Characterization and Mitigation of in-use GHG Emissions from Natural Gas Engines

天然气作为发动机燃料相对于传统燃料具有许多优点，包括减少二氧化碳、NOx、SOx和颗粒物排放。这一点，加上其历史上较低的成本和加拿大重要的国内储备，使其成为一个有吸引力的发动机燃料的大型应用，电气化是不可能的。尽管有这些好处，但天然气燃料发动机的净温室效应对甲烷排放非常敏感，因为它具有很高的全球变暖潜力，因此必须最小化。这项研究将量化大型天然气发动机在实际运行条件下的甲烷排放量，并制定缓解策略。为此，将使用实验室发动机进一步开发便携式，低成本，强大和快速的甲烷传感器，并最终在现实世界的发动机上进行测量。实验室实验还将用于确定相关的甲烷缓解策略，以及评估发动机运行特性和燃料特性的影响。通过实验室和现场研究的结合，将评估使用中发动机的甲烷排放，为政策制定者和决策者提供确保天然气有效用作发动机燃料所需的关键信息。

Natural gas as an engine fuel carries many benefits relative to traditional fuels, including reduced carbon dioxide, NOx, SOx, and particulate emissions. This, combined with its historically lower cost and Canada's significant domestic reserves, make it an attractive engine fuel for large applications where electrification is not yet possible. Despite these benefits, the net greenhouse impact of natural gas fuelled engines is very sensitive to methane emissions due to its high global warming potential, and must therefore be minimized. This research will quantify the methane emissions from large natural gas engines under real-world operating conditions, as well as develop strategies for their mitigation. For this, a portable, low-cost, robust, and fast methane sensor will be further developed using laboratory engines and ultimately implemented for measurements on real-world engines. The laboratory experiments will also be used to identify relevant methane mitigation strategies, as well assess the influence of engine operating properties and fuel properties. Through this combination of laboratory and field studies, the methane emissions from in-use engines will be assessed, providing policy and decision-makers with the key information required to ensure that natural gas is effectively used as an engine fuel.