Air-fuel dilution and hot surface ignition technologies for natural gas engines

由于北美和国际储量巨大，天然气（NG）是一种有吸引力的、燃烧更清洁的内燃机替代燃料。韦斯特波特创新公司，总部位于不列颠哥伦比亚省的温哥华，是天然气发动机燃料技术的全球领导者，通过与不列颠哥伦比亚省大学的合作，开发了一种用于中型和重型发动机的高压直喷（HPDI）燃料系统。HPDI使天然气能够用于生产柴油发动机，具有降低排放和燃料消耗的潜力。有鉴于此，韦斯特波特创新公司和不列颠哥伦比亚大学将研究两种潜在的技术，旨在进一步减少对环境和健康有重大负面影响的颗粒物排放。特别是，热表面点火和空气稀释燃料策略将使用UBC和韦斯特波特创新公司提供的大量实验和数值工具进行评估。除了减少发动机排放外，这两种技术还具有降低燃料系统成本和复杂性的潜力，这将使天然气更容易用作内燃机的实用燃料。这项工作的成果将有利于加拿大，因为它们将减少天然气发动机的排放，为负责任地使用加拿大的天然气资源提供技术，并有助于加强韦斯特波特和加拿大作为天然气技术领导者的作用。

Due to the significant North American and international reserves, natural gas (NG) is an attractive, cleaner burning alternative fuel for internal combustion engines. Westport Innovations Inc., based in Vancouver, British Columbia, is a global leader in NG engine fuelling technologies and through collaboration with the University of British Columbia, has developed a High Pressure Direct Injection (HPDI) fuelling system for medium and heavy duty engines. HPDI enables the use of NG in production diesel engines, with the potential for reduced emissions and fuel consumption. In light of this, Westport Innovations and UBC will investigate two potential technologies aimed at further reducing particulate emissions, which have significant negative environmental and health implications. In particular, hot surface ignition and air-diluted fuel strategies will be assessed using a host of experimental and numerical tools available at UBC and Westport Innovations. Beyond reducing the engine-out emissions, these two technologies also hold the potential to reduce the fuel system cost and complexity, which will allow natural gas to be more readily used as a practical fuel for internal combustion engines. The outcomes of this work will be beneficial to Canada as they will reduce the emissions from NG engines, provide technologies for the responsible use of Canada's NG resources, and help reinforce Westport's and Canada's role as technology leader in natural gas technologies.