Winterthur Gas & Diesel (WinGD) has developed a flexible injection system as part of its investment in fuel research
WinGD installed the flexible injectors on its RTX-6 engines to test ethanol combustion. The findings, published in a whitepaper, reveal that ethanol fuel (with a small amount of diesel injected as a pilot fuel) reduces the formation of NOx and smoke emissions.
WinGD’s injection system features an adjustable needle to allow for the injection of lower-density liquid fuels, including alcohol fuels like methanol and ethanol, as well as conventional fuels including HFO and marine diesel oil.
The system was developed as part of Hercules 2, an EU-funded engine research project aimed at increasing engine efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions. This project also received funding through the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.
WinGD’s efforts are part of an industry-wide attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by finding a cleaner future fuel.
Several alternative liquid fuels − including alcohols and synthetic diesel produced from biomass or renewable electricity − will require new injection strategies whereas some of the more commonly used fuels including LNG, used in WinGD’s X-DF engines, do not, the study found.
WinGD Future Technologies team leader Andreas Schmid said “The injection system is the most challenging element of designing an engine for low-carbon fuels, so this experimental design will give us an important head start. Once we know what fuels are likely to be used, we will be able to use this concept as a starting point to develop more tailored injection concepts.”
WinGD is currently involved in collaborative projects with Dr Konstantios Boulouchos and the Aerochemistry and Combustions Systems Laboratory of ETH Zurich aimed at investigating new liquid fuels.
This includes the EU-funded Falcon project – which aims to turn Lignin-rich industrial waste from second-generation biofuel plants into marine fuel, fuel additives and chemical building blocks.
The company published a whitepaper Flexible Injector to Advance Alternative Fuels Research, where engine designers describe how the concept will play a crucial role in its investigations into low-carbon liquid fuels and engine injection concepts to harness them.
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