Possibilities of Ammonia as Both Fuel and NOx Reductant in Marine Engines: A Numerical Study

Nowadays, the environmental impact of shipping constitutes an important challenge. In order to achieve climate neutrality as soon as possible, an important priority consists of progressing on the decarbonization of marine fuels. Free-carbon fuels, used as single fuel or in a dual-fuel mode, are gaining special interest for marine engines. A dual fuel ammonia-diesel operation is proposed in which ammonia is introduced with the intake air. According to this, the present work analyzes the possibilities of ammonia in marine diesel engines. Several ammonia-diesel proportions were analyzed, and it was found that when the proportion of ammonia is increased, important reductions of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and unburnt hydrocarbons are obtained, but at the expense of increments of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), which are only low when too small or too large proportions of ammonia are employed. In order to reduce NOx too, a second ammonia injection along the expansion stroke is proposed. This measure leads to important NOx reductions.

Suitability of Different Methods for Measuring Black Carbon Emissions from Marine Engines

Black carbon (BC) emissions intensify global warming and are linked to adverse health effects. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) considers the impact of BC emissions from international shipping. A prerequisite for the anticipated limits to BC emissions from marine engines is a reliable measurement method. The three candidate methods (photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS), laser-induced incandescence (LII), and filter smoke number (FSN)) selected by the IMO were evaluated with extensive ship exhaust matrices obtained by different fuels, engines, and emission control devices. A few instruments targeted for atmospheric measurements were included as well. The BC concentrations were close to each other with the smoke meters (AVL 415S and 415SE), PAS (AVL MSS), LII (Artium-300), MAAP 5012, aethalometers (Magee AE-33 and AE-42), and EC (TOA). In most cases, the standard deviation between instruments was in the range of 5–15% at BC concentrations below 30 mg Sm−3. Some differences in the BC concentrations measured with these instruments were potentially related to the ratio of light-absorbing compounds to sulphates or to particle sizes and morphologies. In addition, calibrations, sampling, and correction of thermophoretic loss of BC explained differences in the BC results. However, overall differences in the BC results obtained with three candidate methods selected by the IMO were low despite challenging exhaust compositions from marine diesel engines. Findings will inform decision making on BC emission control from marine engines.

Assessment of Technical and Ecological Parameters of a Diesel Engine in the Application of New Samples of Biofuels

The technical and environmental parameters of the diesel internal combustion engine using two new samples of biofuels SAMPLE 1 and SAMPLE 2 were evaluated in this paper. SAMPLE 1 and SAMPLE 2 biofuels were tested on a LOMBARDINI LDW 502 internal combustion engine, which was loaded on a dynamometer according to the applicable national and international standards. This method can also be applied to marine engines and contribute to a higher level of marine ecology. The result of the testing was to determine the impact of tested biofuels on the technical parameters engine power and torque and the environmental parameters emissions of smoke, nitrogen oxides, and economy of the internal combustion engine-specific fuel consumption. From the measured data, another parameter was calculated, such as the injected fuel dose and the overall efficiency of the internal combustion engine. The results show that the new samples of SAMPLE 1 and SAMPLE 2 biofuels tested could be a suitable alternative to standard diesel.

CFD MODEL TO ANALYZE SO2 ABSORPTION IN A SEAWATER DROPLET

In the recent years, seawater scrubbers have become an interesting option to reduce SO2 emissions in marine engines. In this regard, this paper proposes a numerical model to analyze SO2 absorption in seawater. A single seawater droplet was analyzed, and the developed model was used to predict the influence of several parameters on the desulphurization efficiency, such as the droplet diameter, SO2 concentration, alkalinity and temperature. It was found that a droplet of 200 μm initial diameter can absorb up to 1.77∙10-14 mol of S for the parameters analyzed, and this reduction improves when the alkalinity and SO2 concentration are increased and diameter, seawater temperature and gas temperature are reduced. Differences up to of 21.5%, 19.8%, 2.2% and 16.3% in the S reduction were obtaining varying the SO2 initial concentration, alkaline initial concentration, initial liquid temperature and initial gas temperature respectively.

COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS ANALYSIS OF NOx AND OTHER POLLUTANTS IN THE MAN B&W 7S50MC MARINE ENGINE AND EFFECT OF EGR AND WATER ADDITION

Marine engines represent a significant contribution to global emissions. In order to overcome this problem, a great attention was given to reduce their exhaust emissions in the last years, and marine engines have to adapt to regional, national and international restrictions. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is to develop a numerical model to study NOx (oxides of nitrogen) and other pollutants in engines. EGR and water addition were studied too as measures to reduce NOx. The main advantage of this study is that it provides a cheap and fast method to analyze emissions, contrary to experimental setups which are too expensive and laborious. Particularly, a commercial marine engine was analyzed and validated with experimental data. Results showed that increasing EGR and water addition leads to reduce NOx, but increase carbon monoxide and unburnt hydrocarbons due to an incomplete combustion.

Analysis of the Pre-Injection System of a Marine Diesel Engine Through Multiple-Criteria Decision-Making and Artificial Neural Networks

The present work proposes several pre-injection patterns to reduce nitrogen oxides in the Wärtsilä 6L 46 marine engine. A numerical model was carried out to characterise the emissions and consumption of the engine. Several pre-injection quantities, durations, and starting instants were analysed. It was found that oxides of nitrogen can be noticeably reduced but at the expense of increasing consumption as well as other emissions such as carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. According to this, a multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model was established to select the most appropriate parameters. Besides, an artificial neural network (ANN) was developed to complement the results and analyse a huge quantity of alternatives. This hybrid MCDM-ANN methodology proposed in the present work constitutes a useful tool to design new marine engines.

Optimization of automatic control of the speed of rotation of a marine diesel engine

Annotation – The well-established method of tuning the speed governors (SG) of diesel engines during their operation under conditions of step disturbances, which are characteristic of diesel-generators, cannot be used for the main marine engines, the dynamic modes of which are associated, first of all, with heavy seas, because disturbances cannot change stepwise both along the channel for setting the rotational speed and along the load channel. In this regard, the practical need for the development of a method for tuning the SG of the main engines, which takes into account the peculiarities of their operation in heavy seas, has been determined. The study simulates the automatic speed control system (ASC) of the main marine engine HYUNDAI – MAN B&W 6G70ME-C9.2 of the large crude carrier "GOLDWAY" with the AutoChief 600 electronic SG. The minimum of instability of the controlled parameter was used as an optimality criterion, i.e. the amplitude of the oscillations of the rotational speed of the diesel engine shaft, with the most probable values of the amplitude and period of oscillations (rolling) of the disturbing effect. The study has established that changing the tuning parameters of the governor may lead to local extrema of the optimality criterion when using an electronic governor in the ACS in the factor space of disturbances on a diesel engine, which are typical for heavy seas. It means that the task, requiring finding local extrema using specialized methods, can be set when using an electronic governor in the ACS. However, a significant decrease in the instability of the rotational speed was achieved by carrying out a simple enumeration of the tuning parameters of the SG. It was also found that with a "heavy" propeller, the rotational speed stability can be increased by decreasing the proportional gain, as well as increasing the integrator time.

Model tests of a marine diesel engine powered by a fuel-alcohol mixture

The paper presents the results of model and empirical tests conducted for a marine diesel engine fueled by a blend of n-butanol and diesel oil. The research were aimed at assessing the usefulness of the proprietary diesel engine model in conducting research on marine engines powered by alternative fuels to fossil fuels. The authors defined the measures of adequacy. On their basis, they assessed the adequacy of the mathematical model used. The analysis of the results of the conducted research showed that the developed mathematical model is sufficiently adequate. Therefore, both the mathematical model and the computer program based on it will be used in further work on supplying marine engines with mixtures of diesel oil and biocomponents.