ARTICLE IN PRESS

Energy Conversion and Management xxx (2009) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

A comparison between EGR and lean-burn strategies employed in a natural gas SI

engine using a two-zone combustion model
Amr Ibrahim *, Saiful Bari
Sustainable Energy Centre, School of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes SA 5095, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) strategy has been recently employed in natural gas SI engines as an alter-
Received 13 June 2008 native to lean burn technique in order to satisfy the increasingly stringent emission standards. However,
Received in revised form 21 January 2009 the effect of EGR on some of engine performance parameters compared to lean burn is not yet quite cer-
Accepted 21 August 2009
tain. In the current study, the effect of both EGR and lean burn on natural gas SI engine performance was
Available online xxxx
compared at similar operating conditions. This was achieved numerically by developing a computer sim-
ulation of the four-stroke spark-ignition natural gas engine. A two-zone combustion model was devel-
Keywords:
oped to simulate the in-cylinder conditions during combustion. A kinetic model based on the extended
EGR
SI engine
Zeldovich mechanism was also developed in order to predict NO emission. The combustion model was
Lean burn validated using experimental data and a good agreement between the results was found. It was demon-
Natural gas strated that adding EGR to the stoichiometric inlet charge at constant inlet pressure of 130 kPa decreased
NO power more rapidly than excess air; however, the power loss was recovered by increasing the inlet pres-
sure from 130 kPa at zero dilution to 150 kPa at 20% EGR dilution. The engine fuel consumption increased
by 10% when 20% EGR dilution was added at inlet pressure of 150 kPa compared to using 20% air dilution
at 130 kPa. However, it was found that EGR dilution strategy is capable of producing extremely lower NO
emission than lean burn technique. NO emission was reduced by about 70% when the inlet charge was
diluted at a rate of 20% using EGR instead of excess air.
Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction gas is available in many parts of the world that have poor oil re-
serves. Using natural gas as an alternative clean fuel will decrease
Natural gas is one of the cleanest economically available fuels the dependence on imported oil in these countries. Furthermore,
for internal combustion engines. Studies around the world have the world reserves of natural gas are larger than the petroleum
shown that engines running on natural gas emit significantly lower oil, thus the research in utilizing natural gas in engines represents
emissions compared to engines running on conventional fuels. For an investment for the future. Recently, environmental and eco-
instance, Baldassari and coworkers [1] compared natural gas and nomical concerns have motivated many governments to expand
diesel engine emissions, they showed that SI natural gas engine in natural gas infrastructure in order to be feasible to passenger
emissions of THC, NOx, and PM were significantly lower than that vehicles as well as stationary engines.
of the diesel fueled engine with a reduction of 67%, 98%, and 96% One of the natural gas engine combustion technologies, which
respectively. Compared to gasoline engine emissions, another begun in the early 1980s, is the ‘‘lean burn” combustion technique.
study showed that natural gas SI engines have the potential to This technology became dominant in gas engine industry as it led
achieve a reduction in CO, CO2, NOx, and non methane hydrocarbon to high engine efficiency accompanied with longer durability and
emissions of 90–97%, 25%, 35–60%, and 50–75% respectively [2]. lower cost. Today after almost a quarter century of continuous lean
Catania and coworkers [3] showed that natural gas engine emis- burn engine development and investment, most of the conven-
sions have less impact on the global warming than gasoline emis- tional gas engines operate with lean burn mode. According to the
sions, taking the global warming potential of the methane into Engine Manufacturers Association, USA 2004, over 80% of all heavy
account, the authors concluded that the natural gas fueled engine duty stationary natural gas engines sold in the USA employ lean
showed a carbon dioxide equivalent reduction of 15–24% with re- burn combustion technology [4]. Most of the research conducted
spect to gasoline. In addition to its lower pollution impact, natural in the lean-burn strategy basically focused on extending the max-
imum burning lean limit in order to reduce NOx emissions to sat-
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 8 8302 5123; fax: +61 8 8302 3380. isfy the increasing emission restrictions. That usually was
E-mail address: amralihi@yahoo.com (A. Ibrahim). achieved by designing fast-burning combustion chambers and/or

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2009.08.012

Please cite this article in press as: Ibrahim A, Bari S. A comparison between EGR and lean-burn strategies employed in a natural gas SI engine using a two-
zone combustion model. Energy Convers Manage (2009), doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2009.08.012
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Nomenclature

B cylinder bore, m Subscripts

k rate constant, m3/kmol s b burned
L distance between cylinder head and piston, m u unburned
rc compression ratio
Sl laminar flame speed, m/s Abbreviations
Sp mean piston speed, m/s bsfc brake specific fuel consumption
T temperature, K EGR exhaust gas recirculation
Xb burned gas fraction MBT maximum brake torque
Z mole fraction PM particulate matter
Dh combustion angle, rad SCR selective catalytic reduction
Dhb rapid burning angle, rad SI spark ignition
Dhd flame development angle, rad THC total hydrocarbon
ho crank angle at start of combustion, rad TWC three way catalyst
m kinematic viscosity, m2/s WOT wide open throttle

employing the stratified charge concept, usually by using either a in the 1970s for the automobile industry to reduce the gasoline en-
combustion pre-chamber or direct fuel injection. Recently, laser gine emissions. The TWC is capable of reducing the three emissions
ignition systems have been developed in order to ignite extremely at the same time and it is much less expensive than the SCR devices
lean fuel air mixtures, which require high ignition energy. used in lean burn engines. However, in order for the TWC to oper-
Currently, increasingly stringent ambient air quality standards ate efficiently, the engine must operate at near stoichiometric fuel–
demand engine emissions to be extremely low; see Table 1 [5]. air ratio (i.e. without excess air). When the engine operates near
In order for the engine under the lean burn mode to produce lower the stoichiometric mixture, the in-cylinder temperature increases,
NOx emissions, it has to operate with a leaner mixture. In other and consequently, the thermal stresses and the knocking tendency
words, the engine has to operate near the misfire limit to produce increase. This would lead to some restrictions on the use of turbo-
relatively lower NOx emissions. As the engine operates near the charging, high compression ratio, and maximum brake torque
misfire limit, the engine stability deteriorates, the hydrocarbon (MBT) spark advance timing. As a result, the engine would operate
(HC) and CO emissions increase, and the engine efficiency de- less efficiently than a similar lean burn engine.
creases. Another way to control NOx emissions is to retard the In order to reduce the in-cylinder temperature, an inlet charge
spark timing, which also leads to a decrease in engine efficiency dilution must be employed. One of the methods used to dilute
and an increase in HC emissions. Therefore, it seems that any ef- the inlet charge is to recycle some of the exhaust gases back into
forts towards a future decrease in NOx emissions would lead to the cylinder intake with the inlet mixture. This method is called
an increase in HC emission and a decrease in engine thermal effi- exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). Using EGR with the stoichiometric
ciency. At the end, a compromise must be made between the in- inlet mixture will lead to a decrease in the in-cylinder temperature
crease in NOx emissions and the decrease in engine efficiency. It and a decrease in knocking tendency and could permit the engine
has become obvious that it would be difficult for the conventional to use turbocharging, relatively higher compression ratio, and MBT
gas engine operating on lean burn mode to meet the stringent fu- spark advance timing to achieve a relatively higher thermal effi-
ture emission standards especially for NOx emissions without ciency compared to non diluted stoichiometric mixture operation.
using exhaust gas after-treatment. In addition, adding EGR to the inlet mixture will reduce the oxygen
The current emission reduction technologies used for the NOx partial pressure in the inlet mixture, and consequently the in-cyl-
emission after-treatment in lean burn engines such as the selective inder NOx production will decrease. Furthermore, as EGR will be
catalytic reduction (SCR) devices are expensive and add some com- added to a stoichiometric mixture, the use of a TWC for necessary
plexity to the engine use. For example, the SCR technique consists emission reductions is also possible.
of ammonia storage, feed, injection system and a catalyst. In this Although the use of EGR with a TWC technique is expected to
system, the ammonia is injected in the exhaust gases upstream economically produce lower emissions than lean-burn strategy,
of the catalyst. In order for this system to operate properly, a cer- the effect of using EGR compared to lean burn on some of engine
tain exhaust gas temperature range must be maintained [6]. In performance parameters such as engine fuel consumption is still
addition, an oxidation catalyst would also be necessary to reduce not quite certain. Some conflicting results were found in the liter-
both the HC and CO emissions. ature review regarding to this issue. For instance, Corbo and
It could be concluded that in order for the engines to meet the coworkers [7] converted a heavy duty turbocharged diesel engine
future emission standards, some alternative techniques must be to work on natural gas fuel. They employed both lean burn and
investigated and developed. One of these alternative techniques stoichiometric mixture with EGR and a TWC approaches after con-
is the use of a three way catalyst (TWC) to reduce NOx, HC, and version and compared the engine performance and emissions for
CO emissions. The three way catalyst technology was developed both cases. The authors concluded that the use of both EGR and
lean burn techniques led to a similar maximum thermal efficiency
of 34%. Nellen and Boulouchos [8] used a stoichiometric mixture
Table 1
with cooled EGR and a TWC in a turbocharged natural gas SI engine
Emission standards, g/kW h [5].
used for cogeneration applications. The authors aimed to achieve
Year Standard CO HC NOx PM low emissions and high efficiency by using this concept. The
1996 Euro2 4 1.1 7 0.15 authors optimized the same engine for lean burn operation with
2000 Euro3 2.1 0.66 5 0.1 an oxidation catalyst. They concluded that the EGR concept re-
2005 Euro4 1.5 0.46 3.5 0.02
sulted in a more superior engine performance and emissions com-
2008 Euro5 1.5 0.46 2 0.02
pared to the lean burn technique. The engine achieved a thermal

Please cite this article in press as: Ibrahim A, Bari S. A comparison between EGR and lean-burn strategies employed in a natural gas SI engine using a two-
zone combustion model. Energy Convers Manage (2009), doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2009.08.012
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A. Ibrahim, S. Bari / Energy Conversion and Management xxx (2009) xxx–xxx 3

efficiency of 40% at bmep of 12 bar by using EGR technique com- 4. All gases are considered to be ideal gases during the engine
pared to 38% at the same bmep for the lean burn operation. Saa- thermodynamic cycle.
num and Bysveen [9] compared the use of lean burn and 5. All crevice effects are ignored, and the blow-by is assumed to be
stoichiometric mixture with EGR strategies in a natural gas SI en- zero.
gine. They found that the maximum brake thermal efficiency was 6. The cylinder wall temperature is assumed to be constant
higher for lean burn operation than for EGR operation. The authors (400 K) and the heat transfer is determined using Woschni cor-
concluded that a penalty in engine efficiency must be accepted relation [10].
when EGR is used as an alternative to excess air. Perhaps these 7. The engine is in steady state such that the thermodynamic state
conflicting results are due to the differences in the optimized oper- at the beginning of each thermodynamic cycle (two crankshaft
ating conditions and engine design parameters used for each tech- revolutions) is the same as the end state of the cycle.
nique. For example the lean burn technique would give higher
efficiency if the spark timing was optimized for maximum brake The flow rates in both the intake and exhaust processes were
torque (MBT) condition rather than low NOx emission condition. determined from quasi-steady one-dimensional compressible flow
In the current study, both EGR and lean-burn strategies are com- rate equations [10]:
pared and assessed regarding to their effect on a natural gas engine vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 1=c u "  c1 #ffi
performance and NO emission at similar operating conditions. This C d AR po pt u 2c p c
_ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
m t 1 t
ð1Þ
would help to assess the use of EGR as an alternative to excess air
RT o po c1 po
and identify some of the operating conditions and engine design
parameters that can be optimized for better engine performance
where m _ is the mass flow rate through intake and exhaust valves,
when EGR technique is employed. For this purpose, a computer
simulation of the four-stroke spark-ignition natural gas engine Cd is the discharge coefficient (assumed to be 0.7), AR is the refer-
was developed. A two-zone combustion model was constructed ence area which was selected to be equivalent to the curtain area
to simulate the in-cylinder conditions during combustion. The sim- as suggested by Heywood [10] (AR = p dvlv(t), where dv is valve
ulation has been validated by experimental results and a good diameter, lv(t) is valve lift as a function of time (or crank angle)),
agreement between the results was found. To and po are stagnation temperature and pressure upstream of
the valve respectively, pt is static pressure down stream of the
valve, and finally c and R are specific heat ratio and gas constant
2. Model description
of the mixture flowing through the valve respectively. For flow into
the cylinder through an intake valve, po is the intake manifold pres-
The following assumptions and approximations are considered
sure, and pt is the cylinder pressure. For flow out of the cylinder
for simplification:
through an exhaust valve, po is the cylinder pressure, and pt is
the exhaust pressure.
1. The contents of the cylinder are fully mixed and spatially homo-  c1
c

geneous in terms of composition and properties during intake, When the flow through the valve is choked, i.e. ppot 6 cþ1
2
, the
compression, expansion, and exhaust processes. Thus, the ther- mass flow rate is calculated from the following equation [10]:
modynamic properties vary only with time (or crank angle). vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u  ccþ1
2. For the combustion process, two zones (each is spatially homo-
C d AR p o u 2
_ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi tc
1
geneous) are used. The two zones are the unburned and the m ð2Þ
RT o cþ1
burned zones. The two zones are separated from each other
by the flame front (see Fig. 1).
In the present model, the thermodynamic cycle simulation
3. The intake and exhaust manifolds are assumed to be infinite
starts with assumed guesses of the values of pressure and temper-
plenums containing gases at constant temperature and
ature of the contents within the cylinder at the instant the intake
pressure. The exhaust pressure was set at a value of
valve opens. After two crankshaft revolutions (720 crank angle de-
102 kPa, which is slightly higher than the atmospheric
grees), the calculated values of pressure and temperature are com-
pressure.
pared to the initial guesses. If the calculated values are not within
an acceptable tolerance to the initial guesses, the simulation is re-
peated using the final calculated values as initial guesses.

2.1. The combustion process

The following assumptions are assumed during combustion:

1. The flame front thickness is assumed to be negligible.

2. The cylinder pressure is assumed to be the same in the burned
and unburned zones.
3. Only the convective heat transfer mode, between the cylinder
contents and the cylinder wall, is considered.
4. The heat transfer between the two zones is neglected.
5. For the burned zone, ten species (CO2, H2O, CO, N2, O2, OH, NO,
H, O, and H2) are considered in chemical equilibrium during
combustion and expansion.
6. The combustion chamber wall area in contact with the burned
gases is assumed to be proportional to the square root of the
burned mass fraction to account for the greater volume filled
by burned gases against the unburned volume as suggested
Fig. 1. Schematic of the two-zone combustion modeling. by Ferguson [11].

Please cite this article in press as: Ibrahim A, Bari S. A comparison between EGR and lean-burn strategies employed in a natural gas SI engine using a two-
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2.1.1. The thermodynamic formulations where Sl0 is the reference burning velocity, cm/s, Tu is the unburned
Fig. 1 is a schematic of the engine cylinder during combustion, mixture temperature, K, p is the cylinder pressure, kPa, a and b are
which shows the cylinder heat transfer from both the unburned (u) fitting coefficients, xEGR is the volumetric fraction of EGR in the un-
and burned (b) zones, and the piston work. The basic relations used burned mixture, and U is the equivalence ratio. The empirical lam-
in the development of the present simulation are the first law of inar flame speed correlation was validated for equivalence ratio
thermodynamics, the conservation of mass law, and the ideal gas range of 0.49–1.43, pressure range from 50 to 1000 kPa, EGR ratio
law. range from 0 to 0.43, and the tested temperature ranged from 300
These three principles were applied to both the unburned and to 400 K [15].
burned control volumes in order to derive expressions for the time Since the dynamic viscosity of hydrocarbon-air combustion
(or crank angle) derivative of the unburned and burned gas tem- products differs little from that of air as demonstrated by Heywood
peratures and volumes in addition to the cylinder pressure during [10], the cylinder content dynamic viscosity could be expressed
combustion. These expressions are expressed in terms of engine using the air dynamic viscosity correlation which has the following
design parameters and operating conditions. The Euler numerical form [10]:
solution technique as described by Caton [12] was used to solve
the differential equations to determine the in-cylinder pressure l ¼ 3:3  107 T 0:7 ð10Þ
and temperature.
where l is the dynamic viscosity in kg/ms, and T is the temperature
2.1.2. The burning rate in K. Hence, the kinematic viscosity can be determined using the
The S-shaped mass fraction burned profile, the Wiebe function, well known correlation: m ¼ lq .
was used to determine the burning rate: Both Eqs. (4) and (5) are used in the present model in order to
"  mþ1 # calculate the combustion duration (Dh = Dhd + Dhb) at different
h  ho operating conditions. The combustion duration is then used to
X b ¼ 1  exp a ð3Þ
Dh determine the burned mass fraction using the Wiebe function.

where h is the crank angle, ho is the crank angle at the start of com-
bustion, Dh is the total combustion duration (from Xb = 0 to Xb = 1), 2.2. NO formation kinetic model
and a and m are adjustable parameters which fix the shape of the
curve. Actual mass fraction burned curves have been fitted with- The extended Zeldovich mechanism [10] is used to determine
a  5, and m  2 as suggested by Heywood [10]. The empirical rule the rate of change of NO mole fraction during combustion and
for relating the mass burning profile to crank angle at maximum expansion processes as follows:
brake torque (MBT) spark timing is used in this model. With opti-  
mum spark timing, half the charge is burned at about 10 crank an-
dZ NO 2r 1 1  ðZ NO =Z NO;e Þ2
gle degrees after top dead centre [10]. Thus, referring to Eq. (3), ¼ ð11Þ
dt 1 þ ðZ NO =Z NO;e Þr 1 =ðr2 þ r3 Þ
putting Xb = 0.5 at h = 370 degrees enables ho to be determined at
a specified combustion duration. In the current study, all results
were obtained at the MBT spark timing condition. where:

þ p
2.1.3. The combustion angle r1 ¼ k1  Z O;e Z N2;e ð12Þ
A turbulent flame propagation model developed by Tabaczynski
RT b
and coworkers [13] was used by Hires and coworkers [14] to ob-  p
r2 ¼ k2  Z NO;e Z O;e ð13Þ
tain explicit relations for the flame development angle, Dhd, and RT b
the rapid burning angle, Dhb, as function of engine design and  p
r3 ¼ k3  Z NO;e Z H;e ð14Þ
operating variables: RT b
 2=3
L where Z is the mole fraction, p is the cylinder pressure, R is the uni-
Dhd ¼ CðSp mÞ1=3 ð4Þ
Sl versal gas constant, and Tb is the burned gas temperature. The sub-
  10=9  2=3 script e refers to equilibrium value. The rate constants (k), in units of
B qi Sp m Þ1=3 Li
Dhb ¼ C 0  ð ð5Þ m3/kmol s, were calculated from Ref. [10]. The prescribed combus-
L qu Sl
tion model with the integration of both NO formation and knocking
where m is the kinematic viscosity, L is the distance between cylin- sub-models was previously used to optimize a natural gas engine
der head and piston, Sl is the laminar burning speed, Sp is the mean performance under EGR operation in two different studies; more
piston speed, q is the density, and B is the cylinder bore. The sub- details can be found in Ref. [16,17].
script i denotes the value at ignition and the subscript u refers to
the unburned mixture, whereas the superscript () denotes the va-
0
lue at cylinder conditions where Xb = 0.5. C and C are constants,
Table 2
which depend on engine geometry. The empirical correlation of Engine specifications.
the laminar burning speed of the natural gas-air-EGR mixture was
determined from Ref. [15]: Number of cylinders 1
Bore, mm 76.2
 a 
p b
Stroke, mm 111.125
Tu
Sl ¼ Sl0 ð3:4259 x2EGR  3:6993 xEGR þ 1:002Þ ð6Þ Capacity, cc 507
300 100 Maximum speed, rpm 3000
Max. cylinder pressure, bar 150
Sl0 ¼ 177:43 U3 þ 340:77 U2  123:66 U  0:2297 ð7Þ Inlet valve opens, deg BTDC 9
2 Inlet valve closes, deg ABDC 34
a ¼ 5:75 U  12:15 U þ 7:98 ð8Þ
Exhaust valve opens, deg BBDC 43
2 Exhaust valve closes, deg ATDC 8
b ¼ 0:925 U þ 2 U  1:473 ð9Þ

Please cite this article in press as: Ibrahim A, Bari S. A comparison between EGR and lean-burn strategies employed in a natural gas SI engine using a two-
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3. Experimental set-up and model validation the engine intake. A pressure gauge was used to measure the inlet
pressure with an accuracy of ±2 kPa. The natural gas was supplied
3.1. Experimental set-up from a pipe line which supplied a continuous flow of natural gas at
a pressure of slightly higher than the atmospheric pressure. The
In order to validate the prescribed model, experimental data natural gas flow rate, and hence the air–fuel ratio, was controlled
was collected from a 507 cc single cylinder variable compression by a regulating valve.
ratio Ricardo E6 SI engine. Table 2 shows the Ricardo engine spec- The natural gas flow rate was measured using Dwyer RMC flow
ifications. The engine used to run on petrol before it was converted meter with an accuracy of ±0.045 m3/h while the air flow rate was
to run on natural gas. Fig. 2 shows a schematic of the experimental measured using Alcock viscous flow meter with an accuracy of
set-up. The recycled exhaust gas was taken from a hole located on ±0.09 m3/h. The pressure drop across the air flow meter, which
the exhaust pipe with the help of a small vacuum pump. The hot was measured using an inclined water manometer, was used with
exhaust gas was cooled by passing it through a water-cooled heat meter calibration constant to calculate the air flow as follows:
exchanger. A regulating valve was used to control the amount of
V_ a ¼ ch ð16Þ
the recycled exhaust gas while a 6 mm square orifice flow meter
was used to measure the flow rate of the exhaust gases recycled where V_ a is the air flow down stream the meter cell in m3/hr, c is
back to engine intake as follows: the calibration constant (c = 4.57), and h is the pressure difference
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi across the meter in cm water.
_ ¼ C d A 2qDp
m ð15Þ The engine load was applied by an electrical direct current
dynamometer, which is capable to run as a variable speed motor
where m _ is the mass flow rate across the orifice meter, Cd is the dis- in order to determine the engine friction power. The engine load
charge coefficient which is equivalent to 0.6, A is the orifice hole was measured with an accuracy of ±0.4 Nm by balancing the tor-
area, q is the density of the gas downstream of the orifice meter, que exerting on the dynamometer casing with an equivalent oppo-
and Dp is the pressure difference across the orifice meter measured site torque by hanging weights on the torque arm which is
by a u-tube manometer with an accuracy of ±0.01 kPa. attached to the dynamometer casing. A spring balance of maxi-
A supercharger was installed in order to provide the engine mum force of 50 N was connected to the arm torque to provide
with inlet charge at high pressure. The supercharger was driven an upward force for fine balancing adjustment. The reading was ta-
by an electrical motor via a belt. Air, natural gas, and cooled ex- ken when the torque arm was horizontal and the dynamometer
haust gas were mixed in the supercharger intake before they were casing was floated. Toque was calculated as follows:
delivered at high pressure to an intercooler. The intercooler cooled
T ¼FR ð17Þ
down the air–fuel–exhaust gas mixture before it was delivered to

Fig. 2. Schematic of the experimental set-up.

Please cite this article in press as: Ibrahim A, Bari S. A comparison between EGR and lean-burn strategies employed in a natural gas SI engine using a two-
zone combustion model. Energy Convers Manage (2009), doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2009.08.012
 ARTICLE IN PRESS

6 A. Ibrahim, S. Bari / Energy Conversion and Management xxx (2009) xxx–xxx

where F is the net force on the torque arm, and R is the radius of the
torque arm which is equivalent to 45.7 cm.
The engine speed was measured by a mechanical tachometer
with an accuracy of ±10 rpm. The in-cylinder pressure was mea-
sured using water-cooled piezoelectric Kistler type 7061B pressure
sensor, TDC position sensor, and shaft encoder. A charge amplifier
type Kister 5007 was used to convert the output electrical charge
from the piezoelectric pressure sensor into DC voltage. The output
signals from the charge amplifier, TDC position sensor, and shaft
encoder were received by an analogue digital converter in order
to convert the continuous signals into digital numbers which are
suitable to be handled by a laptop via a data acquisition card as
indicated in Fig. 2. Engine NO emissions were measured using
the chemiluminescence technique with an accuracy of ±30 ppm.

3.2. Model validity

Fig. 3 shows the p–V diagram as predicted by the model at an

inlet pressure of 98 kPa (wide open throttle, WOT, condition), stoi- Fig. 4. A comparison between measured and calculated brake power at WOT,
chiometric mixture, engine speed of 1000 rpm, engine compres- stoichiometric fuel–air mixture, rc = 8, MBT spark timing, and different speed
sion ratio of 8, MBT spark timing, and no EGR inlet condition. conditions.
The p–V relationship was integrated in order to calculate the indi-
cated work and consequently the indicated power. The engine fric-
tion power was determined experimentally using the motoring
test and then it was used to calculate the engine brake power. Both
brake power and brake specific fuel consumption were calculated
at different engine speeds and compared with experimental results
as shown in Figs. 4 and 5 respectively.
In addition, both measured and calculated in-cylinder pressure
data were compared at different operating conditions. Fig. 6 com-
pares the measured and calculated in-cylinder pressure at percent-
age EGR dilution in the inlet mixture of 10%, inlet pressure of
113 kPa, compression ratio of 8, and 1500 rpm operating condi-
tions. Fig. 7 compares measured and calculated in-cylinder pres-
sure at excess air factor (k) of 1.2, atmospheric inlet conditions,
compression ratio of 8, and 1500 rpm operating conditions.
Also, both measured and calculated NO emissions were com-
pared at different operating conditions. Fig. 8 compares measured
and calculated NO emissions at an inlet pressure of 113 kPa, com-
pression ratio of 8, 1500 rpm, and different %EGR dilution condi-
tions. Fig. 9 compares measured and calculated NO emissions at
atmospheric inlet condition, compression ratio of 12, 1500 rpm,
Fig. 5. A comparison between measured and calculated brake specific fuel
and different %EGR dilution conditions. consumption at WOT, stoichiometric fuel–air mixture, rc = 8, MBT spark timing,
and different speed conditions.

Figs. 4–9 show that there is a good agreement between the

experimental and the computer model results at various operating
conditions, which gives the confidence that the computer model
has been well constructed.

4. Results and discussion

4.1. The effect of EGR vs. excess air on power

Fig. 10 shows the effect of the increase of excess air factor on

brake power at an inlet pressure of 130 kPa (which simulates tur-
bocharged inlet pressure conditions), 1500 rpm, and MBT spark
timing condition. The excess air factor, k, is defined as the ratio be-
tween the actual air–fuel-ratio to the stoichiometric air–fuel–ratio:
ðA=FÞact
k¼ ð18Þ
ðA=FÞst

Fig. 3. p–V diagram at inlet pressure of 98 kPa, stoichiometric mixture, rc = 8, MBT Similarly, Fig. 11 shows the effect of the increase of the percent-
spark timing, and 1000 rpm. age of the mass of recycled exhaust gases, %EGR, on brake power at

Please cite this article in press as: Ibrahim A, Bari S. A comparison between EGR and lean-burn strategies employed in a natural gas SI engine using a two-
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A. Ibrahim, S. Bari / Energy Conversion and Management xxx (2009) xxx–xxx 7

Fig. 6. A comparison between measured and calculated in-cylinder pressure Fig. 9. A comparison between measured and calculated NO emissions at atmo-
at.%EGR of 10%, inlet pressure of 113 kPa, rc = 8, and 1500 rpm. spheric inlet pressure, rc = 12, 1500 rpm, and different %EGR dilution conditions.

Fig. 10. Variations of brake power with excess air factor at inlet pressure of
Fig. 7. A comparison between measured and calculated in-cylinder pressure at
130 kPa, 1500 rpm, rc = 10, and MBT spark timing condition.
k = 1.2, atmospheric inlet condition, rc = 8, and 1500 rpm.

Fig. 8. A comparison between measured and calculated NO emissions at inlet Fig. 11. Variations of brake power with EGR dilution at inlet pressure of 130 kPa,
pressure of 113 kPa, rc = 8, 1500 rpm, and different %EGR dilution conditions. 1500 rpm, rc = 10, and MBT spark timing condition.

Please cite this article in press as: Ibrahim A, Bari S. A comparison between EGR and lean-burn strategies employed in a natural gas SI engine using a two-
zone combustion model. Energy Convers Manage (2009), doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2009.08.012
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8 A. Ibrahim, S. Bari / Energy Conversion and Management xxx (2009) xxx–xxx

an inlet pressure of 130 kPa, 1500 rpm, and MBT spark timing con-
dition. %EGR is defined as the ratio between the mass of the recy-
cled exhaust gases to the total inlet mass (i.e. the mass of air, fuel,
and recycled exhaust gases):

mEGR
%EGR ¼  100 ð19Þ
ma þ mf þ mEGR
The engine brake power decreases with the increase of both ex-
cess air and EGR as they both replace some of the inlet fuel mass
because they were added at a constant inlet pressure. In order to
compare the effect of both excess air and EGR on engine perfor-
mance using the same basis of charge dilution, the air dilution is
defined in a similar way like EGR dilution. Air dilution can be de-
fined as the ratio between the mass of the excess air to the total in-
let mass. The mass of the excess air can be calculated as the
difference between the actual mass of air used for combustion
and the stoichiometric mass of air used for stoichiometric
combustion:
Fig. 12. A comparison between the effect of both air and EGR dilution on brake
ma;act  ma;st
%Air dilution ¼  100 power at inlet pressure of 130 kPa, 1500 rpm, rc = 10, and MBT spark timing
ma;act þ mf condition.
ðA=FÞact  ðA=FÞst k1
¼  100 ¼  100 ð20Þ
ðA=FÞact þ 1 k þ ðF=AÞst
Knowing that the stoichiometric fuel–air ratio for natural gas is
about 1/15.8, then Eq. (20) expresses the percentage of air dilution
as a function of excess air factor, k only. Air dilution is equivalent to
zero for stoichiometric mixture and increases with the increase of k
as shown in Table 3.
Fig. 12 compares the effect of both air and EGR dilution on en-
gine power at an inlet pressure of 130 kPa, 1500 rpm, and MBT
spark timing condition. Adding EGR to the stoichiometric mixture
decreased power more rapidly than excess air. That was mainly be-
cause of the more significant effect of EGR dilution on combustion
duration compared to air dilution. Adding EGR to the inlet charge
decreased the in-cylinder oxygen concentration and slowed down
the combustion rate significantly. The extended combustion dura-
tion resulted in burning most of the fuel away from the top dead
centre which led to a loss in engine power. In addition, the higher
inlet charge temperature in the presence of EGR (assumed to be
333 K) compared to the inlet charge temperature in the presence
of air (assumed to be 310 K) reduced the inlet density and hence
the power was reduced. Fig. 13. A comparison between the effect of both air and EGR dilution on
The use of EGR dilution at a rate of 20% and inlet pressure of combustion duration at 1500 rpm, rc = 10, and MBT spark timing condition.

130 kPa reduced engine power by about 20% compared to using

air at the same dilution rate and inlet pressure conditions. How-
lent to air dilution power results as it was mentioned earlier. The
ever, the loss of engine power which occurred due to the use of
increase in inlet pressure increased the inlet density and slightly
EGR instead of excess air was recovered by increasing the inlet
decreased the combustion duration as shown in Fig. 13. Fig. 13
pressure. It was found that when inlet pressure increased from
indicates that the increase of EGR dilution has a stronger effect
130 kPa at no EGR condition to about 150 kPa at 20% EGR dilution,
on combustion duration than the increase of excess air dilution.
brake power increased and became equivalent to the correspond-
These results agree well with different experimental results such
ing air dilution power results.
as the results obtained by Einewall and coworkers [18]. Einewall
Fig. 13 shows the increase of combustion duration with both
and coworkers [18] compared the effect of lean burn and EGR on
the addition of air at constant inlet pressure of 130 kPa and the
the heat release rate using a natural gas engine having a fast-burn-
addition of EGR at constant and variable inlet pressure. The inlet
ing combustion chamber with high turbulence. The authors found
pressure was varied from 130 to 150 kPa to obtain power equiva-
that EGR has a stronger influence on the flame development angle
than excess air since the laminar flame speed was more reduced
Table 3 compared to lean burn operation. The authors concluded that ex-
Variations of % air dilution with k. cess air leads to much shorter duration during early combustion
k Air dilution (%)
compared to EGR for high dilution levels.

1 0
1.1 8.6 4.2. The effect of EGR vs. excess air on bsfc
1.2 15.8
1.3 22
Fig. 14 shows the effect of both air and EGR dilution on brake
1.4 27.3
specific fuel consumption at 1500 rpm and MBT spark timing

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zone combustion model. Energy Convers Manage (2009), doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2009.08.012
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A. Ibrahim, S. Bari / Energy Conversion and Management xxx (2009) xxx–xxx 9

sipated as heat loss. Fig. 15 shows the effect of air and EGR dilution
on engine heat loss as a percentage from fuel power. The percent-
age heat loss was calculated as follows:

Q_
%heat loss ¼  100 ð21Þ
_ f  LHV
m

where Q_ is the heat transfer, m

_ f is the fuel mass flow rate, and LHV
is the lower heating value.
The use of EGR dilution at a rate of 20% and inlet pressure of
130 kPa increased engine fuel consumption by about 18% com-
pared to using air at the same dilution rate and inlet pressure con-
ditions. On the other hand, when 20% EGR dilution was added at an
inlet pressure of 150 kPa in order to obtain the same amount of
power as when 20% air dilution was employed at 130 kPa, the fuel
consumption increased by only 10%.

4.3. The effect of EGR vs. air on NO emission

Fig. 14. A comparison between the effect of both air and EGR dilution on brake Fig. 16 shows the effect of using both EGR and air dilution on
specific fuel consumption at 1500 rpm, rc = 10, and MBT spark timing condition. engine NO emission at 1500 rpm and MBT spark timing condition.
NO emission increases with the increase of air dilution until it
reaches to its peak value at about 9% air dilution which is equiva-
condition. The addition of excess air was studied at constant inlet lent to an excess air factor of about 1.1. This is due to NO formation
pressure of 130 kPa whereas the addition of EGR was studied for mechanism depends on both temperature and oxygen concentra-
two different inlet pressure conditions, which were the constant tion. Although burned gas temperature is higher for stoichiometric
130 kPa inlet pressure condition and the variable inlet pressure mixture (zero dilution) as shown in Fig. 17, the availability of oxy-
condition that led to brake power results similar to air dilution gen at leaner mixtures results in the maximum NO emission to be
brake power results at an inlet pressure of 130 kPa. The fuel con- occurred at mixtures slightly leaner than stoichiometric. The
sumption was slightly improved with the increase of air dilution burned gas temperature and consequently NO emission decrease
up to about 15%. The increase of air dilution decreased the maxi- when air dilution is increased above 9%.
mum cylinder burned gas temperature which led to a decrease in On the other hand, the use of EGR dilution decreased NO emis-
the dissociation losses near top dead centre which resulted into sion significantly as shown in Fig. 16. The use of EGR dilution de-
an increase in the fraction of sensible energy that was converted creases both temperature and oxygen concentration and leads to
to work. However, the fuel consumption started to increase at lower NO emission compared to the use of air dilution. The use
higher air dilution conditions due to the significant increase of of 20% EGR dilution decreased NO emission by about 70% com-
the combustion duration at higher air dilution conditions as shown pared to using the same percentage of air dilution. Furthermore,
in Fig. 13. On the other hand, engine fuel consumption increased employing EGR dilution technique would allow using a three
with EGR dilution which had a more significant effect on combus- way catalyst, which usually has a conversion efficiency of about
tion duration than excess air. The extended combustion duration 90%, for exhaust gas after-treatment. That makes the EGR dilution
led to most of fuel to be burned earlier during compression stroke technique capable of producing extremely lower NO emission
and later during expansion stroke which resulted in a decrease in compared to using air dilution technique.
power and an increase in the fraction of fuel energy that was dis- These results agree well with several experimental results done
by different researchers. For example, Bhargava and coworkers

Fig. 15. A comparison between the effect of both air and EGR dilution on engine
heat loss as a percentage from fuel power at 1500 rpm, rc = 10, and MBT spark Fig. 16. A comparison between the effect of both air and EGR dilution on NO
timing condition. emission at 1500 rpm, rc = 10, and MBT spark timing condition.

Please cite this article in press as: Ibrahim A, Bari S. A comparison between EGR and lean-burn strategies employed in a natural gas SI engine using a two-
zone combustion model. Energy Convers Manage (2009), doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2009.08.012
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10 A. Ibrahim, S. Bari / Energy Conversion and Management xxx (2009) xxx–xxx

Fig. 18. A comparison between the effect of both air and EGR dilution on start of
Fig. 17. A comparison between the effect of both air and EGR dilution on maximum combustion angle optimized for MBT condition at 1500 rpm, rc = 10, and MBT spark
cylinder burned gas temperature at 1500 rpm, rc = 10, and MBT spark timing timing condition.
condition.

of dilution increased the combustion duration significantly as

[19] studied the effect of replacing air with EGR on natural gas en- shown in Fig. 13. That led to an excessive advance for the start of
gine emissions at constant load and speed. The authors found that combustion timing which was optimized for MBT condition as
NOx emissions were reduced from 4 to about 1 g/bhp-h with a per- shown in Fig. 18. The increased advance of the start of combustion
centage reduction of about 75% when EGR replaced excess air at timing led to initiating the combustion earlier in the compression
the same amount of charge dilution of about 22%. Corbo and stroke which increased the maximum temperature when EGR dilu-
coworkers [7] compared engine emissions using both EGR and lean tion was used at rates higher than 15% compared to air dilution.
burn techniques for a converted natural gas engine. The authors re- Fig. 19 shows the effect of both EGR and air dilution on maxi-
ported that the use of lean burn technique led to NOx emissions of mum cylinder pressure. When both air and EGR dilution were
4.7 g/kW h whereas the use of EGR technique with a three way cat- studied at constant inlet pressure of 130 kPa, the use of EGR slowed
alyst resulted in only 0.1 g/kW h NOx emissions. Although the down the combustion rate more significantly and consequently the
authors did not report the value of NOx emission before the cata- maximum cylinder pressure was lower than the corresponding
lyst, this could be calculated assuming the catalyst conversion effi- maximum pressure for air dilution strategy. On the other hand,
ciency to be comparable to 90%. This would lead NOx emission when EGR was added at higher inlet pressure conditions which
before the catalyst to be about 1 g/kW h with a percentage reduc- varied from 130 kPa at zero dilution to about 150 kPa at 20% EGR
tion of about 78% compared to using lean burn technique. Saanum dilution in order to obtain similar power as for air dilution strategy,
and Bysveen [9] compared lean burn and EGR operation of an en- the maximum cylinder pressure increased compared to using air
gine fueled with natural gas and hydrogen enriched natural gas. dilution at an inlet pressure of 130 kPa. That indicates the signifi-
The authors studied the effect of both lean burn and EGR on NOx cant dependence of the maximum cylinder pressure on inlet
emissions at various engine loads. It was demonstrated that NOx pressure.
emission increases with the increase of excess air until it reaches
its maximum value at an excess air factor ranged from 1.1 to 1.2
depending on engine load and then decreases with the increase
of excess air. On the other hand, the use of EGR reduced NOx emis-
sion efficiently with a near linear decrease with the increase of EGR
dilution. The authors concluded that EGR technique resulted in
much lower NOx emissions compared to using excess air at the
same level of dilution.

4.4. The effect of EGR vs. excess air on in-cylinder maximum

temperature and pressure

Both in-cylinder pressure and temperature are important vari-

ables which affect the in-cylinder mechanical and thermal stresses
in addition to the formation of NO emission. Fig. 17 shows the vari-
ations of maximum burned gas temperature with both EGR and air
dilution at 1500 rpm and MBT spark timing condition. The use of
air dilution up to 15% resulted in a slight increase in the maximum
burned gas temperature compared to using EGR dilution. This is
because EGR contains water vapor which has higher specific heat
capacity than air. However, when air dilution increased above
15%, the maximum burned gas temperature decreased compared Fig. 19. A comparison between the effect of both air and EGR dilution on maximum
to using EGR dilution. This is because the use of EGR at higher rates cylinder pressure at 1500 rpm, rc = 10, and MBT spark timing condition.

Please cite this article in press as: Ibrahim A, Bari S. A comparison between EGR and lean-burn strategies employed in a natural gas SI engine using a two-
zone combustion model. Energy Convers Manage (2009), doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2009.08.012
 ARTICLE IN PRESS

A. Ibrahim, S. Bari / Energy Conversion and Management xxx (2009) xxx–xxx 11

 The addition of EGR to the inlet charge decreased engine power

more rapidly compared to using excess air at the same inlet
pressure of 130 kPa; however, the loss of power was recovered
by increasing inlet pressure from 130 kPa at zero dilution to
150 kPa at 20% EGR dilution.
 The fuel consumption increased by 18% when the inlet charge
was diluted at a rate of 20% using EGR instead of excess air at
the same inlet pressure of 130 kPa; however, the fuel consump-
tion increased by only 10% when EGR was added at higher inlet
pressure of 150 kPa.
 The use of EGR is capable of achieving extremely low NO emis-
sion compared to excess air. NO emission decreased by about
70% when the inlet charge was diluted at a rate of 20% using
EGR instead of air.

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Please cite this article in press as: Ibrahim A, Bari S. A comparison between EGR and lean-burn strategies employed in a natural gas SI engine using a two-
zone combustion model. Energy Convers Manage (2009), doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2009.08.012