Exhaust gas fuel reforming

Joint project with Johnson Matthey, Ford Motor Company, University of Birmingham

Mark Peckham and Steve Dinsdale (Cambustion)John Pignon, Kirsty Cockle, Paul Millington (JM)

Phil West, Andy Scarisbrick (Ford)Athanasios Tsolakis, Daniel Fennell (UoB)

CREO

2

CO2 Reduction through Emissions Optimisation

…a TSB consortium

Improving Fuel Economy

• Exhaust heat is used to reform fuel to generate mixture of H2 and CO with higher calorific value.

Reformer

FuelH2OExhaust Heat

Increase in calorific value

H2CO

Closed Coupled Exhaust Gas Reforming - Principle

After treatment Catalysts

H2

Fuels Calorific Values

• Calorific valuesGasoline = 47 MJ/kg (C6.4H11.4 )

Diesel = 45 MJ/kg (C15.1H28,4)

H2 = 141.9 MJ/kg,

CO = 10.8 MJ/kg

CH4 =50.01MJ/kg

Conventional Reformate Composition (Equilibrium Calculations)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

400 500 600 700 800 900 1000Temperature (oC)

Pro

du

cts

(% V

ol.)

CH4

CO

CO2

H2

H2O

O2

Birmingham UniversityUniversity of Birmingham

Reformer designWhole system schematic

TWCturboengine

fuel injector

EGR valve and cooler

engine out gas

sampling point

UEGO

UEGOCOCO2

UEGO

THCPre-TWC (post-turbo)Post-TWCPre-TWC (pre-turbo)Reformate

Reformer designComponents

Some exhaust gas plus added fuel is diverted around the TWC through the reformer and recirculated into the engine (~25% EGR)

Reformer designComponents

JM built reformer installed on a 2.0L Gasoline Direct Injection engine at Cambustion Ltd

Some exhaust gas plus added fuel is diverted around the TWC through the reformer and recirculated into the engine (~25% EGR)

Reformer instrumentation

engfuelm _

•

EGR Valve

airm•

REGR cooler

UEGOsensor

UEGOsensor

T

TT

Fast gas analysersCO / CO2 – gas composition and EGR fraction

Fast HC analysers

Adopt use of fast CO&CO2 analyzer

New reformer package

12

Reformer CO production – hot drive cycle

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

90000

100000

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Time [sec] -after first NEDC

CO

[ppm

]

Reference Cycle Reference CycleREGR ActiveREGR Active

WP6 Quarter 12 report

Fuel economy improvement ~3.5%

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Time [sec] -after first NEDC

Fue

l use

d [g

]

Reference Cycle Reference CycleREGR ActiveREGR Active

REFERENCE CYCLES

REGR ACTIVE

3.5% Reduction in fuel used

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

REGR flow rate (kg/hr)

FE

(%

)

FE E030613b 2000/10FE E300513a 2100/30FE E040613a 1500/60FE E310513a 2500/60FE E030613a 2000/80FE E310513b 3000/50

2000/102100/301500/602500/602000/803000/50

Fu

el E

con

om

y (%

)

REGR Flow Rate (kg/h)

100 kph cruise

70 kph cruise

Fuel Economy

DMS500 fast particulate size & number

� Aerosol sample drawn through corona discharge charger

� Charged aerosol enters classifier surrounded by clean sheath airflow

� Strong electric field causes particles to drift towards electrometer detectors

� Larger particles with more drag drift more slowly and are detected further downstream

WP6 Quarter 12 report

Engine-out particulate concentration (accumulation mode)

0.00E+00

5.00E+06

1.00E+07

1.50E+07

2.00E+07

2.50E+07

3.00E+07

3.50E+07

4.00E+07

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Time [sec] -after first NEDC

Par

ticul

ate

conc

entr

atio

n [n

/sec

]

Reference Cycle Reference CycleREGR ActiveREGR Active

WP6 Quarter 12 report

Engine-out particulates – reduction~ 50%

0

2E+13

4E+13

6E+13

8E+13

1E+14

1.2E+14

1.4E+14

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Time [sec] -after first NEDC

Par

ticul

es [N

]

Reference Cycle Reference CycleREGR ActiveREGR Active

WP6 Quarter 12 report

Engine-out NOX (ppm)

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Time [sec] -after first NEDC

NO

X [p

pm]

Reference Cycle Reference CycleREGR ActiveREGR Active

WP6 Q8 review 12/09/12

Carbon balance to check reformer yield

• Use fast instruments to ‘add up’ carbon from CO, CO2 and HC

• Compare with fuel flow

• CO production drops, HC increases

• Tests conducted at 500°C first catalyst, 70kph fuel sweep

Carbon balance and UEGO lambda

0

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

0.16

0.18

0.2

1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400 2600

Time (seconds)

carb

on

flo

w (

g/s

)

C in fuel g/sC in CO g/sC in HC g/sC in CO2 g/stotal C in gasesREGR LAMBDA [(-)]

WP6 Quarter 12 report

Species yield – 35Nm, 2100rpm

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

Sp

eci

es

(%)

REGR (kg/hr)

H2 %

CO %

CO2 %

HCefficiency

HC

eff

icie

ncy

Thin lines = 1st gen. (E150113a)Thick lines = 2nd gen. (E300513a)

70kph

Research summary

• Reformer research study focussed on 2 platforms- JM bench reactor experiments on sample reformer catalysts

- Engine testing of packaged reformer at Cambustion

• Cambustion analysers used to investigate reformer species- CO and CO2 to give reformer performance and (R)EGR ratio

- HC slip from reformer measured by FID

- Carbon balance performed to check consistency

• GC used for hydrogen measurements (at steady-state)

• DMS and conventional analyser stack used for engine-out particulate and gaseous emissions

22

Project conclusions

• Reformer packaged on engine and control scheme implemented for transient use

• CO used as indication of reformate composition to allow engine parameter setting (especially MBT)

• Reformer was demonstrated to provide improved fuel economy, but further work needed on package / warm-up

• Simultaneous major improvement in particulate and NOx

• Reformer showed no long-term degradation from coking

23