DESIGNING AND TESTING ADVANCED PASSIVE PRECHAMBER SPARK PLUGS

摘要

Significant Improvements noted in NO_x emissions, fuel consumption and spark plug life. This article explores the development and field testing of a system solution designed around an engine-specific, pre-chamber spark plug and an optimized retrofit control solution. The design and test goals - meeting and maintaining the desired combustion stability and the required emissions levels. Reported and reviewed field test results from CAT3516A/B engines indicate a significant improvement in combustion stability at lean conditions, resulting in a reduction of both NO_x production and fuel consumption. While the primary focus of this article is to outline the functional and operational issues associated with landfill gas (LFG)-fueled engines, the concepts described are equally applicable to engines operating on fuels characterized by low-energy content such as digester gas and/or large variability in methane content such as wellhead gas. Parallels are readily drawn between the issues faced in the described LFG-fueled engine operation and engines of similar break mean effective pressure (bmep) and brake thermal efficiency (bte). The continued drive for ever-lower NO_x emissions and ever-higher bte has resulted in a class of engines that struggles to reliably and cost-effectively operate on the available fuels.