A Study on Dual-fueled Diesel Engine for Waste Gasification and Power Generation

Many kinds of gasification systems are under development now. Heating value of gaseous fuels produced from solid fuel (wastes and biomass) gasification systems are as low as 1/10 of that of natural gas, and there is almost no established energy conversion methods for such low-BTU gases. Two kinds of low-BTU gas, one was produced by diluting from natural gas with nitrogen and the other was produced from the two-step pyrolysis/reforming gasification process were tested in a dual fueled diesel engine. In these experiments, power output could be kept constant by controlling the gas oil supply, when low-BTU gas supply changed. It was demonstrated that nearly 80% of oil supply could be replaced by low-BTU fuel gas with slight decrease of the thermal efficiency while significant reduction of NOx emission was possible due to lower combustion temperature in the engine. Experimental results show that dual fueled diesel engines are quite feasible option for efficient utilization of low-BTU gases.