Apparatus and method for oxy-combustion of fuels in internal combustion engines

An internal combustion engine (ICE) producing an exhaust gas stream having reduced nitrogen and NOx emissions from the combustion of a fuel with an oxygen-enriched atmospheric air stream from which nitrogen has been separated,

• the ICE having an engine block with a plurality of cylinders having walls forming combustion chambers and one or more channels in fluid communication with the cylinders for delivering the oxygen-enriched air combustion of the fuel,
• the improvement comprising:
• one or more air separation devices integrated with the operation of the ICE and in fluid communication with the engine's air intake and the combustion chambers, the one or more air separation devices being adapted and configured to separate oxygen molecules from the atmospheric air to mix with the fuel and to return nitrogen molecules to the atmosphere,
• wherein the channels are in the form of a manifold and one or more air separation devices are positions in the manifold, and
• where the one or more air separation devices comprise two or more fixed beds containing an adsorbent material that releasably adsorbs oxygen from the air and passes the non-adsorbed gases for discharge into the atmosphere, each of the beds having an inlet for receiving an oxygen-depleted purge gas to release the adsorbed oxygen and an outlet in fluid communication with one or more of the plurality of cylinders for conveying the oxygen-enriched gas stream to mix with the fuel.

An internal combustion engine (ICE) producing an exhaust gas stream having reduced nitrogen and NOx emissions from the combustion of a fuel with an oxygen-enriched atmospheric air stream from which nitrogen has been separated,

• the ICE having an engine block with a plurality of cylinders having walls forming combustion chambers and one or more channels in fluid communication with the cylinders for delivering the oxygen-enriched air for combustion of the fuel,
• the improvement comprising:
• one or more air separation devices integrated with the operation of the ICE and in fluid communication with the engine's air intake and the combustion chambers, the one or more air separation devices being adapted and configured to separate oxygen molecules from the atmospheric air to mix with the fuel and to return nitrogen molecules to the atmosphere,
• wherein the channels are in the form of a manifold and one or more air separation devices are positions in the manifold, and
• where the one or more air separation devices are selected from the group consisting of pressure swing adsorption nitrogen generators, vacuum swing adsorption systems and hybrid vacuum-pressure swing adsorption systems.