ZERO-EMISSION INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE
SAE-PP-00368
11/17/2023
- Content
- A new concept of internal combustion engine has been developed. The purpose is to have an engine that can burn hydrocarbon fuels without discharging any greenhouse gas or other harmful substances into the atmosphere. The new engine, the zero-emission engine, inducts no air from the environment. Instead, the engine exhaust gas, with added oxygen, is used in performance of the combustion cycle. Carbon dioxide, the main byproduct of combustion is captured, stored, and unloaded during refueling for further storage, sequestration, or recycling. The zero-emission engine displacement can be significantly smaller than in a conventional air-inducting engine of equal power, with a significantly higher power density. The engine is unthrottled and it can operate with a much higher compression ratio without an increase in the cylinder temperature. The above concept also envisions recycling the captured carbon dioxide by using it with water to produce hydrocarbon fuel and oxygen that can be supplied back to the engine. In that case, an automobile and a refueling station form a closed-energy circuit, in which the internal combustion process produces carbon dioxide that is converted back into fuel at the refueling station (or other processing facility), and that fuel is delivered back to the vehicle. The engine operates in a carbon-neutral mode burning fuel that can be repeatedly used, regenerated, and reused again. This paper describes the above concept and reviews its advantages and disadvantages. It also describes an experimental vehicle system that has been built to evaluate and verify the feasibility of the concept and review the test results. The concept was judged to be feasible, and the experimental vehicle equipped with a zero-emission engine is operational. No exhaust gas is discharged into the atmosphere.
- Citation
- Schechter, M., and schechter, v., "ZERO-EMISSION INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE," SAE MobilityRxiv™ Preprint, submitted November 17, 2023, https://doi.org/10.47953/SAE-PP-00368.