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AssigneeIfp Energies Nouvelles
InventorGaetan Monnier
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The present invention relates to a method of controlling operation of an internal-combustion engine using a single-fuel or a multi-fuel combustion mode with at least one fuel type comprising a high octane number and a low energy density and at least another fuel type comprising a low octane number and a high energy density, a method wherein the energy required for the engine to operate in multi-fuel mode is provided by a combination of two fuel types. According to the invention, for engine operation in multi-fuel mode, the method consists in: determining the set values of the overall energy density and of the overall octane number resulting from the combination of fuels, feeding into the combustion chamber said fuels with a proportion intended to reach the set values, evaluating the real values of the overall energy density and/or of the overall octane number of said fuels, in case of a difference between the set values and the real values, in compensating for this difference by varying the proportion of at least one of the fuels so as to obtain the set energy density and/or octane number.
A method of controlling operation of a spark-ignition internal-combustion engine comprising at least one combustion chamber and able to use a single-fuel or a multi-fuel combustion mode with two fuel types comprising at least one fuel type comprising a high octane number and a low energy density and at least another fuel type comprising a low octane number lower than the high octane number of the at least one fuel and a high energy density higher than the low energy density of the at least one fuel, a method wherein the energy required for the engine to operate in single-fuel mode is provided either by the at least one fuel type or by the at least another fuel type and wherein the energy required for the engine to operate in multi-fuel mode is provided by a combination of the two fuels, characterized in that, for engine operation in multi-fuel mode, the method comprises the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Determining the fuel pressure, temperature or flow, the fuel tank fill level or a valve position: by estimation, i.e. without using direct…
Determining a density, viscosity, composition or concentration: by estimation, i.e. without using direct measurements of a corresponding sensor
Characterised by the type of fuels: at least one fuel being gaseous, the other fuels being gaseous or liquid at standard conditions
Biofuels, e.g. plant oils: at least one fuel being an alcohol, e.g. ethanol
About 3 years 6 months of term left · ends 13 Apr 2030 (estimated)
The present invention relates to a method of controlling operation of an engine using several fuels.
It more particularly relates to engines operating with a first combustion mode referred to as single-fuel mode, according to which a single fuel is used, generally for idle speed and low engine loads, or according to another combustion mode referred to as multi-fuel mode allowing to combine several fuels of different nature, for medium and high loads.
Such an engine type is better described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,050 wherein the engine operates under single-fuel combustion conditions with a fuel generally in the liquid phase, of diesel type, injected directly into the combustion chamber of the engine (direct injection) or into a precombustion chamber (indirect injection), or under dual-fuel combustion conditions, wherein a gaseous fuel is associated with this liquid fuel. This mode allows to achieve two combustion modes in the same engine cycle, fuel self-ignition and combustion of the air/gas mixture through a flame front propagation initiated by self-ignition.
This description relates to a spark-ignition internal-combustion engine comprising at least one combustion chamber and that can operate with a single-fuel or multi-fuel combustion mode.
Thus, cold start-up of this engine is facilitated by a single-fuel mode using a gaseous fuel such as natural gas, during some thermodynamic cycles. This thus allows to prevent problems inherent in liquid injection that materializes in an incomplete vaporization of the fuel and deposition thereof on the intake pipe walls.
For idle speed and low loads, considering that there is no limitation as regards the octane number or the energy density of the fuel used, any one of the fuels is used for the single-fuel operation mode.