36 1.38 1.38 1.39

1015 1017 1021 1024

TEST POINT 2: 152 kW / 2800 rpm DIESEL EN590 BIODIESEL EN14214 RANDOM MIXTURE

30 30 30 54

79.0 85.5 83.3 87.7

215.0 246.6 235.7 235.0

32.7 37.5 35.9 35.8

0.824 0.870 0.854 0.837

2.3 3.4 3.0 2.9

10.590 10.735 10.798 10.931

6.7 4.8 5.2 5.2

1236 1211 1190 1167

5.0 2.1 2.9 3.3

54.7 37.2 41.8 44.3

8.4 1.1 2.3 2.3

1.44 1.45 1.44 1.46

692 688 695 700

TEST POINT 3: 73 kW / 2800 rpm DIESEL EN590 BIODIESEL EN14214 RANDOM MIXTURE

30 30 30 54

41.6 44.3 43.4 45.7

233.4 268.3 255.6 254.5

17.2 19.4 18.7 18.7

0.823 0.870 0.853 0.837

2.3 3.4 3.0 2.9

7.977 8.094 8.136 8.203

-2.7 -3.6 -3.4 -3.4

365 364 362 362

2.8 1.8 1.8 2.2

37.5 44.6 38.4 43.0

3.4 0.7 1.1 1.1

1.80 1.81 1.80 1.83

468 462 466 471

Test result overview of a basic 3.2-l six-cylinder diesel engine without EGR
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Biodiesel, 30 C

Random mixture, 30 C

Random mixture, 54 C

NOx 0% -1 % -2 %

HC

CO

PM

-6 % -13 % -16 % -24 % -32 %

-26 %

-51 % -58 %

Relative deviation of exhaust emissions from

ifferent biodiesel mixtures relative to diesel EN590 d at 30 C

-72 %

BASELINE MEASUREMENT OF THE TEST ENGINE

The measurements described in the following chapter were done to have a basis to check, whether a compensation function could be derived for the use of biodiesel, that eliminates any disadvantages regarding power output and emissions when using any mixture of biodiesel and fossil diesel (including 100% biodiesel) compared to using conventional diesel with the according combustion application. For doing so, a typical Steyr Motors M1 engine from the modular engine family was measured at a few operation points with fossil diesel according to EN590. In a next step, the measurements were repeated using 100% biodiesel according to EN14214. The injection quantity and begin of injection were adopted to keep the power output and the nitrogen oxide emissions on the same level as in the original measurement with EN590. The measured values then were compared with theoretical values: e.g. the injection quantity should have been decreased from 90mm3/cycle to 85.5mm3/cycle based on the density ratio and then in creased to 98.2mm3/cycle based on the

ratio of the heating value. The result of the biodiesel measurement ts quite wellto this calculation. Then the necessary adoption of begin of injection was analysed relative to the measured adoption of begin of combustion. The begin of injection was retarded by 1.13CA (to keep the nitrogen oxide emissions constant) while the begin of combustion was only retarded by 0,76CA. This canbe explained by the slightly faster increase of pump pressure and thereforerelatively earlier opening of the nozzle needle (since opening pressure is reached earlier). Another signicant difference has been observed when investigating the duration of the combustion. Despite that the effective duration of the injection had to become longer to keep the power output constant, the duration of the combustion was nevertheless reduced by 2.9CA. The only effect discussed so far causing this phenomenon can be an improved atomisation of the fuel due to the higher injection pressure. Based on these ndings, the reduction of formation of particles by 72% cannot be rated, when thinking of other injection system such as a common rail system that keeps the pressure constant. In any way, a

remarkable reduction of particle mass in the exhaust gas may be expected when using unit injector systems or comparable systems.
SIMULATING A BIODIESEL COMPENSATION

Finally, a random mixture of fossil diesel and biodiesel was created to try to interpolate between the combustion application for fossil diesel and biodiesel and again reach same power output and same nitrogen oxide emissions. In order to do so, rst a ratio of 65% biodiesel and 35% diesel was measured based on the dielectric constant and linear interpolation between the values for diesel and biodiesel. Based on this, the injection quantity and begin of injection were dened by linear interpolation. The positive result shows, that it is possible to realise a compensation function based on measurement of the dielectric constant and linear interpolation between mapping for diesel and mapping for biodiesel. The emissions as measured when using fossil diesel are always kept the same (nitrogen oxide) or even reduced (all other) when using biodiesel or any mixture of fossil and biodiesel.

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A further test conrmed that the dielectric constant depends on the fuel temperature. This means that the temperature has to be considered to evaluate the correct ratio of biodiesel in the mixture [3]. Independent of the change in fuel density (compensated by the density compensation on its own) and the changing relation of dielectric constant to ratio of biodiesel in the mixture, the correction based on ratio of biodiesel in the mixture can still be done. A summary of the measurement results is shown in .
CONCLUSIONS AND PERSPECTIVES

The rst tests to develop an automatic compensation to be able to use biodiesel without any inuence on power output and exhaust emissions therefore were nished positively. A solution that combines the existing fuel density compensation with a linear interpolation be tween combustion application mappings for diesel and for biodiesel based on the

ratio of biodiesel in the mixture evaluated from the dielectric constant and the temperature of the fuel seems promising. While the fuel consumption naturally has to increase (due to the reduced heating value), the exhaust emissions should stay constant or may even decrease with increasing biodiesel content, . As next steps, Steyr Motors shall investigate the transferability of the results on different engine types of the modular M1 engine family as well as on the use of a common rail system for the fuel injection. If these steps are successfully nished, the development of an engine that can be used with any mixture of diesel and biodiesel with same power output and without violating the certied exhaust emissions should be feasible.
REFERENCES [1] Stabinger, H.: Density Measurement using modern oscillating transducers. South Yorkshire Trading Standards Unit, Sheffield, 1994 [2] Aschaber, M.; Hofer-Schrems, E.: The next generation of combat high performance diesel engines.

2nd International Conference Next Generation OffHighway Engines, Wiesbaden, 2012 [3] Munack, A.; Krahl, J.: Erkennung des RMEBetriebes mittels eines Biodiesel-Kraftstoffsensors. In: Landbauforschung Vlkenrode, Special Edition 257 (2003), Braunschweig [4] Verordnung des Bundesministers fr Umwelt, Jugend und Familie ber die Festlegung der Qualitt von Kraftstoffen (Kraftstoffverordnung 1999). CELEX-Nr.: 398L0070, StF: BGBl. II Nr. 418/1999, Federal Chancellery of the Republic of Austria

DEDICATION
This article is dedicated to Mr. Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang Beuer. He unexpectedly died in theworking period of this publication.

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