Energy 279 (2023) 128121

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Discussion on the potential of methane-hydrogen dual-fueled Wankel

rotary engine
Hao Meng a, Changwei Ji a, *, Yuanshu He a, Hanlin Li a, Jinxin Yang a, Huaiyu Wang b,
Shuofeng Wang a
a
College of Energy and Power Engineering, Beijing Lab of New Energy Vehicles and Key Lab of Regional Air Pollution Control, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing,
100124, PR China
b
School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Handling Editor: Prof X Ou Wankel rotary engine (WRE) is welcomed due to its high power density and compact layout and is criticized due
to its low efficiency and poor emission. To develop low-carbon emission and high-efficiency WRE, the present
Keywords: work discusses the potential of hydrogen/methane dual-fueled WRE with varied fuel components. The test was
Wankel rotary engine conducted at 1500 r/min, 80 kPa manifold absolute pressure and stoichiometric ratio. The results indicate that
Hydrogen
compared with pure hydrogen or pure methane WRE, hydrogen/methane dual-fueled WRE can achieve higher
Methane
thermal efficiency and output power, the maximum values of which are 30.7% and 12.4 kW under test condi­
Combustion and emission
Knock tions, respectively. Besides, it also has satisfactory NO, CO2 and HC emissions. In particular, there is a linear
relationship between NO emission and methane volumetric percentage with a 0.9949 determination coefficient
in logarithmic coordinates, which means that the NO emission can be easily predicted. In addition, the cyclic
variation is acceptable at maximum-efficiency CH4% and the knock can be almost eliminated in hydrogen-
methane dual-fueled WRE when the volume ratio of methane exceeds about 40%. In general, WRE is recom­
mended to be fueled by a mixture of hydrogen and methane with a high methane volumetric percentage.

found from the application mentioned above that the application of

Credit author statement
Hao Meng: Conceptualization， Methodology， Writing - Original
Draft, Investigation, Changwei Ji: Funding acquisition， Formal anal­
ysis， Resources, Yuanshu He ：; Investigation, Hanlin Li: Investigation,
Jinxin Yang: Investigation, Huaiyu Wang: Investigation, Shuofeng
Wang: Writing - Review & Editing, Project administration.
1. Introduction
Internal combustion engines (ICEs) still carry important power re­
sponsibilities globally even if batteries and fuel cells are booming [1].
How to make ICEs survive and continue to develop has become a
prominent issue concerned by relevant scholars in recent years [2].
Wankel rotary engine (WRE), which flourished in the 1970s and 1980s,
is a power device different from the current mainstream reciprocating
piston engines [3]. With compact structure, high power density and low
noise, vibrant and harshness characteristics, WREs are widely used in
sports cars, drones and small military equipment [4]. However, it can be
WRE is more oriented on power rather than efficiency and emission as
the priority criterion. Due to the high surface-to-volume ratio and nar­
row combustion chamber, traditional liquid fossil-fueled WRE has poor
efficiency and HC and CO emission [5], which is the fundamental reason
why WRE is gradually disappearing from the field of passenger vehicles.
Therefore, addressing low efficiency and poor emissions is of great sig­
nificance for promoting the application of WRE.
Natural gas is one of the important unrenewable primary energy
fossil fuels [6], the proportion of which in primary energy reaches 24.7%
in 2021 and has shown a trend of increasing consumption in 13 of the
past 15 years [7]. In 2022, Europe is confused by the energy crisis
blamed on the explosion of Nordstream pipelines, which further in­
dicates the significance of natural gas. In addition, compared with gas­
oline, natural gas is much more environmentally friendly [8] and
cheaper [9]. Compared with gasoline-fueled ICEs, the emissions of
natural gas-fueled ICEs exclude sulfide or lead, 80% CO, 60% HC and
70% NOx [10], and the fuel price of it also realizes a reduction of
exceeding 50% [11]. In addition, natural gas-fueled ICEs also can ach­
ieve excellent output power and thermal efficiency [12]. A modified

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: chwji@bjut.edu.cn (C. Ji).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2023.128121
Received 1 May 2023; Received in revised form 23 May 2023; Accepted 12 June 2023
Available online 13 June 2023
0360-5442/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
H. Meng et al.
Nomenclature
ABDC After bottom dead center
ATDC After top dead center
BBDC Before bottom dead center
BTDC Before top dead center
BTE Brake thermal efficiency
CAKI Crank angle of peak knock pressure
CA0-10 Duration in crank angle from ignition timing to 10% total
heat release
CA10-90 Duration in crank angle from 10% total heat release to
90% total heat release
CA50 The crank angle corresponding to 50% total heat release
diesel engine fueled by natural gas improves the power and brake spe­
cific fuel consumption [13]. Natural gas engines have also proven to
perform better than gasoline engines [14]. In particular, compared with
gasoline, methane with excellent diffusivity [15] is earlier to form the
homogeneous charge and gaseous state [16] avoids wet wall at the
narrow combustion chamber of WRE. Fan et al. carried out a series of
numerical investigations on natural gas-fueled WRE and found that
ignition strategy [17], injection strategy [18] and combustion chamber
design [19] have significant influences on the performance of natural
gas-fueled WRE.
Hydrogen is a renewable secondary energy [20], which is exceed­
ingly consistent with the idea of low carbon and is widely favored by
many countries and regions around the world [21]. Due to zero carbon
emission [22], short quenching distance [23], fast burning velocity [24]
and excellent diffusivity [25], the application of hydrogen as fuel in ICEs
is praised by researchers and companies. Today, hydrogen-fueled ICEs
can achieve a brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of over 45%, although this
is still lower than fuel cells and lithium batteries [26]. However,
considering its robust infrastructure and low modification costs, this
efficiency can also be satisfactorily recognized. In addition, due to the
characteristic of hydrogen, ICEs fueled by hydrogen will not be plagued
by carbon-relevant emission regulation [27]. In particular, the combi­
nation of WRE and hydrogen has been proven to be a good choice, which
can achieve similar power and efficiency levels to a gasoline-fueled
reciprocating piston engine [28]. The short quenching distance of
hydrogen [29] extremely avoids the quenching effect caused by the high
surface-to-volume ratio in WRE. The fast burning velocity of hydrogen
[30] is conducive to eliminating the combustion dead zone that exists in
fossil-fueled WRE. Besides, owing to its spatially independent four
strokes, WRE is not prone to occur backfire that easily occurs in
hydrogen-fueled reciprocating piston engines and seriously endangers
normal operation [31].
In general, both natural gas and hydrogen are satisfactory fuels for
ICEs. Scholars carried out some work to investigate the performance of
natural gas and hydrogen dual-fueled ICEs. Ouchikh et al. [32]
demonstrate that hydrogen enrichment can effectively improve the
combustion of natural gas and accelerate the heat release process. Ma
et al. [33] found that hydrogen enrichment can significantly extend lean
operation limitations. However, due to high combustion temperature
and short quenching distance, the cooling loss is responsible for the
reduction of thermal efficiency. Sierens et al. [34] concluded that in
natural-gas/hydrogen dual-fueled ICEs, the proportion of hydrogen in
fuel needs to exceed 10% for a significant improvement in efficiency and
it should be lower than 80% to guarantee non-backfire and non-knock
operation. Sagar et al. [35] also proved that natural gas enrichment
can effectively reduce the knock intensity of hydrogen-fueled ICEs. In
addition, blending hydrogen in natural gas will significantly reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. Hydrogen and natural gas can use their ad­
vantages to compensate for each other’s shortcomings to improve the
2
Energy 279 (2023) 128121
CH4% Volume fraction of methane in fuel
CO2 Carbon dioxide
ECU Electronic control unit
HC Hydrocarbon
ICEs Internal combustion engines
KI Knock intensity
MAP Manifold absolute pressure
MBT Maximum brake torque
NO Nitric oxide
NOx Nitrogen oxide
R2 Determination coefficient
WRE Wankel rotary engine
λ Excess air ratio
performance of ICEs. Previous relevant research almost conducted on
reciprocating piston engines, however, WRE has unique operating
modes (unidirectional flow field and flow field dominated flame prop­
agation [36]) and structure (high surface-to-volume ratio and elongated
combustion chamber), therefore, the application of natural gas and
hydrogen blended fuels in WRE is not yet known. In particular, WRE
fueled by methane or hydrogen can significantly avoid the poor com­
bustion and emission of liquid fossil-fueled WRE and WRE can greatly
compensate for the low power density when methane or hydrogen is
employed as the fuel. The most main component of natural gas is
methane, about 85%, which is a gaseous fuel of a simple molecule
structure [37] and has a similar laminar flame velocity to gasoline [38].
To obtain more accurate quantitative results, this work uses methane
instead of natural gas to research a methane-hydrogen dual-fueled WRE
to fill the research gap and provide theoretical guidance for its
application.
2. Experimental methodology and facilities
2.1. Methodology
The present work discusses the performance, heat-release process
and knock characteristics of the WRE fueled by mixed fuel with varied
methane-hydrogen ratios to comprehensively understand the charac­
teristics of methane/hydrogen dual-fueled WRE. CH4% is employed to
represent the volume proportion of methane in fuel. First, the test is
carried out at the maximum brake torque (MBT) ignition timing to
discuss the output power, brake thermal efficiency, cyclic variation and
HC, CO2 and NO emission of methane-hydrogen dual-fueled WRE at
different CH4%. Then, the test is carried out at the constant ignition
timing (− 9◦ CA after top dead center, ATDC) to investigate the effect of
CH4% on the heat-release process and knock characteristics. All tests are
conducted at the stoichiometric ratio, 1500 r/min and part load (80 kPa
manifold absolute pressure, MAP) and each case records 1000 consec­
utive cycles to ensure the reliability of data.
In this work, as mentioned above, knock will be discussed, which is
characterized by two knock-relevant parameters: knock intensity (KI)
and the crank angle of peak knock pressure (CAKI). Previous work has
proved that the knock level of ICEs can be expressed by filtering in-
cylinder pressure by suitable band-pass filtering [39]. The filtered
outcome is called knock pressure as shown in Fig. 2 of Meng et al. [40]
work. The peak knock pressure is defined as KI. In addition, according to
previous work, a band-pass filter with 3–20 kHz is employed in this work
[31].
2.2. Facilities
Mazda RX8 RENESIS, produced in 2002, is used as the tested engine,
the specification of which is displayed in Table 1. Due to its design for
H. Meng et al. Energy 279 (2023) 128121

Table 1 20. Oxygen sensor 21. Lambda analyzer 22. Mass flowmeter of Methane
Engine specifications. 23. Methane (comes from the container of Methane) a1. Data signals
Specification Value/Form from HECU to calibration computer a2. Control signals from calibration
computer to HECU b. Signals from sensors to HECU.
Number of rotors 2
Cooling method Water-cooled
Ignition source Spark plug 3. Results and discussion
Intake method Side-ported, natural aspiration
Exhaust method Side-ported
3.1. Power, efficiency and emissions
Generating radius/mm 105
Width of rotor/mm 80
Displacement/L 0.654L Fig. 2 shows the output power of hydrogen/methane-fueled WRE at
Compression ratio 10 varied CH4% under given conditions. It can be found that as the CH4% is
Eccentricity/mm 15 increased, the power is increased firstly and then decreased and the peak
Power output 121 kW/5500 rpm
power is obtained under high CH4% conditions, which can be explained
Intake timing/(◦ CA) 3◦ ATDC, 38◦ ABDC
Exhaust timing/(◦ CA) 80◦ BBDC, 3◦ BTDC by the following reasons: On the premise of stoichiometric ratio com­
bustion, it needs about 9.52 mol of air to achieve complete combustion
of 1 mol of methane while it only needs about 2.38 mol of air to achieve
gasoline operation, some preparations need to be completed to achieve complete combustion of 1 mol of hydrogen. Therefore, as the CH4% is
experimental purposes: (1) A simple methane supply system, which in­ increased, the volume of fuel is decreased. However, methane has a
cludes a high-pressure methane tank, pressure regulator, flow meter and higher specific-volume low heat value than hydrogen, about 3.35 times,
pipeline, is employed. In particular, methane is not injected into the the effect of which on power is larger than that of fuel quantity, hence,
intake manifold by the nozzle, but flows into the intake manifold with increasing CH4%, the power of hydrogen/methane-fueled WRE is
through pressure difference, meaning its supply is uninterrupted. The raised. However, thermal efficiency, which will be specifically discussed
flow rate of methane is controlled by self-developed software commu­ in Fig. 3, also plays an important role in power, which combined with
nicated with the flow meter. (2) Original gasoline supply system is total heat value results in lower power in pure methane mode compared
completely replaced by a self-designed hydrogen supply system, which to hydrogen/methane dual fuel mode. Within the test range, the
involves a hydrogen tank, pressure regulator, flow meter, flame arrestor maximum power is 12.4 kW when the CH4% is about 66%, which is
and nozzle. 99.99% purity hydrogen is injected into the intake manifold about 15.5% and 6.4% higher than pure hydrogen mode and pure
at a pressure of 5 bar and mixed with air and methane. (3) To accurately methane mode, respectively.
control ignition timing and hydrogen supply, an auxiliary-effect elec­ Fig. 3 illustrates the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of hydrogen/
tronic control unit (ECU) is developed, which intercepts the ignition and methane-fueled WRE at varied CH4% under given conditions. Similar
injection signals from the original ECU and outputs the required signals to the profile of power with CH4%, the BTE is also increased first and
to WRE. (4) The original trigger wheel with asymmetrical 36-2-2-2 gears then decreased. As the CH4% is 66%, the maximum BTE is achieved,
can not be recognized by the employed combustion analyzer, therefore, about 30.7%, which is about 23.2% and 2.0% higher than pure
a new trigger wheel with 24-1 gears is installed on the eccentric shaft. hydrogen mode and pure methane mode, respectively. The reasons are
(5) To detect the in-cylinder pressure signals, a pressure sensor is as follows: Compared with methane, hydrogen has a higher adiabatic
installed on the leading spark plug (compared with the pressure sensor flame temperature and shorter quenching distance, therefore, the cool­
installed on the trailing spark plug, one installed on the leading spark ing losses are reduced as the CH4% is increased. In particular, limited by
plug can more comprehensively monitor the combustion pressure). the high surface-to-volume ratio combustion chamber, WRE is more
In addition, to obtain the necessary parameters, such as engine confused by cooling loss than reciprocating piston engines. Besides,
speed/torque, hydrogen and methane volume flow rate, excess air ratio hydrogen has a smaller molecular structure and a higher diffusivity,
(λ), emission, in-cylinder pressure, etc., detailed facilitate with their which makes it more likely to escape from some crevices. WRE has a
uncertainty are shown in Table 2. Fig. 1a and b displays the schematic complex sealing system, which allows hydrogen to leak from the spark
diagram of the experimental system and detailed modifications of test plug hole, apex seals, side seals and corner seals. The above reasons
WRE, respectively. result in increased thermal efficiency as the CH4% is increased. How­
1. Air cleaner 2. Mass flow meter of air 3. Container of hydrogen 4. ever, compared with hydrogen, methane has a lower laminar flame
Pressure regulating valve of hydrogen 5. Pressure meter of hydrogen 6. velocity and larger quenching distance, which is prone to lead to lower
Hydrogen flow displayer 7. Mass flowmeter of hydrogen 8. Backfire combustion efficiency. Especially, due to unidirectional rotation, the
arrestor of hydrogen 9. Smart gas box 10. Injector of hydrogen 11. HECU direction of the in-cylinder flow field in WRE is constant, and the
(Hydrogen Electronic Control Unit) 12. Calibration computer 13. Kibox propagation of downwind flame is facilitated while the propagation of
14. Trailing spark plug 15. Leading spark plug 16. Charger amplifier 17. upwind flame is suppressed. It has been proven that the flame will not
Analog-digital converter 18. Exhaust sampling 19. Emissions analyzer travel backward even if in stoichiometric-combustion hydrogen-fueled
WRE under some conditions [36]. For the above reasons, hydrogen/­
methane dual-fueled WRE achieves higher BTE than pure hydrogen or
Table 2 pure methane WRE.
Experimentalfacilitates and their errors. Fig. 4 displays the NO emission of hydrogen/methane-fueled WRE at
Parameter Uncertainty Manufacturer Type varied CH4% under given conditions. In particular, the left-hand y-axis
Engine speed ≤±1 rpm Power link CAC6
adopts arithmetic coordinates while the right-hand y-axis adopts loga­
Torque ≤±0.4% F.S. Power link CAC6 rithmic coordinates. It can be concluded that methane can significantly
Hydrogen and ≤±0.02 L/min Seven star D07-60B reduce the NO emission of hydrogen-fueled WRE. When the CH4% is
methane volume increased from 0 to 100%, that is, the fuel of WRE is completely trans­
flow rate
formed from hydrogen to methane, the NO emissions are decreased from
Air volume flow rate ≤±0.1 L/min Tociel 20N060
Air-to-fuel ratio ≤±0.007 Horiba MEXA-730λ 3566 ppm to 316 ppm, reducing an order of one, which is caused by the
In-cylinder pressure ≤±0.3 bar Kistler 6117BFD17 following reasons: According to Zeldovich mechanism [41], the forma­
NO, CO2, HC Deviation: ≤±0.1% of Horiba MEXA- tion of NO is closely correlated to oxygen concentration and tempera­
emissions the measured value 7100DEGR ture. On the premise of stoichiometric ratio, the influence of oxygen
Sensitivity:1 ppm vol
concentration can be neglected. Due to the heat capacity of burning

3
H. Meng et al.
Fig. 1. The schematic diagram of the experimental system (a) and detailed modifications of WRE (b).
products, compared with hydrogen, methane has a lower adiabatic
flame temperature [38]. Besides, the slower burning velocity of methane
results in a longer combustion process, which means that the flame
propagation occurs at a bigger combustion chamber space, thus further
reducing the burning temperature. In particular, it can be found from
Fig. 4 that the NO emission and CH4% have an excellent linear rela­
tionship with a determination coefficient (R2) of 0.9949 in logarithmic
coordinate, which indicates that the NO emission at one CH4% can be
exactly forecasted to a large extent in the hydrogen/methane
dual-fueled WRE.
Fig. 5a–b shows the CO2 and HC emissions and specific emissions of
hydrogen/methane dual-fueled WRE at varied CH4% under given con­
ditions, respectively. It needs to be specially noted that the carbonous
emissions under pure hydrogen conditions come from the combustion of
lubricating oil. Both CO2 and HC are increased with a declined rate as
the CH4% is increased. It is easy to understand that the amount of C
element in charge is increased with the rise of CH4%, thus deteriorating
HC and CO2 emissions. In Fig. 5b when the CH4% is increased, both CO2
and HC emission per CH4% are gradually decreased, which is because
4
Energy 279 (2023) 128121
that on the one hand, due to the decreased combustion efficiency, partial
methane can not be burned under high CH4% conditions, therefore, the
specific emission is decreased when CH4% is increased; on the other
hand, as the CH4% is raised, the HC and CO2 coming from the com­
bustion of lubricating oil can be shared among more methane, leading to
lower specific emissions.
Fig. 6 shows the cyclic variation of peak in-cylinder pressure and
corresponding crank angle of 1000 consecutive cycles at varied CH4%. It
can be found from Fig. 6 that as the CH4% is increased, both cyclic
variations are slightly decreased first and then sharply increased.
Compared with pure hydrogen mode, the cyclic variation of peak in-
cylinder pressure and corresponding crank angle of which are 2.68%
and 2.63%, pure methane mode has a significantly high cyclic variation,
which is close to or even above 10%, which can be explained by the
following factors: WRE has an elongated combustion chamber and un­
even cylinder-body thermal load (consistent low-temperature intake
side and high-temperature combustion side), which make WRE, espe­
cially hydrogen-fueled WRE, susceptible to knock. Compared with
hydrogen, methane has a slower burning velocity and higher
H. Meng et al.
Fig. 2. The output power at varied CH4%.
Fig. 3. The brake thermal efficiency at varied CH4%.
Fig. 4. The NO emissions at varied CH4%.
5
Energy 279 (2023) 128121
autoignition and kindling temperatures, resulting in ICEs fueled by
methane being less prone to knock. However, the slow burning velocity
of methane causes a long combustion process and a high possibility of
variation. Besides, the flow field in the spark plug hole of WRE is weak,
which causes a poor gas exchange and thus a high residual gas coeffi­
cient. Methane has markedly narrow flammability limits [38] than
hydrogen, which leads to the ignition of methane-fueled WRE being
more unstable than hydrogen-fueled WRE, thus achieving a higher cy­
clic variation.
3.2. Heat release
Fig. 7 illustrates the average in-cylinder pressure (a) and corre­
sponding pressure rising rate (b) profiles at varied CH4% under constant
ignition timing. It can be concluded from Fig. 7a that with increasing
CH4%, the peak in-cylinder pressure is gradually increased and the
corresponding crank angle is retarded. When the fuel is completely
transformed from hydrogen to methane, the peak in-cylinder pressure is
reduced from about 32.14 bar to 16.22 bar, a relative reduction of about
50%, and the crank angle is retarded from 14.9◦ CA to 45.4◦ CA ATDC.
Although methane has a higher specific-volume heat value than
hydrogen, which is conducive to achieving high combustion pressure,
methane has a much slower burning velocity than hydrogen, which
greatly retards the combustion process and makes the combustion pro­
cess occur at a larger combustion chamber volume, thus resulting in low
combustion pressure. In addition, it also can be found from Fig. 7b that
as the CH4% is increased, in-cylinder pressure has a lower rate of
decline, which is mainly due to small cooling loss caused by low com­
bustion temperature and high heat capacity of combustion products.
To characterize the heat release process, CA0-10 (duration in crank
angle from ignition timing to 10% total heat release), CA50 (the crank
angle corresponding to 50% total heat release) and CA10-90 (duration in
crank angle from 10% total heat release to 90% total heat release) are
usually represented flame development period, combustion center and
flame propagation period, respectively. Fig. 8 illustrates the CA0-10 and
CA10-90 at varied CH4% in the bar graph and CA50 at varied CH4% in
the scatter diagram. Due to the burning velocity of methane being
slower than that of hydrogen, the heat release process is prolonged and
CA50 is retarded as CH4% is raised from 0 to 100%, therefore, the
ignition timing of each CH4% needs to be re-calibrated to achieve MBT.
In particular, although the laminar flame velocity of hydrogen is about 6
times that of methane, the CA0-90 of pure methane mode (72.8◦ CA) is
relatively 19.2% higher than that of pure hydrogen mode (about
53.6◦ CA), indicating that on the premise of the similar flow field,
compared with the burning velocity of fuel, the flow field velocity has a
more significant influence on the heat release process. In addition, with
increasing the CH4% from 0 to 100%, the percentage of CA0-10 in CA0-
90 (percentage in blue in Fig. 8) gradually increases from 21.3% to
40.6%, absolute and relative improvements of 19.3% and 90.6%,
respectively, while the CA10-90 has a slight change, indicating that
compared with flame propagation, flame development of hydrogen/
methane dual-fueled WRE is more prone to be affected by fuel compo­
nents. Besides, although the in-cylinder pressure of 66% CH4% is not
like the MBT in-cylinder pressure, it has been proved that the MBT CA50
usually locates between 35 and 40◦ CA ATDC [42] due to maximum
combustion pressure power capacity at 135◦ CA ATDC caused by struc­
tural characteristic [43].
3.3. Knock characteristics
Fig. 9 illustrates the KI representing the strength of knock level at
varied CH4% under constant ignition timing. It can be found from Fig. 9
that with the rise of CH4%, the mean value of KI is gradually decreased
and the distribution of KI becomes more concentrated. Compared with
gasoline-fueled ICEs, due to the extremely fast burning velocity of
hydrogen, hydrogen-fueled ICEs have two types of knocks [44]. One is
H. Meng et al. Energy 279 (2023) 128121

Fig. 5. The CO2 and HC emissions (a) and specific emissions (b) at varied CH4%.

Fig. 6. The cyclic variation at varied CH4%.

Fig. 8. CA0-10, CA50 and CA10-90 at varied CH4%.

Fig. 7. The profiles of in-cylinder pressure (a) and pressure rising rate (b) at varied CH4%.

6
H. Meng et al.
Fig. 9. The knock intensity at varied CH4%.
caused by the spontaneous combustion of end gas like with the knock in
gasoline-fueled ICEs and the other one is caused by the rapid and un­
stable combustion of the main flame. The KI of the former mainly relates
to the amount of auto-ignition end gas while the KI of the latter mainly
relates to the flame velocity. Compared with hydrogen, methane has a
higher autoignition temperature, slower burning velocity and lower
burning temperature. With the increase of CH4%, even if the end gas is
constantly compressed by the main flame and its temperature and
pressure are increased, the higher auto-ignition temperature of charge is
much less prone to knock under a lower temperature condition. In
addition, as the CH4% is increased, the reduced burning velocity of the
charge leads to a low possibility of the knock caused by rapid combus­
tion. When the fuel is completely transformed from hydrogen to
methane, the mean value of KI is decreased from about 0.32 bar to 0.02
bar. In addition, it also can be found that when the CH4% is higher than
36.37%, the KI will no longer have apparent changes, as the knock is
almost disappeared, which will be demonstrated in Fig. 10.
Fig. 10 shows the CAKI of 1000 consecutive cycles at varied CH4%
under given conditions. In particular, the calculation window is selected
as the crank angle from − 40◦ CA to 100◦ CA ATDC, therefore, there is
non-data exceeding this range. It can be concluded from Fig. 10 that the
relationship between the mean value of CAKI and CH4% is not signifi­
cant while the distribution of CAKI is gradually dispersed. As demon­
strated by previous work [45], the cyclic variation of CAKI can be
employed to qualitatively determine the occurrence of knock. A lower
cyclic variation means a high-frequency occurrence of the knock while a
high cyclic variation means a low-frequency occurrence of the knock
and even non-knock. As the hydrogen is gradually replaced by methane,
the knock is less likely to occur, thus resulting in a dispersed distribution
of CAKI. According to the presented data in Figs. 9 and 10, knock can be
neglected when the CH4% exceeds 40% under test conditions.
4. Conclusions
The present work discusses the performance of a hydrogen/methane
dual-fueled Wankel rotary engine (WRE) with varied fuel components.
The test was conducted at 1500 r/min, part load (80 kPa MAP) and
stoichiometric ratio. The volume ratio of methane in fuel is named
CH4% for convenience. The main conclusions are as follows:
1. CH4% has an obvious effect on power, efficiency, emission, etc.
Within the test range, both the maximum power and brake thermal
efficiency are obtained at 66% CH4%, which are 12.4 kW and 30.7%,
7
Energy 279 (2023) 128121
Fig. 10. The crank angle of peak knock pressure at varied CH4%.
respectively. NO emission is negatively related to CH4% while CO2
and HC emissions are positively related to CH4%. In particular, there
is a linear relationship between NO emission and CH4% with a
0.9949 determination coefficient in logarithmic coordinates, which
means that the NO emission can be easily predicted. In addition, the
minimum cyclic variation is achieved under low CH4% (not zero)
conditions, and when the CH4% exceeds about 40%, there is a sig­
nificant increase in cyclic variation.
2. CH4% also has impacts on the heat release process and knock
characteristics of WRE. When the CH4% is increased from 0 to 100%,
the peak in-cylinder pressure is reduced from 32.14 bar to 16.22 bar,
a relative reduction of about 50%, and the corresponding crank is
retarded from 14.9◦ CA to 45.4◦ CA ATDC. In particular, CH4% has a
more significant impact on CA0-10 than CA10-90. In addition, as the
CH4% is increased from 0 to 100%, the mean knock intensity is
decreased from 0.32 bar to 0.02 bar. According to the knock intensity
and crank angle of peak knock pressure, under test conditions, the
knock can be considered as not occurring when the CH4% exceeds
40%.
In general, compared to pure hydrogen or pure methane WRE,
hydrogen/methane dual-fueled WRE can achieve better performance.
Due to the structural features of WRE and physicochemical properties of
hydrogen and methane, hydrogen/methane dual-fueled WRE is recom­
mended to operate at high CH4%, that is, methane as the main fuel and
hydrogen as the auxiliary fuel. More investigation, such as excess air
ratio, engine speed and load, fuel injection and coupling effect, will be
conducted in the future to more comprehensively discuss the potential of
methane-hydrogen dual-fueled WRE.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
H. Meng et al.
of China (52276097 and 51976003).
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