DEVELOPMENT ON ENHANCED LEAKED FUEL RECIRCULATION DEVICE OF LPLi ENGINE TO SATISFY SULEV STANDARD

The liquefied petroleum gas(LPG), mixture of propane and butane, has the potential to reduce toxic hydrocarbon emissions and inhibit ozone formation due to its chemical composition. Conventional mixer systems, however, have problems in meeting the future lower emission standards because of the difficulty in controlling air-fuel ratio precisely according to mileage tar accumulation. Liquid Phase LPG injection(LPLi) system has several advantages in more precise fuel metering and higher engine performance than those of the conventional mixer type. On the other hands, leakage problem of LPLi system at the injector tip is a main obstacle for meeting more stringent future emission regulations because these phenomena might cause excessive amount of THC emission during cold and hot restart phase. The main focus of this paper is the development of a leaked fuel recirculation system, which can eliminate the leaked fuel at the intake system with the activated carbon canister. Leaked fuel level was evaluated by using a fast response THC analyzer and gas chromatography. The result shows that THC concentration during cold and hot restart stage decreases by over 60%, and recirculation system is an effective method to meet the SULEV standard of the LPLi engine.