Investigating the potential of an integrated coolant waste heat recovery system in an HD engine using PPC operation

Vikram Singh, Erik Svensson, Sebastian Verhelst, Martin Tuner

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingPaper in conference proceedingpeer-review

Abstract

With the increasing focus on reducing emissions and making fuel efficient vehicles within the automotive industry over the past few years, new methods are constantly being investigated to improve the efficiency of the powertrain. One such method is recovering waste heat from the exhaust gases as well as the coolant using a thermodynamic cycle such as a Rankine cycle. However, most studies looking into low temperature or coolant heat recovery investigate the use of a separate secondary cycle for the recovery of waste heat itself. This has the disadvantage of having the working fluid at a lower temperature than the coolant which reduces the recovery efficiency. This paper investigates the potential of an integrated Rankine cycle waste heat recovery system where the coolant also acts as the refrigerant and is integrated with the exhaust gas recirculation waste heat recovery. The refrigerant/coolant used for this study is ethanol, while being used in two modes for low temperature/coolant recovery: using the engine as the preheater and using it as an evaporator. Using a combination of GT Power and Matlab, a Scania D13 engine was simulated in partially premixed combustion operation with a waste heat recovery system. For the engine load-speed range, the coolant flow rate, pressure ratio and superheat were swept for determining the optimal values for maximizing output power. It was seen that while using the engine both as a preheater and as an evaporator the recoverable power increased in comparison to using only the exhaust gas recirculation heat for recovery. When using the engine for preheating, the recoverable power increased marginally with an indicated efficiency gain of less than 0.5 percentage points whereas when using the engine for the evaporation of the coolant, the indicated efficiency showed gains of up to 1.7 percentage points in comparison to using EGR-only heat recovery with a total gain in indicated efficiency of up to 5.5 percentage points. This larger gain in recoverable power while using the engine as an evaporator in comparison to as a preheater is due to the location of the pinch point in analyzing the heat exchange process. The system behavior was also studied with regards to the pressure ratio, the mass flow rate of coolant and the superheat. It was generally observed that at higher loads and speeds these parameters increased as more waste heat was available for recovery for the system.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEmissions Control Systems; Instrumentation, Controls, and Hybrids; Numerical Simulation; Engine Design and Mechanical Development
PublisherAmerican Society Of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Volume2
ISBN (Electronic)9780791851999
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018
EventASME 2018 Internal Combustion Engine Division Fall Technical Conference, ICEF 2018 - San Diego, United States
Duration: 2018 Nov 42018 Nov 7

Conference

ConferenceASME 2018 Internal Combustion Engine Division Fall Technical Conference, ICEF 2018
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Diego
Period2018/11/042018/11/07

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Energy Engineering

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