“Compression Ignition by Air Injection Cycle and Engine, USPTO Ser. No. 10/755,134 filed Jan. 9, 2004”
“not-applicable”
This invention relates to a new IC engine configuration and operation to improve fuel economy, increase reliability and reduce maintenance and manufacturing cost. When applied to two-stroke engines it also improves cylinder scavenging and prevents unburned fuel from escaping through the exhaust ports. The ignition simplification lays in the fact that conventional IC engines rely on spark plugs or high-pressure fuel pumps with direct cylinder injection. Ignition is timed by opening the cylinder-connecting valve (CCV). A valve actuator is used, near the end of the compression stroke, to allow high-pressure air from one cylinder to inject into the neighboring cylinder, which is filled with a combustible air-fuel mixture or just fuel such as hydrogen or methane. The increase in thermal efficiency over the Otto cycle lays in the fact that detonating a combustible mixture by adding high-pressure air increases the pressure of the combustion products throughout the entire expansion stroke. The increase in thermal efficiency over the Diesel cycle lays in the fact that an air-fuel mixture can be detonated by high-pressure air injection. The result is constant volume heat addition near top dead center instead of near constant pressure heat addition prior to fuel cut-off well after top dead center. This IC engine may be combined with a high temperature fuel cell to yield a system, which is highly efficient at converting hydrogen-based fuel energy to electrical energy and shaft energy.
The thermodynamic cycle for this invention was calculated and named CIBAI, short for: Compression Ignition By Air Injection. See patent application USPTO Ser. No. 10/755,134 titled: Compression Ignition By Air Injection Cycle and Engine.
All currently operating internal combustion piston engines operating on the Otto cycle have their compression ratio and thus thermal efficiency limited by the fuel octane number. To prevent pre-ignition or detonation before top dead center the compression ratio is usually limited within the range from 8 to 11. Its compression ratio and thus thermal efficiency is further reduced when operated at less than full power because then a throttle valve is needed to maintain a near stoichiometric fuel-air mixture for efficient spark ignition.
All currently operating internal combustion piston engines, which operate on the Diesel cycle, have their thermal efficiency limited by near constant pressure heat addition during the combustion event which is quantified by the ratio of the cylinder volume at the end of combustion to the cylinder volume at the top dead center, called cut-off ratio (rc). This is determined by the time required for fuel injection and burning rate or cetane number. Compression ignition in the Diesel engine allows operation over a wide range of fuel-air ratios therefore a throttle valve is not required. Its thermal efficiency decreases with power level, as high power requires a larger cut-off ratio, which is contrary to the Otto cycle where the thermal efficiency increases with throttle opening and thus power level.
The Diesel engine cold starting problem is caused by increased fuel viscosity resulting in poor fuel injector atomization. Further the lower temperature of the air inside the cylinder reduces the fuel vaporization rate and thus ignitability.
Compression Ignition By Air Injection Cycle and Engine is hereafter referred to as the CIBAI cycle or engine. The thermodynamic equation for its efficiency has been shown to exceed that of both the Otto and Diesel cycles over a wide range of operating conditions. The CIBAI cycle eliminates the need for spark/glow plugs or high-pressure cylinder fuel injectors, thereby enhancing its reliability. With the exception of an additional “cylinder-connecting valve” all other components used are standard for I.C. engines. The engine comprises conventional piston engine components such as: crankshaft in a casing, cylinders, pistons, carburetor or low pressure inlet manifold injection and the in case of 4-stroke engines cylinder head valves while for 2 stroke engines cylinder wall ports with crank-case compression. To enable operation on the CIBAI cycle the engine must have pairs of cylinders with pistons operating in phase with their cylinder heads in close proximity. For a single crankshaft configuration, each cylinder pair is mounted side-by-side inline with the crankshaft. If two crankshafts are used, then cylinders can be mounted head to head or in a V formation. One of the cylinders in each pair is used to compress an air-fuel mixture, with a volumetric compression ratio rvaf, just short of knock level. The other cylinder compresses only air to high pressure and temperature with volumetric compression ratio rva. One additional item is required, the cylinder connecting valve which upon opening should not alter the combined volume of the air-fuel mixture and hot air volume. This cylinder-connecting valve remains closed during most of the compression stroke, but opens near Top Dead Center. At that instant nearly all of the hot high-pressure air expands into the cylinder with the air-fuel mixture. The sudden compression and heating of the pre-evaporated air-fuel mixture causes spontaneous ignition near Top Dead Center. The combustion pressure rise transfers some of the combustion products back into the air-compressing cylinder. By the end of the expansion stroke each cylinder contains nearly the same amount of combustion products. The sudden rise in air-fuel mixture pressure just prior to ignition gives the CIBAI cycle a higher effective compression ratio than the Otto cycle. The CIBAI cycle constant volume heat addition renders it also more efficient than constant pressure burning Diesel cycles over most commonly used compression ratios. A comparison of ideal cycle efficiencies for the CIBAI- Otto- and Diesel cycles has been shown here assuming both pistons used in the CIBAI cylinder pair have the same displacement volume Vo.
The following efficiency controlling parameters have been kept equal for comparison purposes:
The herein disclosed “Compression Ignition Engine by Air Injection from Air-Only Cylinder to Adjacent Air-Fuel Cylinder”, has two reasons why a throttle valve is not required to maintain an ignitable mixture at part power. First injecting air from the adjacent cylinder leans the mixture ratio by approximately a factor of two. Therefore the maximum fuel-air mixture ratio inside the fuel-air cylinder should be about double that used in the Otto cycle. Second, the ignition thermal energy provided by the detonation wave is enormous compared to the electric energy provided by a spark plug. Detonating a fuel-air mixture at top dead center provides constant volume heat addition and allows using mixtures of air with: gasoline, methane, kerosene, etc. which eliminates the need for high cetane number, high pressure fuel pump, fuel cylinder injectors and the Diesel engine cold starting problem.
Most service problems on Otto and Diesel engines are related to spark plug fouling or diesel injector wear, which makes the herein disclosed invention not only more fuel efficient, but also more reliable, and more economical to build and maintain. Another significant limitation of the Diesel engine is its minimum size. This is because its injector is unable to meter accurately very small quantities of fuel. The herein disclosed invention can operate efficiently in very small engines with only limitation being that is requires at least one pair of cylinders.
The high thermal efficiency and simplicity of the herein disclosed invention makes it very suitable for the automotive industry, stationary engines of all sizes, UAV aircraft engines to extend range, and for general aviation to eliminate the need for low lead 100 octane avgas.
Another important application of this new invention is to produce power with either a rich or lean hydrogen fuel charge. If such an engine has at least four cylinders, then one of the pair of cylinders can produce 1000 degree C. hydrogen rich exhaust to supply a solid oxide fuel cell, while the other pair extracts power from the gas exhausted from by the fuel cell, which still contains sufficient hydrogen for ignition.
Currently, gas engines using hydrogen or methane engines are best operated on the Otto spark ignition cycle, as its volume flow presents problems for Diesel cylinder injection. This means an air-fuel mixture must be compressed, with the usual pre-ignition and efficiency limitations of the spark ignition cycle. However, burning hydrogen in the herein disclosed CIEBAI engine is not only more efficient but much safer as hydrogen has such a high reaction rate that it can be compressed by itself in one cylinder while the ignition air is compressed in one or two adjacent cylinders. Then there will be no octane number limitation to the compression ratio used in either one of the cylinders. This means the engine can be made very efficient and safe, which would be ideal for the automotive industry.
This newly invented IC engine compresses air to very high pressure in one or more cylinders adjacent to those compressing a fuel-air mixture or just a gaseous fuel. The cylinders are isolated during compression stroke. Near top dead center, a cylinder-connecting valve (CCV) is opened to allow the high-pressure air in one of the cylinders to enter the fuel or fuel-air mixture in the other cylinder thereby inducing rapid ignition. There are six good reasons why all IC engines should be operated on the CIBAI cycle:
An internal combustion engine operating on the CIBAI cycle combined with a high temperature fuel cell yields a system which is capable providing high conversion of chemical energy in hydrogen-based fuels to a combination of electrical energy and shaft energy. The engine ingests hydrogen-based fuels in at least one reactor cylinder undergoing partial combustion to produce a hydrogen rich exhaust to be used as fuel for the high temperature fuel cell, such as a solid oxide fuel cell. As this hydrogen rich exhaust passes through the fuel cell reactor, part of the hydrogen is consumed to produce electrical energy, however, part of the hydrogen is exhausted from the fuel cell unreacted. This unreacted hydrogen from the fuel cell (normally on the order of several percent of the mixture) is then used as fuel for one or more other cylinder pairs to produce shaft power and to assure complete combustion of all hydrogen. This system is useful for maximizing the overall system energy conversion efficiency and for yielding useful forms of power as electrical power and shaft power.
The drawings show some possible configurations of the herein claimed engine configurations and its calculated efficiency. The drawings are in no way meant to limit the physical configuration of the possible embodiments of internal combustion engines that may operate on the CIBAI cycle. One way to modify a conventional IC engine to operate on the herein described Compression Ignition by Air Injection CIBAI cycle requires the following modifications:
In the preferred embodiment, to operate a piston internal combustion engine on the Compression Ignition By Air Injection (CIBAI) cycle requires at least one pair of pistons operating in phase, with their heads adjacent to one another. One of the pistons compresses an air-fuel mixture (or fuel only) to a pressure ratio limited by knock as in spark ignition engines. The other piston compresses only-air to high-pressure. When both pistons reach near Top-Dead-Center, the cylinder-connecting valve is opened without altering their combined compression volumes. As the high-pressure air volume is smaller, much of the air injects into the air-fuel mixture. The sudden compression causes the fuel-air mixture to detonate with the piston at top dead center or at constant volume. The combustion pressure rise pushes some of the combustion products back into the air cylinder. During the subsequent expansion stroke the cylinder-connecting valve remains open to equalize the pressure on both pistons. At Bottom Dead Center both cylinders contain approximately the same amount of combustion products. CIBAI cycle operation eliminates the need for spark plugs with their required high voltage source and eliminates the need for a high-pressure fuel pump with its fuel injectors. The CIBAI cycle thermal efficiency exceeds that of the Otto cycle due to increased pressure by air injection and exceeds that of the Diesel cycle because combustion takes place at constant volume instead of at constant pressure till the cut-off ratio is reached. The only additional needed component is the cylinder-connecting valve (CCV). This valve can be actuated either by mechanical, hydraulic or electric valve actuators (lifters) or by pneumatic pressure differences.
During combustion the pressure in cylinder 21 rises to exceed that in cylinder 22, which causes flow reversal and combustion of any fuel present in cylinder 22. During the expansion stroke the pressure in cylinder 22 drops faster then in cylinder 21. This pressure difference keeps ball valve 31 off its seat to nearly equalize the pressure in both cylinders. Near bottom dead center exhaust valve 24 opens and the sequence repeats itself. Power is extracted from crankshaft 20 which can support several pairs of pistons in a row. The intake stroke is conventional filling cylinder 22 with air from filter 26, and cylinder 21, with fuel-air mixture from carburetor 28.
4. Combustion induced temperature ratio, called cut-off ratio rc in diesel cycle is set at 2. The efficiency of the Diesel and CIBAI cycle are compared over the range of air-only compression ratios from: 14<rva<22. Of course Otto cycle efficiency depends only on air-fuel mixture compression ratio rvaf. The CIBAI cycle efficiency shows to be higher than the others at an air-fuel mixture compression ratio rvaf=11.
The schematic diagram in
In another embodiment, in order for the engine to operate at optimum efficiency over a wide range of fuels, the compression volume at top dead center of the cylinder(s) containing the air-fuel mixture can be modified mechanically, hydraulically, electrically, or pneumatically.
It is understood that the herein described piston-cylinder containing the fuel rich mixture may contain all fuel and no air in the limiting case of the fuel rich mixture definition. It is 2further understood that the piston cylinder apparatus described herein applies equally to the varying volume combustion chamber of rotary-type internal combustion engines.
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