Study of Diesel/Methanol Dual Fuel Combustion in CI Engines and Its Practice in China

Abstract

Article Study of Diesel/Methanol Dual Fuel Combustion in CI Engines and Its Practice in China Anren Yao 1, and Chunde Yao 2,* 1 School of Environmental Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China 2 State Key Laboratory of Engines (SKLE), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China * Correspondence: arcdyao@tju.edu.cn     Received: 22 October 2022 Accepted: 21 December 2022 Published: 8 February 2023   Abstract: In order to release the pressure of energy safety from the dependence on oil supplies from overseas, methanol playing an important role as an alternative fuel in the automotive industry in China. At present time, methanol has been widely used as a fuel additive in spark ignition (SI) engines and industrial utilities in many fields. However, it is rarely applied to compression ignition (CI) engines due to its low cetane number, low vaporization rate as well as low solubility with diesel. Therefore, there is a great challenge in using methanol as fuel in CI engines since those engines are the main power units for most heavy-duty vehicles and construction machines as well as marine power units. Through many years of studies by our group, a strategy of diesel/methanol compound combustion (DMCC) was developed, which made methanol be able to apply to CI engines. The engines with DMCC could use diesel/methanol compound with methanol substitution ratio up to 50% for new engines and 30% for the used ones on applications of heavy duty vehicles, construction machines as well as marine power units. In this paper, the strategies of DMCC and the diesel/methanol dual fuel (DMDF) combustion working in CI engines at high and medium speeds are introduced, and the studies that we had done for DMCC and DMDF are reviewed based on their fundamental researches like ignition and combustion, experimental results on bench and field tests, many application examples such as on heavy duty vehicles, construction machines, and boats as well as locomotives.