Insights into syngas-fueled Wankel rotary engine performance from varied CO/H2 ratio

Syngas is a fuel with a huge market and low carbon emission, which has been proven to be well applied to internal combustion engines. WRE with high power density can effectively improve the power characteristic when syngas is employed as fuel in engines, however, which has not been reported publicly. This work aims to provide insights into the performance of syngas-fueled WRE under different CO/H2 ratios and thus gives theoretical guidance for its application. The test is done at 1500 r/min and part load. It is found that with the increase of the volumetric ratio of CO in syngas (CO%), the efficiency, torque and carbon emissions are deteriorated, however, the NO emission is significantly improved and the knock level is also reduced. In addition, on the premise of constant CO%, a high brake thermal efficiency, low NO emission and knock intensity can be achieved at lean combustion. In particular, when CO% is 10%, the combustion efficiency of CO is independent of the excess air ratio, while when CO% is 20%, that is decreased with increasing excess air ratio. In summary, the syngas-fueled WRE is recommended to adopt the qualitative control and the syngas with low CO%.(c) 2023 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.