Method for starting operation of an internal combustion engine

Method for starting operation of an internal combustion engine, wherein the engine comprises:

• a set of one or more cylinders, each cylinder in said set being provided with an intake valve and an exhaust valve arranged to regulate a flow of gas into and out from the cylinder, respectively, and a piston arranged to move back and forth in the cylinder;
• a crank shaft operatively connected to each piston so as to rotate when the piston(s) move(s) back and forth in the corresponding cylinder;
• a fuel supply system arranged to supply fuel to the cylinder(s);
• an air intake duct arranged to feed intake air to the cylinder(s);
• an exhaust duct arranged to feed exhaust gas away from the cylinder(s);
• and
• an exhaust gas recirculation system comprising an EGR conduit arranged to connect the exhaust duct and the air intake duct so as to allow recirculation of exhaust gas through the cylinder(s) during operation of the engine;
• wherein the method comprises the steps of:
• when the internal combustion engine is not operating, providing pressurized gas in the air intake duct;
• opening the intake valve in a first cylinder while keeping the exhaust valve of the first cylinder closed so as to allow the pressurized gas to enter the first cylinder, press onto the corresponding piston and thereby move the corresponding piston and rotate the crank shaft;
• supplying fuel to at least one of the cylinders where the corresponding piston has performed or is performing a compression step so as to ignite the fuel and start operation of the engine,
• characterized in
• that the pressurized gas is provided by:
• closing the air intake duct upstream the EGR conduit and closing the exhaust duct downstream the EGR conduit so as to form a closed recirculation loop comprising the EGR conduit for gas contained in the closed recirculation loop;
• operating a controllable gas feeding device arranged in the closed recirculation loop while keeping the intake valve(s) closed, wherein the gas feeding device is configured to feed gas from an inlet to an outlet thereof and wherein the gas feeding device is operated so that a pressure of the gas contained in the closed recirculation loop is increased in the air intake duct and decreased in the exhaust duct.