Performance Evaluation of a DENSO developed Micro-Laser Ignition System on a Natural Gas Research Engine

The performance of a prototype micro-laser ignition system developed by DENSO was evaluated on a single cylinder natural gas research engine. Several geometric combinations of pre-chamber spacing and hole sizes were tested at two engine load conditions. Significant improvements in brake thermal efficiency (BTE) were realized due to the extension of the lean ignition limit with a slight penalty in NOx.