Assessing the potential and energy distribution calibration of ethanol-biodiesel based RCCI mode of compression ignition engine in a plugin parallel hybrid electric vehicle

Abstract

The focus of this research is to develop the resilient powertrain to combat the enforcement of stringent emission regulations and elevate its feasibility to power with the sustainable fuels to support the fuel crisis. The current solution in the reliable and adaptability point of view is the low temperature combustion engine-based hybrid electric powertrain powered with sustainable fuel is the better choice. The present work proposes the concept of an ethanol-biodiesel fuel based RCCI plugin parallel hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). The significant examination of this work in the aspects of optimal torque structure and injector control parameter calibration. The calibration of the RCCI engine torque structure operation is performed based on the multi-objective constraints of variance of indicated mean effective pressure and the maximum rate of pressure rise for the combustion stability. While the equivalence ratio and combustion temperature with emphasis on limiting the amount of NOx and soot emissions. The maximum ethanol energy share proportion of 66.98% has been achieved. The RCCI engine is most frequently operating in the torque zone of 10 Nm and then 17.81 Nm while the BLDC motor is most frequently operated in the range of 55 Nm even at max torque of 60 Nm. When comparing to a standard diesel hybrid setup, the ethanol-biodiesel fuelled RCCI setup has a 18%–19% reduction in harmful NOx emissions, with an equivalent decrease of 22.7% in fuel economy. This is achieved by only having a 13.4% more CO emission while a minimal increase in soot emission throughout the overall course of the driving cycle. The result of this work shows evidence that implementing an ethanol-biodiesel fuelled RCCI engine in a parallel hybrid configuration achieves a significant reduction in NOx emissions while achieving the performance targets and managing the fuel and battery energy utilization over a driving cycle efficiently.