A Promising High Efficiency RM-HCCI Combustion Proposed by Detail Kinetics Analysis of Exergy Losses

To explore the exergy loss of engine combustion process, entropy generations were numerically analyzed through detailed chemical kinetics. It revealed that the reformed fuel with simpler molecular tended to produce lower combustion irreversibility. Furthermore, a promising high efficiency RM- HCCI (Reformed molecule HCCI) combustion principle was proposed. In a RM-HCCI engine, hydrocarbon fuels were reformed into small molecule fuels under high temperature and low/no oxygen atmosphere before injection into the cylinder when the exhaust gas enthalpy to a certain extent was recovered, further improving the engine efficiency. The second law efficiency (η_2nd) of a RM-HCCI combustion with a CR of 10 can be increased from 36.78% to 45.47% by coordination of multiple control parameters, and to 67.79% by raising CR from 10 to 100. The RM-HCCI has many advantages: (1) less exergy losses during combustion processes, (2) longer ignition delays and shorter but controlled combustion durations, (3) improved ratio of specific heats, all these advantages can improve engine efficiency.