Separate and combined effects of hydrogen and nitrogen additions on diesel engine combustion

Shortage of non-renewable energies, increase in fossil fuel prices and stricter emissions regulations due to high NOx and soot emissions emitted from combustion of heavy diesel fuels by compression ignition engines, has led consumers to use renewable, cleaner and cheap fuels. An investigation has been computationally carried out to explore the influences of hydrogen and nitrogen addition on engine performance such as indicated power and indicated specific energy consumption and amounts of pollutant emissions like NOx, soot, and CO in an HSDI (High-Speed Direct Injection) diesel engine. Optimized sub-models, such as turbulence model, spray model, combustion model and emissions models have selected for the main CFD code. Meanwhile, HF (Homogeneity Factor) has been employed for analysing in-cylinder air-fuel mixing quality under various addition conditions. After validations with experimental data of diesel combustion with a single addition of 4% hydrogen and combined addition of 6% hydrogen + 6% nitrogen, investigations have conducted for modeling mixing and combustion processes with additions of hydrogen and nitrogen by ranges of 2-8% (v/v). Results showed that a single addition of H2 increased NOx and decreased CO and soot and improved ISEC and IP. In the case of nitrogen addition, NOx decreased, both CO and soot emission increased and ISEC and IP considerably ruined compared with NDC operation. Based on the results obtained for simultaneous addition of N2 (8% of v/v) and H2 (8% of v/v), NOx and soot emissions decreased by 11.5% and 42.5% respectively, and ISEC and IP improved 25.7% and 13%, respectively. But amount of CO emissions had an increase of 52% should be paid necessary attention as a main disadvantage.