- #1
voltech444
- 32
- 1
Hello PF members and guests,
I have been working on this concept for 2 years and I wanted to get some input from this forum. I have done a lot of research on oxygen enriched combustion and water injection. Both of these concepts have been tested and proven in experiments and the real world. My idea is to combine the two since both of their qualities would work together and enhance each other. I also realized in my research that the idea could be used to make a new type of internal combustion engine.
The basic idea works like this:
For a compression ignition engine (diesel)
1. Air is pulled into the engine, this intake air is enriched with oxygen up to the desired level (raising the O2 content in the air from 22% ambient up to 23-24% or higher like 30% or more)
2. The intake air enters the cylinder through the intake valve, the valve closes and the mixture is compressed
3. Around TDC the fuel oil is injected and combustion is initiated, driving the piston down on the power stroke
4. About half way through the power stroke the fuel oil will nearly be completely combusted because of the much faster burn rate due to the oxygen enriched air. It is at this point that a high pressure injector injects water as a fine mist spray directly into the cylinder. The water injectors are built into the cylinder head in the spaces between the intake and exhaust valves. The water has been preheated to 200-210* Fahrenheit by a heat exchanger in the exhaust manifold; this heated water is stored in a insulated tank on-board the vehicle
5. When the heated water is injected at high pressure directly into the cylinder it flash vaporizes into steam; the expansion energy continues to push the piston down to complete the power stroke. By the time the piston reaches BDC the steam has absorbed much of the thermal energy and turned into dry steam at temperatures from 500*-2000* Fahrenheit
6. The exhaust valve is opened, the piston rises and pushes out the remaining gases. As the gases leave the cylinder they pass through the heat exchanger and transfer some of the remaining thermal energy to preheat the injection water
7. Optional: A turbocharger is used to collect the remaining energy from the exhaust gases. I'm not sure how this turbocharger would be designed since it would be running on two gases; steam and other gases (mainly CO2) I don't know if it would be a conventional turbocharger or more like a steam turbine, this is where I could use some advice
That's the basic idea. It's possible to modify a conventional four-stroke direct injected diesel engine into this design.
A couple points to consider:
1. There are multiple reasons to use this engine. For starters it is possible to use cheaper, lower quality oils as fuel. I have read research papers where they successfully ran 100% vegetable oil with none of the common problems when running SVO. They achieved this by increasing the O2 content of the intake air by only 1-2% (23-24% O2) there was no smoke or soot and the engine ran perfectly well
2. Emissions are greatly reduced by O2 enrichment; HC and soot emissions fall drastically. When O2 concentrations are raised above 27% cylinder temperatures and NOx emissions begin to rise sharply. This is where the water injection fits in. Water injection also helps reduce soot, but the beauty is that it can drastically reduce NOx emissions (by keeping the temperature in check) The combination of O2 enrichment and water injection work together to greatly reduce emissions
3. The thermal efficiency of the engine will be raised. I can't say for certain but I don't think it would be unreasonable to reach 60% or higher. Basically the engine will be generating more power for a given amount of fuel. The efficiency will also be raised because of more complete combustion of the fuel.
4. Fuel is expensive, oxygen is not. While it is possible to use liquid oxygen as an oxygen source, it is not practical. The answer is oxygen separation membranes. I have read papers where the researchers were successfully able to enrich the intake air by 1-8% of a large diesel engine with O2 membranes on-board the vehicle. The device consumed less power than was generated because of the increased efficiency of the engine. The device was actually pretty small and could easily fit under the hood of the vehicle. The O2 membrane materials are actually very light so weight is not an issue. While slight increases in O2 result in major improvements, I also envision the benefits of running much higher levels of O2. This wasn't possible without water injection because the cylinder temps and NOx levels go through the roof; but in this system it's not only possible it's beneficial. Increased temperature means more steam can be generated, from the same amount of fuel! I believe it could be possible to run O2 at levels above 90% without melting the engine, more oxygen, more water is injected. This is how I think the efficiency can be pushed past 60%
5. When oxygen enrichment is used, the power to weight ratio is also increased, because more fuel can be burned. Which makes engine downsizing possible, which further increases the overall efficiency (MPG) of the vehicle the engine is driving
6. Since direct water injection is used, a water-cooling system for the engine is not required. I read an army research paper from the 1970's where they successfully cooled a diesel engine with direct water injection. It raised the power and efficiency of the engine. Without all the weight from the cooling system, the extra weight from the oxygen enrichment and water injection systems can be made up for
7. There are modifications on the engine that would need to be made to optimize the system. Timing may need to be adjusted. The stroke of the engine may need to be lengthened to utilize the expanding steam. There are obviously more things that would need to be modified or added as well
8. When the vehicle is not in operation it can simply be plugged in; an electric coil in the water tank keeps the water hot. If it cannot be plugged in; a battery bank can power the coil for short periods. For longer periods, the battery bank can power the O2 enrichment system and a small amount of fuel is burned, the heat from this goes through the center of the tank just like a natural gas water heater. It could be programmable by the user to select different heating options. It is also possible to use the fuel only to keep the water hot if there was not enough battery power to run the O2 enrichment system. Another option is to let the water cool down, and run the engine injecting cold water until the water heats up; it would be important to inject less water so that all of it is still turned into steam but enough to still provide cooling
9. The water that is injected into the engine needs to be free of dissolved solids that could leave deposits in the engine. This is accomplished by having a water filter that removes these impurities; or by using distilled water. The filter would need to be changed at certain intervals when the vehicle is serviced; if distilled water was always used the filter would never need to be changed, but for convenience and safety regular tap water could be used. The water would need to be refilled when the vehicle refuels
Those are just some of the points I have discovered. I think this idea has a lot of potential. I took the sketch to Ed Pink's Racing Engines (one of the top racing engine builders in the world, which happens to be down the street from my house) and the head manager there, Frank, with whom I chat and share my ideas; laughed at the idea and said it would never work. I had a counter point for all of the potential flaws he identified, but he was unconvinced; and why does he need to be convinced when they are already doing just fine selling four stroke spark ignited engines? I thought they believed in true innovation, creativity and efficiency; but like most brilliant engineers I talk to, they unfortunately do not.
What do you think? There are more details that I will share but I think this is good for now. I appreciate any input and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. I was apprehensive to share this information publicly since this concept is something I've worked hard on for years and I had hoped to make my career with; but since nobody's giving me any funding or even a chance to build it I figured why not. All I ask is that if you do take this idea and use it, please include me, I have much to offer and I'm not asking for a lot; it's very difficult for me to get a job doing what I'm passionate about (building hybrid electric vehicles and more efficient engines) and I was hoping if I came up with something important I could finally get a way in.
Thank You,
Jordan Lee Brandt
I have been working on this concept for 2 years and I wanted to get some input from this forum. I have done a lot of research on oxygen enriched combustion and water injection. Both of these concepts have been tested and proven in experiments and the real world. My idea is to combine the two since both of their qualities would work together and enhance each other. I also realized in my research that the idea could be used to make a new type of internal combustion engine.
The basic idea works like this:
For a compression ignition engine (diesel)
1. Air is pulled into the engine, this intake air is enriched with oxygen up to the desired level (raising the O2 content in the air from 22% ambient up to 23-24% or higher like 30% or more)
2. The intake air enters the cylinder through the intake valve, the valve closes and the mixture is compressed
3. Around TDC the fuel oil is injected and combustion is initiated, driving the piston down on the power stroke
4. About half way through the power stroke the fuel oil will nearly be completely combusted because of the much faster burn rate due to the oxygen enriched air. It is at this point that a high pressure injector injects water as a fine mist spray directly into the cylinder. The water injectors are built into the cylinder head in the spaces between the intake and exhaust valves. The water has been preheated to 200-210* Fahrenheit by a heat exchanger in the exhaust manifold; this heated water is stored in a insulated tank on-board the vehicle
5. When the heated water is injected at high pressure directly into the cylinder it flash vaporizes into steam; the expansion energy continues to push the piston down to complete the power stroke. By the time the piston reaches BDC the steam has absorbed much of the thermal energy and turned into dry steam at temperatures from 500*-2000* Fahrenheit
6. The exhaust valve is opened, the piston rises and pushes out the remaining gases. As the gases leave the cylinder they pass through the heat exchanger and transfer some of the remaining thermal energy to preheat the injection water
7. Optional: A turbocharger is used to collect the remaining energy from the exhaust gases. I'm not sure how this turbocharger would be designed since it would be running on two gases; steam and other gases (mainly CO2) I don't know if it would be a conventional turbocharger or more like a steam turbine, this is where I could use some advice
That's the basic idea. It's possible to modify a conventional four-stroke direct injected diesel engine into this design.
A couple points to consider:
1. There are multiple reasons to use this engine. For starters it is possible to use cheaper, lower quality oils as fuel. I have read research papers where they successfully ran 100% vegetable oil with none of the common problems when running SVO. They achieved this by increasing the O2 content of the intake air by only 1-2% (23-24% O2) there was no smoke or soot and the engine ran perfectly well
2. Emissions are greatly reduced by O2 enrichment; HC and soot emissions fall drastically. When O2 concentrations are raised above 27% cylinder temperatures and NOx emissions begin to rise sharply. This is where the water injection fits in. Water injection also helps reduce soot, but the beauty is that it can drastically reduce NOx emissions (by keeping the temperature in check) The combination of O2 enrichment and water injection work together to greatly reduce emissions
3. The thermal efficiency of the engine will be raised. I can't say for certain but I don't think it would be unreasonable to reach 60% or higher. Basically the engine will be generating more power for a given amount of fuel. The efficiency will also be raised because of more complete combustion of the fuel.
4. Fuel is expensive, oxygen is not. While it is possible to use liquid oxygen as an oxygen source, it is not practical. The answer is oxygen separation membranes. I have read papers where the researchers were successfully able to enrich the intake air by 1-8% of a large diesel engine with O2 membranes on-board the vehicle. The device consumed less power than was generated because of the increased efficiency of the engine. The device was actually pretty small and could easily fit under the hood of the vehicle. The O2 membrane materials are actually very light so weight is not an issue. While slight increases in O2 result in major improvements, I also envision the benefits of running much higher levels of O2. This wasn't possible without water injection because the cylinder temps and NOx levels go through the roof; but in this system it's not only possible it's beneficial. Increased temperature means more steam can be generated, from the same amount of fuel! I believe it could be possible to run O2 at levels above 90% without melting the engine, more oxygen, more water is injected. This is how I think the efficiency can be pushed past 60%
5. When oxygen enrichment is used, the power to weight ratio is also increased, because more fuel can be burned. Which makes engine downsizing possible, which further increases the overall efficiency (MPG) of the vehicle the engine is driving
6. Since direct water injection is used, a water-cooling system for the engine is not required. I read an army research paper from the 1970's where they successfully cooled a diesel engine with direct water injection. It raised the power and efficiency of the engine. Without all the weight from the cooling system, the extra weight from the oxygen enrichment and water injection systems can be made up for
7. There are modifications on the engine that would need to be made to optimize the system. Timing may need to be adjusted. The stroke of the engine may need to be lengthened to utilize the expanding steam. There are obviously more things that would need to be modified or added as well
8. When the vehicle is not in operation it can simply be plugged in; an electric coil in the water tank keeps the water hot. If it cannot be plugged in; a battery bank can power the coil for short periods. For longer periods, the battery bank can power the O2 enrichment system and a small amount of fuel is burned, the heat from this goes through the center of the tank just like a natural gas water heater. It could be programmable by the user to select different heating options. It is also possible to use the fuel only to keep the water hot if there was not enough battery power to run the O2 enrichment system. Another option is to let the water cool down, and run the engine injecting cold water until the water heats up; it would be important to inject less water so that all of it is still turned into steam but enough to still provide cooling
9. The water that is injected into the engine needs to be free of dissolved solids that could leave deposits in the engine. This is accomplished by having a water filter that removes these impurities; or by using distilled water. The filter would need to be changed at certain intervals when the vehicle is serviced; if distilled water was always used the filter would never need to be changed, but for convenience and safety regular tap water could be used. The water would need to be refilled when the vehicle refuels
Those are just some of the points I have discovered. I think this idea has a lot of potential. I took the sketch to Ed Pink's Racing Engines (one of the top racing engine builders in the world, which happens to be down the street from my house) and the head manager there, Frank, with whom I chat and share my ideas; laughed at the idea and said it would never work. I had a counter point for all of the potential flaws he identified, but he was unconvinced; and why does he need to be convinced when they are already doing just fine selling four stroke spark ignited engines? I thought they believed in true innovation, creativity and efficiency; but like most brilliant engineers I talk to, they unfortunately do not.
What do you think? There are more details that I will share but I think this is good for now. I appreciate any input and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. I was apprehensive to share this information publicly since this concept is something I've worked hard on for years and I had hoped to make my career with; but since nobody's giving me any funding or even a chance to build it I figured why not. All I ask is that if you do take this idea and use it, please include me, I have much to offer and I'm not asking for a lot; it's very difficult for me to get a job doing what I'm passionate about (building hybrid electric vehicles and more efficient engines) and I was hoping if I came up with something important I could finally get a way in.
Thank You,
Jordan Lee Brandt
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