Systems and methods of cylinder deactivation in high-temperature mixing-controlled engines

A method of operating a compression ignition engine, the compression ignition engine including a plurality of cylinders, each of the plurality of cylinders having an inner surface, a piston disposed and configured to move in the engine cylinder, an intake port, an exhaust port, and a fuel injector, the piston, the inner surface, the intake port, and the exhaust port defining a combustion chamber, the method comprising:

• injecting a fuel into each of the combustion chambers, the fuel having a cetane number of less than about 40, the fuel substantially free of additives that result in a substantial change in cetane number;
• igniting the fuel via compression ignition in the compression ignition engine;
• combusting substantially all of the fuel in the compression ignition engine;
• monitoring engine load of the compression ignition engine;
• setting a predetermined load value;
• and
• deactivating at least one cylinder of the plurality of cylinders upon a decrease in engine load to less than the predetermined load value.

A compression ignition engine, comprising:

• a plurality of N cylinders, each of the N cylinders including:
• an inner surface;
• a piston disposed and configured to move in the engine cylinder;
• an intake port;
• an exhaust port;
• and
• a fuel injector fluidically coupled to each of the N cylinders, the piston and the inner surface, defining a combustion chamber;
• a fuel supply fluidically coupled to the fuel injector, the fuel supply configured to contain a fuel having a cetane number of less than about 40, the fuel substantially free of additives that result in a substantial change in cetane number;
• an engine control unit (ECU) in communication with each of the fuel injectors, the ECU configured to deliver a quantity of a fuel to each of the cylinders;
• and
• a cylinder deactivation (CDA) control module configured to deactivate D cylinders from the N cylinders when an engine load in the compression ignition engine decreases below (N−D)/N×FL,
• wherein FL is a full load at a given engine speed,
• wherein N is an integer of at least 2, and
• wherein D is an integer of at least 1.