Method for operating an internal combustion engine of a vehicle, especially a motor vehicle, and device for implementing said method

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for operating an internal combustion engine of a vehicle, particularly a motor vehicle, wherein the nitrogen content in an intake air flow (1) suctioned from the ambient air is reduced before delivering the air flow to at least one combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine (7) in order to produce a nitrogen-reduced combustion air flow whose oxygen content is higher than that of the suctioned air flow. According to the invention, the suctioned air flow (1) is run past or along at least one porous solids body (5) in at least one partial area of the intake air flow path (3), the size of the pores of said solids body being designed in such a way that the quantity of nitrogen molecules drawn off from the intake air flow (1) through the porous solids wall (5) is larger than the quantity of oxygen molecules drawn off from the oxygen or nitrogen molecules of the intake air flowing past the porous solids body (5) in order to form the nitrogen-reducing and oxygen-enriched combustion air flow that is supplied to the at least one combustion chamber (7) as main partial gas flow (8) and at least one nitrogen-enriched and oxygen-reduced secondary partial gas flow (9) which is not delivered to the at least one combustion chamber (7).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.