• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.45-53
• /
• 2022

In order to improve the emission of diesel engines, natural gas-diesel dual fuel combustion compression ignition engines are in the spotlight. In particular, a reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion strategy is investigated comprehensively due to its possibility to improve both efficiency and emissions. With advanced diesel direct injection timing earlier than TDC, it achieves spontaneous reaction with overall lean mixture from a homogeneous mixture in the entire cylinder area, reducing nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) and improving braking heat efficiency at the same time. However, there is a disadvantage in that the amount of incomplete combustion increases in a low load region with a relatively small amount of fuel-air. To solve this, sensitive control according to the diesel injection timing and fuel ratio is required. In this study, experiments were conducted to improve efficiency and exhaust emissions of the natural gas-diesel dual fuel engine at low load, and evaluate combustion stability according to the diesel injection timing at the operation point for power generation. A 6 L-class commercial diesel engine was used for the experiment which was conducted under a 50% load range (~50 kW) at 1,800 rpm. Two injectors with different spray patterns were applied to the experiment, and the fraction of natural gas and diesel injection timing were selected as main parameters. Based on the experimental results, it was confirmed that the brake thermal efficiency increased by up to 1.3%p in the modified injector with the narrow-angle injection added. In addition, the spray pattern of the modified injector was suitable for premixed combustion, increasing operable range in consideration of combustion instability, torque reduction, and emissions level under Tier-V level (0.4 g/kWh for NOx).

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.283-302
• /
• 2022

Despite the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in China since January 23, 2020, haze days with high PM₁₀ levels of 88-98 ㎍ m^-3 occurred on February 1 and 2, 2020. During these haze days, the East Asian region was affected by a warm and stagnant air mass with positive air temperature anomalies and negative zonal wind anomalies at 850 hPa. The Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) was used to analyze the variation of regional PM₁₀ aerosol transport in Korea due to decreased anthropogenic emissions in East Asia. The base experiment (BASE), which applies the basic anthropogenic emissions in the WRF-Chem model, and the control experiment (CTL) applied by reducing the anthropogenic emission to 50%, were used to assess uncertainty with ground-based PM₁₀ measurements in Korea. The index of agreement (IOA) for the CTL simulation was 0.71, which was higher than that of BASE (0.67). A statistical analysis of the results suggests that anthropogenic emissions were reduced during the COVID-19 lockdown period in China. Furthermore, BASE and CTL applied to zero-out anthropogenic emissions outside Korea (BASE_ZEOK and CTL_ZEOK) were used to analyze the variations of regional PM₁₀ aerosol transport in Korea. Regional PM₁₀ transport in CTL was reduced by only 10-20% compared to BASE. Synthetic weather variables may be another reason for the non-linear response to changes in the contribution of regional transport to PM₁₀ in Korea with the reduction of anthropogenic emissions in East Asia. Although the regional transport contribution of other inorganic aerosols was high in CTL (80-90%), sulfate-nitrate-ammonium (SNA) aerosols showed lower contributions of 0-20%, 30-60%, and 30-60%, respectively. The SNA secondary aerosols, particularly nitrates, presumably declined as the Chinese lockdown induced traffic.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.52-58
• /
• 2023

With the increasing awareness of the importance of carbon neutrality in response to global climate change, the utilization of hydrogen as a carbon-free fuel source is also growing. Hydrogen is commonly used in fuel cells (FC), but it can also be utilized in internal combustion engines (ICE) that are based on combustion. Particularly, ICEs that already have established infrastructure for production and supply can greatly contribute to the expansion of hydrogen energy utilization when it becomes difficult to rely solely on fuel cells or expand their infrastructure. However, a disadvantage of utilizing hydrogen through combustion is the potential generation of nitrogen oxides (NOx), which are harmful emissions formed when nitrogen in the air reacts with oxygen at high temperatures. In particular, for the EURO-7 exhaust regulation, which includes cold start operation, efforts to reduce exhaust emissions during the warm-up process are required. Therefore, in this study, the characteristics of nitrogen oxides and fuel consumption were investigated during the warm-up process of cooling water from room temperature to 88℃ using a 2-liter direct injection spark ignition (SI) engine fueled with hydrogen. One advantage of hydrogen, compared to conventional fuels like gasoline, natural gas, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), is its wide flammable range, which allows for sparser control of the excessive air ratio. In this study, the excessive air ratio was varied as 1.6/1.8/2.0 during the warm-up process, and the results were analyzed. The experimental results show that as the excessive air ratio becomes sparser during warm-up, the emission of nitrogen oxides per unit time decreases, and the thermal efficiency relatively increases. However, as the time required to reach the final temperature becomes longer, the cumulative emissions and fuel consumption may worsen.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.16-37
• /
• 2018

In this study, difference in chemical composition of $PM_{2.5}$ observed between the year 2013 and 2015 at six air quality intensive monitoring stations (Bangryenogdo (BR), Seoul (SL), Daejeon (DJ), Gwangju (GJ), Ulsan (US), and Jeju (JJ)) was investigated and the possible factors causing their difference were also discussed. $PM_{2.5}$, organic and elemental carbon (OC and EC), and water-soluble ionic species concentrations were observed on a hourly basis in the six stations. The difference in chemical composition by regions was examined based on emissions of gaseous criteria pollutants (CO, $SO_2$, and $NO_2$), meteorological parameters (wind speed, temperature, and relative humidity), and origins and transport pathways of air masses. For the years 2013 and 2014, annual average $PM_{2.5}$ was in the order of SL ($${\sim_=}DJ$$)>GJ>BR>US>JJ, but the highest concentration in 2015 was found at DJ, following by GJ ($${\sim_=}SJ$$)>BR>US>JJ. Similar patterns were found in $SO{_4}^{2-}$, $NO_3{^-}$, and $NH_4{^+}$. Lower $PM_{2.5}$ at SL than at DJ and GJ was resulted from low concentrations of secondary ionic species. Annual average concentrations of OC and EC by regions had no big difference among the years, but their patterns were distinct from the $PM_{2.5}$, $SO{_4}^{2-}$, $NO_3{^-}$, and $NH_4{^+}$ concentrations by regions. 4-day air mass backward trajectory calculations indicated that in the event of daily average $PM_{2.5}$ exceeding the monthly average values, >70% of the air masses reaching the all stations were coming from northeastern Chinese polluted regions, indicating the long-range transportation (LTP) was an important contributor to $PM_{2.5}$ and its chemical composition at the stations. Lower concentrations of secondary ionic species and $PM_{2.5}$ at SL in 2015 than those at DJ and GJ sites were due to the decrease in impact by LTP from polluted Chinese regions, rather than the difference in local emissions of criteria gas pollutants ($SO_2$, $NO_2$, and $NH_3$) among the SL, DJ, and GJ sites. The difference in annual average $SO{_4}^{2-}$ by regions was resulted from combination of the difference in local $SO_2$ emissions and chemical conversion of $SO_2$ to $SO{_4}^{2-}$, and LTP from China. However, the $SO{_4}^{2-}$ at the sites were more influenced by LTP than the formation by chemical transformation of locally emitted $SO_2$. The $NO_3{^-}$ increase was closely associated with the increase in local emissions of nitrogen oxides at four urban sites except for the BR and JJ, as well as the LTP with a small contribution. Among the meterological parameters (wind speed, temperature, and relative humidity), the ambient temperature was most important factor to control the variation of $PM_{2.5}$ and its major chemical components concentrations. In other words, as the average temperature increases, the $PM_{2.5}$, OC, EC, and $NO_3{^-}$ concentrations showed a decreasing tendency, especially with a prominent feature in $NO_3{^-}$. Results from a case study that examined the $PM_{2.5}$ and its major chemical data observed between February 19 and March 2, 2014 at the all stations suggest that ambient $SO{_4}^{2-}$ and $NO_3{^-}$ concentrations are not necessarily proportional to the concentrations of their precursor emissions because the rates at which they form and their gas/particle partitioning may be controlled by factors (e.g., long range transportation) other than the concentration of the precursor gases.