Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Visualization study on ammonia/diesel dual direct injection combustion

characteristics and interaction between sprays
Jiangping Tian a, Xiaolei Zhang a, Zechuan Cui a, Mingyuan Ye a, Yang Wang b, Tiancheng Xu a,
Pengbo Dong a, *
a
Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
b
College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Dalian Minzu University, Dalian 116024, China

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

Keywords: Ammonia is regarded as a highly promising green fuel. Nevertheless, its auto-ignition temperature is excep­
Ammonia tionally elevated, posing challenges for its direct utilization in compression ignition engines. Using highly active
Diesel fuel as the ignition source seems a solution. In this paper, based on the RCEM experimental platform, the diesel/
RCEM
ammonia diffusion combustion mode was studied in detail. The experimental parameters included the ammonia
Visualization
injection pressure, ammonia and diesel injection interval (including ammonia in advance of diesel and diesel in
Spray interaction
advance of ammonia), diesel injection pressure, and ammonia nozzle diameter. The results indicated that
injecting ammonia on diesel flame contributed to the completeness of ammonia combustion. Injecting ammonia
before diesel achieved a higher peak heat release rate but aggravated the incomplete combustion. The injection
pressure of diesel had no significant impact on the combustion effect of ammonia. Increasing the ammonia in­
jection pressure resulted in enhanced air entrainment, consequently enhancing the effective combination of fuel
with air, which improved the peak heat release rate more effectively. Increasing the diameter of the ammonia
nozzle was a necessary way to achieve a high ammonia energy substitution ratio, but a large amount of ammonia
sprayed simultaneously caused a portion of the ammonia to not burn in time, resulting in aggravation of
incomplete combustion. In addition, the interaction between diesel spray and ammonia spray was also studied.
The results showed that, due to the higher quantity of ammonia compared to diesel, the two sprays would gather
and develop toward the direction of ammonia injection roughly, and the final development direction of the spray
was also related to the fuel injection pressure.

1. Introduction detrimentally impacting the ecosystem, human health, and economic

As a power machine relying on fossil fuels, the internal combustion
engine has greatly facilitated people’s lives and promoted social prog­
ress. Nevertheless, the extensive reliance on fossil fuels has compelled
society to confront the issue of energy shortage. In addition, the large-
scale use of fossil fuels has resulted in the large emission of CO2,
which is a greenhouse gas and has a serious harmful effect on the
climate. The CO2 and other pollutions such as soot, and HC are
development. Therefore, the change and transformation of the internal
combustion engine is urgent. An effective way to solve both energy
shortage and pollution is the adoption of clean alternative fuels. At­
tempts have been made on low-carbon fuels such as methane [1–2],
methanol [3–4], and dimethyl [5–6] ether as yet. As emission regula­
tions become more strict, researchers are trying to explore carbon-free
fuels, such as hydrogen and ammonia, to further reduce carbon emis­
sions. Hydrogen has an extremely high flame velocity and requires less

Abbreviations: ASOI, After the start of diesel injection; ASOI2, After the start of ammonia injection; BDC, Bottom dead center; CI, Compression ignition engine;
CVB, Constant volume bomb; CA10, The duration from the start of diesel injection to the accumulation of 10% heat release; CA50, The duration from the start of
diesel injection to the accumulation of 50% heat release; CA90, The duration from the start of diesel injection to the accumulation of 90% heat release; da, Diameter
of the nozzle nozzle; db, Bore; dd, Diameter of the diesel nozzle; dv, Visible range; HPDF, High-pressure dual fuel; HRR, Heat release rate; LHV, Lower heat value; m,
Fuel mass; p, Cylinder pressure; pin, Air intake pressure; ptdc, Pressure at TDC; RCEM, Rapid compression and expansion machine; td, Diesel injection time; TDC, Top
dead center; Ttdc, Mean temperature at TDC; T0, Air temperature in heater; V, Cylinder volume; vr, Speed; θ, Crank angle; γ, Adiabatic coefficient.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: pengbo.dong@dlut.edu.cn (P. Dong).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2023.117857
Received 23 September 2023; Received in revised form 26 October 2023; Accepted 3 November 2023
Available online 10 November 2023
0196-8904/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
J. Tian et al.
minimum ignition energy, but its storage and transport are dangerous
[7]. The high cost has been a constraint to its development. In contrast,
ammonia is easily producible, globally employed on a large scale as a
fertilizer, and benefits from a mature, cost-effective production process
[8]. Ammonia is also conveniently storable in liquid form at room
temperature at a pressure of 1.0 MPa. Furthermore, it is chemically
inactive, making it not easy to explode in storage, transportation, and
use [9]. As fuel, ammonia has a high octane number resulting in a good
resistance to explosion in engine and it has a higher energy density than
hydrogen [10]. However, although ammonia has some potential as a
fuel for internal combustion engines, its poor combustion characteristics
including low flame velocity, high auto-ignition temperature, high
minimum required ignition energy, and narrow combustion limits limit
its application [11]. In addition, although there are no carbon emissions
from ammonia combustion, NOx and unburned ammonia emissions also
require attention [12].
The compression ignition engine (CI) may be suitable to utilize
ammonia, especially marine engines due to the high compression ratio
[7,12,13]. The research on the application of ammonia in CI can be
traced back to the 1960s. Gray et al. [14] believed that a compression
ratio of up to 35:1 is required to ensure successful ignition in CI with
direct injection of NH3. Both Garabedian’s [15] and Starkman’s [16]
studies have confirmed that it is difficult to use only ammonia as a single
fuel in compression ignition engines. Therefore, using other fuels as pilot
fuels to ignite ammonia in CI is a feasible approach. Researchers have
found that diesel, kerosene, and dimethyl ether can effectively promote
the combustion of ammonia [17–19]. Reiter et al. [20] study the emis­
sions of ammonia/diesel compression ignition engines. The results
indicate that NOx emissions may decrease due to lower combustion
flame temperatures, but hydrocarbon (HC) emissions worsen and un­
burned ammonia needs to be treated. Kong et al. [21] mix liquid
ammonia with dimethyl ether for in cylinder direct injection. The results
indicate that the addition of ammonia will extend the ignition delay
period, reduce combustion pressure and temperature, and lead to an
increase in CO and HC emissions. Additionally, due to the formation of
fuel type NOx, NOx emissions also increase. They believe that increasing
the injection pressure contributes to mixing fuel and air, thereby
improving combustion efficiency, and achieving higher engine loads.
Boretti [22] conducts experiments on a turbocharged direct injection
engine and finds that using diesel injection ignition with intake port/
direct injection ammonia or jet ignition with gasoline mixture (gasoline,
CH4, C3H8, H2) combined with intake port/direct injection ammonia is
the most suitable method. Zhu et al. [23] investigate the effects of diesel
injection start timing on the combustion performance and emissions of
ammonia/diesel dual fuel compression ignition engines. The results
indicate that optimizing the injection timing can achieve lower emis­
sions while maintaining higher efficiency.
Most of the above studies have demonstrated that ammonia has the
advantage of reducing emissions, but the combustion performance of the
engine deteriorates. One of the reasons is that in the ammonia premixed
combustion mode, the flame propagation velocity of ammonia is low.
Therefore, high-activity fuels such as methane, hydrogen, and DME may
need to be added to the ammonia to improve the combustion rate
[24–27], but that potentially resulted in a more complex structure for
the ammonia engine, thereby leading to a corresponding increase in
costs.
Unlike the premixed combustion mode, the combustion rate of
diffusion combustion is highly correlated with the mixing rate of fuel
and air, compensating for the disadvantage of low flame propagation of
ammonia. At present, although research on diesel injection ignition of
direct injection ammonia is little, the results indicate that the high-
pressure dual fuel (HPDF) mode has a certain application potential.
Valentin Scharl et al. [28] have studied the ignition and combustion
characteristics of diesel pilot ammonia spray under engine-related
conditions in HPDF mode in a rapid compression and expansion ma­
chine (RCEM). The results show that injecting diesel first can avoid
2
Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857
ignition failure. Convergence diesel fuel and ammonia spray can
enhance the strong interaction between the two fuels, and then com­
bined with the strategy of injecting diesel fuel first can achieve the
highest ammonia combustion efficiency. Subsequently, they find that
the flame of the ammonia spray can not be stabilized at a fixed position
from the nozzle during combustion due to a low temperature zone near
the nozzle caused by the extremely high latent heat of ammonia
vaporization [29]. Li et al. [30] establish a numerical model of a dual
fuel engine using a commercial low-speed marine diesel engine as a
prototype, with two combustion modes of diesel pilot ignition premixed
ammonia and high-pressure direct injection ammonia. The results
indicate that both modes can achieve an indicated thermal efficiency of
over 50%. The optimized ammonia premixing mode can increase the
indicated thermal efficiency due to a significant reduction in cooling
loss, but compared to the pure diesel mode, the NOx emissions increase
by 140.6%. Liu et al. [31] explore a potential new type of ammonia
diesel stratified injection technology through numerical simulation
research. This technology achieves alternating injection of diesel and
ammonia through the use of an injector, which can accurately transport
ammonia to the combustion zone of the pilot fuel. The simulation results
show that this technology can increase the energy proportion of
ammonia fuel to 99%, greatly reducing CO2 emissions. And due to the
endothermic effect of ammonia evaporation, NOx emissions can meet
Tier III emission standards at 100% load without any post-treatment.
They subsequently explore ammonia diesel stratified injection on low-
speed marine engines [32], and the simulation results showed that
due to the precise delivery of ammonia to the pilot fuel combustion zone
and the higher mixing rate of ammonia and air, fast and full combustion
can be achieved. Zhang et al. [33] conduct an experimental and simu­
lation study on the combustion and emission characteristics of an
ammonia/diesel low-speed two-stroke engine with direct injection dual
fuel stratified mode. The results indicate that due to the extremely fast
evaporation rate of ammonia, the diffusion combustion of duel fuel has a
higher heat release rate. In addition, the interaction between the sprays
and the strong turbulence in the cylinder have significantly improved
the combustion and emission characteristics.
In summary, the above studies demonstrate that the HPDF mode is a
feasible method in CI engines, and the spatial arrangement and injection
timing of ammonia and diesel spray have significant effects. However,
there is currently little research on the spatial layout of diesel and
ammonia injectors in the combustion chamber and injection strategies
in HPDF mode. In addition, for the HPDF mode, after the two fuels are
injected, the sprays will contact, collide, and interact. The spray char­
acteristics are the direct factors that affect the subsequent combustion
characteristics, and the change of spray path will inevitably change the
combustion region. Therefore, exploring the interaction between the
sprays will contribute to the development and design of dual fuel in­
ternal combustion engine. The current studies on ammonia spray are
still limited and most of them are conducted at an ammonia injection
pressure within 10 MPa [34–36], which is far from the high-pressure
direct injection condition. In addition to the mentioned study by
Scharl et al [28–29], there is a lack of research on the interaction be­
tween ammonia and diesel sprays and its impact on combustion char­
acteristics. This paper conducted a visualization study on the
combustion process of the HPDF mode based on the RCEM experimental
platform, with a focus on exploring the impact of injection strategies.
The interaction between diesel spray and ammonia spray was also
studied experimentally based on the constant volume bomb (CVB) for
the first time.
2. Experimental setup
2.1. Experiment bench
Fig. 1 shows the schematic of the RCEM experimental platform. The
RCEM was modified from a single cylinder diesel engine. The original
J. Tian et al. Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857

Fig. 1. Schematic of RCEM experimental platform.

diesel engine is a 4-stroke with a bore of 135 mm and the geometric
compression ratio is about 17.5. After modification, the cylinder head
could install glass, providing a visible range of 90 mm but the geometric
compression ratio decreased to about 7.6. To ensure sufficient
compression pressure and temperature for the RCEM at the top dead
center (TDC), the air would be pressured and then heated by a heater
before entering the cylinder. The heater was connected to the cylinder
by an electro-pneumatic valve and the cylinder was connected to the
exhaust pipe by the other electro-pneumatic valve. In the experiment,
the inlet electro-pneumatic valve was normally open and the exhaust
electro-pneumatic valve was normally closed. At the bottom dead center
(BDC), the inlet electro-pneumatic valve would be closed, so that the
cylinder became a closed system. As the piston continued to move, fuels
would be injected before TDC. The RCEM was driven by an electric
motor. The speed of the RCEM needed to be matched with the electro-
pneumatic valve, this was because the opening and closing of the
valve required a certain response and action time, so it could not be set
too high. After testing, the 270 RPM could achieve a stable working
condition. Therefore, in this paper, the speed of RCEM was set at 270
RPM. Table 1 summarizes the important details of the RCEM in the
experiment. It was notable that the diesel injection time is advanced to
− 8◦ CA rather than closer to the TDC. This was due to that the
compression of the gas in the cylinder occasionally resulted in a slight
change in speed as the piston moved nearer to the TDC, which might
have an impact in the combustion experiments. The pressure and tem­
perature in the heater were indicated by a digital pressure gauge and a
K-type thermocouple respectively. The electromagnetic pneumatic ball
valves were used to control the flow of compressed air to control the
intake and exhaust processes. The layout diagram of the injectors is
shown in Fig. 2. The horizontal injector was a diesel injector and the
ammonia injector was installed diagonally. The angle between the axes
of the two types of injectors was 60◦ and 120◦ . The process of the com­
bustion of the diesel and ammonia would be recorded by a high-speed
camera, with the frame rate configured at 10,000 fps. A 6054BR pres­
sure sensor was used to record the transient pressure at an interval of
0.2◦ CA.
Fig. 3 shows the schematic of the spray visualization platform, which
was used to study the spray characteristics and the interaction between
the sprays of diesel and ammonia. The CVB had four runway-shaped

Table 1
Some details of the RCEM.
Variable Value

Air temperature in heater (T0/ K) 500 ± 3

Air intake pressure (pin/ bar) 3.6
Mean temperature at TDC (Ttdc/ K) 855
Pressure at TDC (ptdc/bar) 28
Diesel injection time (td/◦ CA ATDC) − 8
Geometric compression ratio 7.6
Speed (vr/RPM) 270
Bore (db/mm) 135
Visible range (dv/mm) 90
Fig. 2. Fuel injector arrangement.

3
J. Tian et al. Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857

Fig. 3. Schematic of CVB experimental platform.

windows on the side with a length of 220 mm and a width of 90 mm,

which made it possible to observe the development of the spray
throughout the entire recording process with the high-speed camera.
The backlighting method was used to illuminate the spray. The devel­
opment of the spray was recorded by the camera with a frame rate of
20,000 fps. The experimental temperature was room temperature and a
digital pressure gauge was used to measure the ambient pressure.
In all experiments, the times of diesel injection and ammonia injec­
tion could be set. The diesel injection, camera shooting, and transient
pressure collection signal were triggered simultaneously. In all experi­
ments, each condition was repeated at least three times. The un­
certainties of each equipment are shown in Table 2.

2.2. Fuel injection

In the experiments of RCEM, the diameter of the diesel nozzle (dd)

was 0.12 mm. The diameter of the ammonia nozzle (da) was 0.21 mm
and 0.32 mm. The amount of diesel injection with different pulse widths
and injection pressures and the amount of ammonia injection with
different injection pulse widths, injection pressures, and nozzle di­
Fig. 4. Diesel injection mass with different injection pressures (40–80 MPa).
ameters were measured. Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 show the measurement results.
By fitting the curve, the injection amount of the fuel under different
injection pulse widths could be calculated to acquire the energy ratio of injection and ammonia injection, and the diameter of the ammonia
ammonia and diesel. nozzle are listed in Table 3.
The ammonia energy ratio is defined as Eq. (1):

2.3. Experimental parameters Ammonia energy ratio =

mammonia LHV ammonia
(1)
mammonia LHV ammonia + mdiesel LHV diesel
In this paper, the experimental parameters including the injection
pressures of the diesel and ammonia, the interval between the diesel In Eq. (1), m is the mass, and LHV is the lower heating value.
In addition, the experimental parameters of the interaction between
the diesel and ammonia sprays are listed in Table 4. The dd and da were
Table 2
kept unchanged at 0.12 mm and 0.21 mm, respectively.
Main experimental equipment measurement uncertainty.
Variable Value

Digital pressure gauge ±0.4 2.4. Processing methods

K-type thermocouple ±0.75
Pressure transducer ±1 The cylinder pressure signal is stored as a voltage, which is multi­
Charge amplifier
plied by a pressure/voltage conversion factor and subsequently cor
±0.3

4
J. Tian et al. Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857

Fig. 5. Ammonia injection mass with different injection pressures (65–85 MPa) and different nozzle diameters (0.21 mm, 0.32 mm).

Table 3
Experimental parameters in RCEM bench.
Number Diesel injection Diesel injection pulse Ammonia nozzle Ammonia injection Ammonia injection Injection Ammonia energy
pressure width (ms) diameter pressure pulse width interval ratio
(MPa) (da/mm) (MPa) (ms) (◦ CA)

1 40 2.89 0.21 65 3.77 1.0 39%

2 40 2.89 0.21 75 3.55 1.0 39%
3 40 2.89 0.21 85 3.28 1.0 39%
4 40 2.89 0.21 85 3.28 − 1.8 39%
5 40 2.89 0.21 85 3.28 0 39%
6 40 2.89 0.21 85 3.28 1.8 39%
7 40 2.89 0.21 85 3.28 2.6 39%
8 40 2.89 0.21 85 1.48 1.0 57.4%
9 40 2.89 – – – – –
10 60 2.24 0.21 85 1.48 1.0 57.4%
11 60 2.24 – – – – –
12 80 1.77 0.21 85 1.48 1.0 57.4%
13 80 1.77 – – – – –
14 40 2.89 0.32 65 1.90 1.0 39%

3. Results and discussion

Table 4
Experimental parameters in RCEM bench.
3.1. Comparison of two modes
Number Diesel injection Ammonia injection Injection
pressure (MPa) pressure (MPa) interval
The angle between ammonia and diesel was first selected as 120◦ CA.
(ms)
Diesel was injected from left to right, while ammonia was injected from
1 40 – – top right to bottom left, which could cause the fuel to collide with each
2 – 80 –
3 40 80 1
other. It might be beneficial for the combination of ammonia and diesel,
4 80 80 1 thereby improving the combustion of ammonia. Fig. 6 shows the com­
bustion processes of HPDF mode and pure diesel mode. Under the HPDF
mode, the injection pressure of diesel was 60 MPa and that of ammonia
rected for the 0-point to obtain the true cylinder pressure. The heat was 75 MPa, abbreviated as D60-A75. The diesel injection pulse width
release rate (HRR) could be calculated by Eq. (2): was 0.4 ms and the ammonia injection pulse width was 3.9 ms. For the
γ dV 1 dp pure diesel mode, the diesel injection pressure was 60 MPa, abbreviated
HRR = p + V (2) as D60 (these abbreviations would also be used in the following). The
γ − 1 dθ γ − 1 dθ
diesel injection pulse width was 4.9 ms. The time of the start of diesel
Where p is the cylinder pressure, V is the cylinder volume, θ is the injection was defined as 0 ms ASOI in this paper. Due to the advance of
crank angle, and γ represents the adiabatic coefficient. diesel injection compared to ammonia injection under the HPDF mode,
The heat release in this paper was obtained by integrating HRR the ignition process of diesel under the HPDF mode was the same as that
during the period from the beginning of a significant increase in HRR to under the pure diesel mode. The diesel started to burn around 1.5 ms
the end of a decrease to 0. It was notable that the heat release presented ASOI and exhibited a blue flame due to premixed combustion. In pure
here did not represent the actual heat release value, which could not be diesel mode, the subsequent diesel was injected on the flame, and the
directly used to calculate the combustion efficiency, but it could reflect combustion changed from premixed combustion to diffusion combus­
the degree of the combustion completeness under different conditions. tion. At that time, due to the large amount of soot generated, the sub­
sequent flame was very bright and the image was overexposed. For the

5
J. Tian et al. Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857

Fig. 6. Images of combustion processes of the HPDF mode (D60-A75) and pure diesel mode (D60).

HPDF mode, the diesel injection duration was short and did not exhibit a
bright yellow-white flame. The ammonia burned after being injected on
the diesel flame and then spread downwards, exhibiting a yellow flame.
Fig. 7 shows the outline of the flame at 3.5–4.5 ms ASOI, with the
blue dashes showing the ammonia injector axis. The flame area on the
upper left side of the axis, i.e., the green dashed area, gradually
decreased as the diesel flame developed and passed through the axis.
The ammonia flame was mainly present on the lower left side of the axis.
Although the ammonia continued to be injected, the area of the
ammonia flame continued to decrease, and at 4.5 ms ASOI, only the
ammonia flame near the wall remained unextinguished.
Overall, that was because the amount of diesel injection was rela­
tively small, and the diesel flame developed from left to right, not always
remaining in the injection path of ammonia. The subsequent injection of
ammonia could not contact with the diesel flame after the diesel flame
passed through the axis, so the subsequent ammonia could not be
ignited, leading to a significant increase in unburned ammonia emis­
sions. Therefore, under the current injector arrangement, the ammonia
flame could not sustain itself and could only rely on the high-energy
diesel flame. To avoid this issue, the experimental conditions in the
Fig. 8. Images of combustion processes of the HPDF mode (D40-A85) in
following have extended the diesel injection duration which extended
four tests.
the flame maintenance time of high-energy diesel to promote the com­
bustion of ammonia. In addition, considering that the diesel flame
and had a good consistency.
developed from left to right, in order to improve the entrainment and
mixing times of diesel flame and ammonia spray, the injection direction
3.2. Effects of ammonia injection pressure
of ammonia was adjusted (the angle of the ammonia and the diesel was
changed from 120◦ to 60◦ ) in the following experiments, so that the
Fig. 11 shows the combustion process under different ammonia in­
diesel spray, ammonia spray, and combustion flame spread in the same
jection pressures. The combustion process was roughly similar but as the
direction. Furthermore, the same propagation direction might also cause
ammonia injection pressure increased, the injection rate of ammonia
a portion of unburned ammonia to be ignited by subsequent diesel
increased, which also accelerated the propagation of the flame. At 2.7
flame, thereby achieving more complete ammonia combustion.
ms ASOI, the ammonia flame had not propagated to the cylinder wall
Fig. 8 shows the combustion process of four tests with an angle of
with the ammonia injection pressure of 65 MPa, while the flame have
60◦ , diesel injection pressure of 40 MPa, dd of 0.12 mm, ammonia in­
already touched the wall when the ammonia injection pressure
jection pressure of 85 MPa, and da of 0.21 mm. Fig. 9 shows the pressure,
increased to 85 MPa.
HRR, and combustion phases of the four tests. CA10, CA50, and CA90
Fig. 12 (a) shows the pressure and heat release rate changes under
represented the duration from the start of diesel injection to the accu­
different ammonia injection pressures. As the injection pressure
mulation of 10%, 50%, and 90% heat release. Fig. 10 shows the com­
increased, the pressure change was not significant but the overall heat
parison of the heat releases of four tests. It could be seen that the
release rate increased. Fig. 12 (b) shows the times of CA10, CA50, and
combustion characteristics of these four tests were basically consistent
CA90. Under the three injection pressures, the times of CA10, CA50, and

Fig. 7. Images of the combustion process of the HPDF mode (D60-A75) at three moments.

6
J. Tian et al.
Fig. 9. Pressure and heat release rate (a) and combustion phase (b) of the HPDF mode (D40-A85) in four tests.
Fig. 10. Heat release of the HPDF mode (D40-A85) in four tests.
CA90 were similar. Fig. 13 shows the comparison of heat release.
Although the total heating value of the fuel was the same, an increase in
injection pressure would increase the heat release, indicating more
complete combustion.
In summary, when maintaining the same amount of ammonia in­
jection, increasing the ammonia injection pressure would increase the
ammonia injection rate. More ammonia contacted the diesel flame and
Fig. 11. Images of the combustion processes with different ammonia injection pressures (65–85 MPa).
7
Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857
burned per unit time, so the combustion heat release increased. Due to
the increase in the ammonia injection rate, the total injection duration
decreased, the combustion duration also shortened, and the combustion
phases were advanced. In addition, due to the longer duration of
ammonia injection at lower injection pressure, such as 40 MPa,
ammonia was still injected at 5.1 ms ASOI when the diesel flame was
about to extinguish. That led to poor combustion of ammonia at the end
of injection at low injection pressure, resulting in a lower heat release
and incomplete combustion, inevitably leading to an increase in un­
burned ammonia emissions.
3.3. Effects of injection interval
For the HPDF mode, the injection interval plays a crucial role in
combustion characteristics. In order to investigate the effect of injection
interval, the ammonia injection time was changed, maintaining the fuel
injection amount and the diesel injection time unchanged. Firstly, the
effects of injection interval on the combustion characteristics were
compared when ammonia was injected after diesel injection.
Fig. 14 shows the flame development at 1◦ CA, 1.8◦ CA, and 2.6◦ CA
intervals. At the 1◦ CA interval, the diesel and ammonia have been
injected at 5.1 ms ASOI. However, at the 1.8◦ CA and 2.6◦ CA intervals,
the ammonia was still injected but not on the bright flame at 5.1 ms
ASOI.
Fig. 15 (a) shows the pressure and heat release rate changes at in­
tervals of 1◦ CA, 1.8◦ CA, and 2.6◦ CA. When the ammonia injection
delayed, the peak pressure had a little decrease, but there was a
J. Tian et al.
Fig. 12. Pressure and heat release rate (a) and combustion phase (b) with different ammonia injection pressures (65–85 MPa).
Fig. 13. Heat release with different ammonia injection pressures (65–85 MPa).
Fig. 14. Images of the combustion processes with different injection in­
tervals (1–2.6◦ CA).
significant difference in the time of the peak heat release rate. As the
injection interval increased from 1◦ CA to 1.8◦ CA and then 2.6◦ CA, the
peak time delayed from − 5◦ CA ATDC to − 3.8◦ CA ATDC and then − 3.4◦
CA ATDC. Fig. 15 (b) shows the comparison of the times of CA10, CA50,
and CA90. As the injection interval decreased, the times of CA50 and
CA90 significantly advanced, and the time of CA10 also slightly
advanced. As shown in Fig. 16, the heat release increased slightly with a
decrease in injection interval.
In conclusion, when maintaining the same fuel amount and injection
pressure, shortening the injection interval between ammonia and diesel
would result in a faster heat release and more complete combustion.
8
Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857
That was because the larger the injection interval, the later the ammonia
was injected on the diesel flame, which delayed the release of heat
during combustion, resulting in a lag in the combustion phase. As
described above, at the 1.8◦ CA and 2.6◦ CA intervals, the ammonia
could not be injected on the flame completely. As the ammonia was
injected later, more ammonia could not be injected on the flame,
resulting in a large amount of unburned ammonia.
To sum up, only by injecting ammonia on the diesel flame as far as
possible could ammonia be fully burned and a better combustion effect
obtained. It was noted that under the small injection interval, the flame
propagated downward to the right with the direction of ammonia spray
as shown at 4 ms ASOI. And at the 2.6◦ CA interval, although the diesel
flame could cross the center of the cylinder and develop to the right, it
was blocked when the ammonia spray contacted. At 298 K, the density
of liquid ammonia is 602.8 kg/m3 and the density of diesel is 838.8 kg/
m3 [7]. It was speculated that because of the large amount and mo­
mentum of ammonia spray, the interaction between ammonia and diesel
spray would drive the diesel spray to move together with the ammonia
spray, so the sprays and flame developed downward.
The above was a comparison of injection intervals with ammonia
injection after the diesel, and the following was a comparison of injec­
tion intervals with ammonia injection before the diesel, keeping all
other conditions constant.
Fig. 17 shows the flame development processes with intervals of 1◦
CA, 0◦ CA, and − 1.8◦ CA. With the intervals of 0◦ CA and − 1.8◦ CA,
ammonia had been injected before the diesel burned. After the diesel
burned, the flame could propagate downward along the ammonia spray
quickly. Therefore, at 2.1 ms ASOI, the flame has already propagated to
the wall with intervals of 0◦ CA and − 1.8◦ CA.
Fig. 18 (a) shows the pressure and heat release rate changes at in­
tervals of 1◦ CA, 0◦ CA, and − 1.8◦ CA. As the time of ammonia injection
advanced gradually from after diesel injection (interval of 1◦ CA) to
simultaneous injection with diesel (0◦ CA) and then before diesel in­
jection (interval of − 1.8◦ CA), the pressure decreased obviously from
3.53 MPa to 3.47 MPa and then 3.37 MPa but the peak heat release rate
increased obviously from 171.7 J/◦ CA to 185.8 J/◦ CA and then 211.6
J/◦ CA. As shown in Fig. 18 (b), with the interval of 1.0◦ CA, the duration
of CA10-50 and the duration of CA50-90 were similar. However, as the
injection interval changed to − 1.8◦ CA, the duration of CA10-50 was
much shorter than the duration of CA50-90. Fig. 19 shows the heat
release at the three injection intervals. As the time of ammonia injection
advanced, the heat release decreased.
In summary, injecting ammonia before the diesel could form a
partially combustible mixture with the air in the cylinder. This part of
the premixed gas would burn quickly when it contacted with the flame,
J. Tian et al.
Fig. 15. Pressure and heat release rate (a) and combustion phase (b) with different injection intervals (1–2.6◦ CA).
Fig. 16. Heat release with different injection intervals (1–2.6◦ CA).
Fig. 17. Images of the combustion processes with different injection intervals
(-1.8-1◦ CA).
which resulted in a higher heat release rate. Therefore, as the ammonia
injection advanced, the heat release rate in the early stage was signifi­
cantly higher than in the later stage, resulting in a shorter duration of
CA10-50 compared to CA50-90. However, due to the high evaporation
of ammonia [33], injecting it too early would lead to a relatively lean
mixture in the cylinder. Such a mixture, characterized by a low equiv­
alence ratio, was difficult to ignite, resulting in a significant increase in
the amount of unburned ammonia, which led to a lower heat release and
a lower cylinder pressure.
9
Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857
3.4. Effects of diesel injection pressure
Fig. 20 and Fig. 21 show the combustion processes in HPDF and pure
diesel modes under variable diesel injection pressures. As the injection
pressure increased, the initial ignition position of the diesel became
farther away, and the flame lift-off length increased. At 80 MPa, under
the current injection strategy, the ammonia could still come into contact
with the diesel flame and then burn. Nonetheless, it could be concluded
that if the diesel injection pressure further increased, the diesel flame
lift-off length increased, which might cause ammonia to not come into
contact with the diesel flame. Therefore, in actual engine design, it was
necessary to comprehensively consider the diesel injection pressure and
the arrangement of the two types of fuel injectors, including direction
and distance, to avoid the ignition position of the diesel flame being too
far and the flame lift-off length being too long.
The images of the combustion processes of diesel showed that for
diesel, the flame obtained by the natural luminescence method was
bright and white, which was caused by the soot radiation. It could be
observed that during the later stage of combustion, the area of the bright
flame in HPDF mode was significantly smaller than that in pure diesel
mode with the same diesel injection pressure. Especially at 80 MPa, 3.9
and 4.5 ms ASOI, there was no bright flame distribution in HPDF mode,
but in pure diesel mode, there was still a certain bright flame distribu­
tion. This was because there would inevitably be some unburned
ammonia in the cylinder, and in the later stage of combustion, after
diesel injection, the inhibitory effect of ammonia caused the remaining
diesel to not fully burn.
In addition, by calculating the bright flame area in pure diesel mode,
the amount of soot generated during combustion could be qualitatively
compared. However, for the HPDF mode, it was not feasible to directly
calculate the flame area of the entire image. Therefore, in this paper, in
HPDF mode, only pixels that have reached a certain brightness would be
calculated. Fig. 22 shows the original images at 2.7 ms ASOI and the
binary images containing only pixels within the calculation range.
Fig. 23 shows the bright flame area under different pressures in
HPDF mode. It could be seen that as the diesel injection pressure
increased, the flame area significantly decreased, and the amount of soot
generation decreased. That might be because, at low diesel pressure,
diesel spray would develop in the direction of ammonia spray after
contacting ammonia spray. As a result, similar to the combustion process
of the pure diesel, a large amount of diesel accumulated, and a large
amount of the soot generated. Under high diesel injection pressure, due
to the higher movement rate of the injected diesel, the ignition position
of the diesel was far away, and the diesel was distributed within the
distance from the initial ignition position of the diesel to the nozzle.
J. Tian et al. Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857

Fig. 18. Pressure and heat release rate (a) and combustion phase (b) with different injection intervals (-1.8-1◦ CA).

Fig. 21. Images of the combustion processes of the diesel with different diesel
injection pressures (40–80 MPa).

Fig. 19. Heat release with different injection intervals (-1.8-1◦ CA).

Fig. 22. Images of the natural luminescence and binary at 2.7 ms ASOI with
different diesel pressures (40–80 MPa).

Fig. 20. Images of the combustion processes of the HPDF with different diesel
injection pressures (40–80 MPa). ammonia spray still had a great impact on diesel spray. Furthermore, in
order to reduce soot emissions, it was crucial to minimize the converge
of diesel but that was challenging due to the influence of ammonia
After the diesel was ignited, the subsequent diesel would not be injected
spray. Therefore, a fundamental and effective approach was to minimize
on the front diesel flame due to the influence of ammonia spray, so the
the diesel fuel energy ratio as much as possible.
diesel would not accumulate and form a white and bright flame. But
As shown in the Fig. 24 (a) and (b), when the diesel injection pressure
then, just like the condition of low diesel injection pressure, diesel spray
increased from 40 to 80 MPa, the peak heat release rate in pure diesel
developed completely along the direction of ammonia spray, and diesel
mode increased by 51.14 J/◦ CA. In HPDF mode, the heat release rate
began to accumulate again, and burned with a white and bright flame,
increased by 37.8 J/◦ CA which was lower than the increase in pure
that is, a lot of soot was generated. It could be seen that even though the
diesel mode. Fig. 25 (a) shows the time of the combustion phase. As the
injection pressures of the diesel and ammonia were almost the same,

10
J. Tian et al.
Fig. 23. Areas of the bright flame with different diesel pressures (40–80 MPa).
diesel injection pressure increased, in order to maintain the same total
heat value of the fuel, the injection duration of diesel was shortened. The
increase in the heat release rate of diesel led to the advance of the
combustion phases, and the shortening of diesel injection duration also
Fig. 24. Pressure and heat release rate in HPDF mode (a) and pure diesel mode (b) with different diesel injection pressures (40–80 MPa).
Fig. 25. Combustion phase (a) and heat release (b) in HPDF mode with different diesel injection pressures (40–80 MPa).
11
Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857
led to a shortened combustion duration, which significantly shortened
CA50-90. Fig. 25 (b) shows a comparison of heat release, and it could be
observed that there was little difference in heat release among the three
diesel injection pressures.
Due to the need to ensure that ammonia could be injected on the
flame as much as possible, the injection pulse width of ammonia was
limited, which, together with the high injection rate of diesel at 80 MPa,
resulted in a relatively high diesel energy ratio. However, it could also be
inferred that increasing the diesel injection pressure was not an effective
way to improve ammonia combustion and heat release rate and promote
more complete combustion for the HPDF mode.
3.5. Effects of ammonia nozzle diameter
Fig. 26 shows the combustion processes with different ammonia
nozzle diameters and different ammonia injection pressures when
keeping the amount of the fuel constant. It could be seen that an
ammonia injection pressure of 65 MPa combined with da of 0.32 mm
could obtain a larger flame area, compared to the other two conditions.
Fig. 27 (a) shows the pressure and heat release rate changes. The
peak heat release rate with da of 0.32 mm was much higher than that
with da of 0.21 mm. As shown in Fig. 27 (b), the time of CA10 was
similar under different conditions. However, the times of CA50 and
CA90 with da of 0.32 mm advanced. Fig. 28 indicated that the heat
J. Tian et al.
Fig. 26. Images of the combustion processes of the HPDF under different conditions.
Fig. 27. Pressure and heat release rate (a) and combustion phase (b) under different conditions.
release with da of 0.32 mm was slightly smaller than that with da of 0.21
mm and ammonia injection pressure of 85 MPa.
For the HPDF mode, the heat release rate could be considered as the
sum of the heat release rate of diesel and ammonia. In section 3.4, when
the diesel pressure increased from 40 MPa to 80 MPa, the peak heat
release rate of the pure diesel mode increased by 51.14 J/◦ CA, and that
of the HPDF mode increased by 37.80 J/◦ CA. That also indicated that as
Fig. 28. Heat release under different conditions.
12
Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857
the injection pressure increased, the heat release rate of diesel increased,
but ammonia inhibited the combustion of diesel. Therefore, the peak
heat release rate of the HPDF mode was lower than that of pure diesel
mode, with a ratio of 73.91%. In pure diesel mode, the peak heat release
rate with a diesel injection pressure of 40 MPa was 57 J/◦ CA. Therefore,
it was assumed that in HPDF mode, when the injection pressure of diesel
was 40 MPa, the heat release rate of diesel in the peak heat release rate
was 42.13–57 (57 * 73.91% − 57 * 100%) J/◦ CA. By subtracting the heat
release rate of diesel in the peak heat release rate from the peak heat
release rate, the heat release rate of ammonia in the peak heat release
rate could be obtained in HPDF mode.
Fig. 29 shows the comparison of peak heat release rate and ammonia
injection rate under different conditions. When the injection pressure of
ammonia increased from 65 MPa to 85 MPa, the injection rate only
increased by 8.6% but the peak heat release rate increased by 23.9–28%.
When the diameter of the ammonia nozzle increased from 0.21 mm to
0.32 mm, the injection rate increased by 91.1%, but the peak heat
release rate only increased by 65–76%. That was to say, increasing the
injection pressure led to a more effective increase in the heat release
rate. The reason might be that high injection pressure caused the fuel to
more easily entrain air, and more fully mix with air, resulting in more
fuel that could simultaneously burn and release heat at the same time.
The method of increasing the da did not effectively increase the
ammonia heat release rate. That might be due to the excessive injection
rate of ammonia, which led to insufficient air entrainment, resulting in
some ammonia not being able to burn in a timely manner. Due to the
extremely fast evaporation of ammonia, the ammonia that could not be
J. Tian et al. Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857

mode, the development path of diesel has been changed. Under the in­
fluence of ammonia spray, diesel spray combined with ammonia spray
eventually developed together. A similar phenomenon could also be
observed in RCEM experiments, as described above.
Fig. 31 shows the spray development processes of HPDF under
different diesel and ammonia injection pressures. Here, the development
of ammonia spray was taken as a comparison, so ASOI2 which repre­
sented the time from the start of ammonia injection was used. Fig. 32
shows the outline of the spray under different diesel and ammonia in­
jection pressures. The spray outline of A80 was in red. The spray outline
of D40-A80 was in yellow. And the spray outline of D80-A80 was in blue.
As shown in the purple region, the spray outlines of A80 and D40-A80
were similar within 0.8 ms-1.3 ms, but the spray outline of D40-A80
began to shift to the right after 1.3 ms. The spray outline of D80-A80
shifted to the right significantly all the time and the degree of

Fig. 29. Change of the heat release rate and ammonia injection rate under
different conditions.

burned in a timely manner may form a lean mixture, making it difficult

to burn which led to a decrease in heat release. Regarding this aspect of
research, further experiments were needed to be conducted with larger
ammonia nozzle diameter and higher injection pressure, in order to
investigate a quantitative relationship between these variables and
ammonia combustion rate.

3.6. Spray interaction

As mentioned earlier, the interaction between the sprays has an

important influence on combustion characteristics. In order to explore
the influence of interaction, the development processes of diesel,
ammonia, and diesel-ammonia spray were compared through direct
photography at 300 K, 0.9 MPa. It was worth mentioning that, in this
section, limited by the structure of the CVB, the angle between the in­
jection direction of diesel and ammonia was 30◦ . Although the angle
arrangement was different from the arrangement in RCEM, it could also
Fig. 31. Development processes of the ammonia spray, and diesel-
reflect the interaction between the two sprays. ammonia sprays.
Fig. 30 shows the development of D40-A80, D40, and A80. In HPDF

Fig. 30. Development processes of the diesel-ammonia spray, diesel spray, and ammonia spray.

13
J. Tian et al.
Fig. 32. Outlines of the ammonia spray, and diesel-ammonia sprays.
deviation was significantly greater compared with that of D40-A80.
In summary, the spray distribution in HPDF mode was related to the
injection pressures of the two fuels. Under D40-A80, the diesel injection
pressure was much lower, so its influence on the ammonia spray was
relatively smaller. Therefore, the spray outline in HPDF mode was close
to that of the pure ammonia spray and developed in a similar direction in
the early stage, and a more obvious shift only appeared at the later stage.
However, when the diesel injection pressure increased to 80 MPa, the
influence of diesel spray on the development path of ammonia spray
became larger, so the spray shifted to the right from the very beginning,
and the shifting degree was significantly larger than that of D40-A80. In
addition, although the injection pressures of diesel and ammonia were
the same because the injection rate of ammonia was larger than that of
diesel, the diesel droplets in the unit space could be affected by more
ammonia droplets easily, so the final spray as a whole basically
remained along the path of the development of ammonia spray.
Therefore, when designing the actual engine, the interaction between
diesel spray and ammonia spray should be considered, and many factors
such as appropriate injection pressures and nozzle diameters should be
selected. The distribution, development and shape of spray will inevi­
tably affect the distribution, development and shape of flame, which has
an important impact on the performance of actual engine.
4. Conclusions
This paper studied the combustion characteristics of diesel and
ammonia dual direct injection based on the RCEM by changing the in­
jection pressure of ammonia, the injection interval between ammonia
and diesel, the injection pressure of diesel, the diameter of the ammonia
injector nozzle. The interaction between diesel and ammonia spray was
also studied based on the constant volume bomb. The conclusions were
summarized as follows:
(1) The ammonia needed to be injected as far as possible on the flame
to achieve a relatively complete combustion.
(2) The fuel injection rates determined the heat release rate of the
HPDF mode. Increasing the ammonia nozzle diameter could increase the
ammonia injection rate significantly. A higher ammonia injection
pressure contributed to entraining air, fully combining fuel with air,
which further improved the peak heat release rate effectively.
(3) Injecting ammonia before diesel had both positive and negative
effects. On the one hand, the ammonia injected into the cylinder before
diesel injection combined with air to form a combustible mixture, which
led to an increase in peak heat release rate after ignition. However, the
rapid evaporation of ammonia resulted in a portion of ammonia being
14
Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857
difficult to ignite, exacerbating incomplete combustion.
(4) Increasing the diesel injection pressure had little effect on
ammonia combustion, and ammonia inhibited the diesel combustion.
(5) In HPDF mode, the diesel spray and the ammonia spray would
converge together, and because the amount of ammonia was greater
than that of diesel, the converged spray basically followed the direction
of the development of the original ammonia spray. However, a higher
diesel injection pressure led to an obvious deviation between the
development direction of the converged spray and the original ammonia
spray.
In this paper, the diesel energy ratio is somewhat high due to the
limitation of the nozzle diameter of the ammonia and the spatial
arrangement of the two injectors. In the future, it is essential to explore a
suitable ammonia nozzle diameter because although a larger diameter
may reduce the combustion completeness, it is an effective way to
achieve a higher ammonia energy rate. In addition, the ignition position
will be adjusted to explore the methods for self-maintenance of
ammonia flames, further reducing the diesel energy ratio. Then, based
on the explored laws, the combustion characteristics of HPDF mode will
be studied under the condition that environmental parameters and fuel
injection parameters (including injection pressure, injection direction,
nozzle diameter, nozzle number, injector arrangement, etc.) are closer to
real engines, providing a theoretical basis and guidance for the devel­
opment of actual engines.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Jiangping Tian: Funding acquisition. Xiaolei Zhang: Investigation,
Formal analysis, Writing – original draft. Zechuan Cui: Investigation.
Mingyuan Ye: Investigation. Yang Wang: Formal analysis. Tiancheng
Xu: Investigation, Formal analysis. Pengbo Dong: Conceptualization.
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
No data was used for the research described in the article.
J. Tian et al.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant No.52071064), and State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engi­
neering (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) (Grant No.GKZD010087).
References
[1] Bartolucci L. et al. Natural gas stable combustion under ultra-lean operating
conditions in internal combustion engines. Energy Procedia 101.(2016). doi:
10.1016/j.egypro.2016.11.112.
[2] Zhang Ren, et al. Understanding the difference in combustion and flame
propagation characteristics between ammonia and methane using an optical SI
engine. Fuel 324.PC(2022). doi:10.1016/J.FUEL.2022.124794.
[3] Sebastian Verhelst, et al. Methanol as a fuel for internal combustion engines. Progr
Energy Combust Sci 70.C(2019). doi:10.1016/j.pecs.2018.10.001.
[4] Tian Zhi, et al. The effect of methanol production and application in internal
combustion engines on emissions in the context of carbon neutrality: A review.
Fuel 320.(2022). doi:10.1016/J.FUEL.2022.123902.
[5] Su Han Park, Chang Sik Lee. Applicability of dimethyl ether (DME) in a
compression ignition engine as an alternative fuel. Energy Convers Manage 86.
(2014). doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2014.06.051.
[6] Constantine Arcoumanis, et al. The potential of di-methyl ether (DME) as an
alternative fuel for compression-ignition engines: A review. Fuel 87.7(2007). doi:
10.1016/j.fuel.2007.06.007.
[7] Pavlos Dimitriou, Rahat Javaid. A review of ammonia as a compression ignition
engine fuel. Int J Hydr Energy 45.11(2020). doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.12.209.
[8] Elbaz Ayman M. et al. Review on the Recent Advances on Ammonia Combustion
from the Fundamentals to the Applications. Fuel Commun. Prepublish (2022). doi:
10.1016/J.JFUECO.2022.100053.
[9] Pragya B, Sudarshan Kumar, Bhupendra Khandelwal. A comprehensive review on
synthesis, chemical kinetics, and practical application of ammonia as future fuel for
combustion. J Energy Inst 2021;99. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JOEI.2021.10.001.
[10] Chiong Meng-Choung, et al. Advancements of combustion technologies in the
ammonia-fuelled engines. Energy Convers Manage 244.(2021). doi:10.1016/J.
ENCONMAN.2021.114460.
[11] Chai Wai Siong, et al. A review on ammonia, ammonia-hydrogen and ammonia-
methane fuels. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 147.(2021). doi:10.1016/J.
RSER.2021.111254.
[12] Vries, Niels De. Safe and effective application of ammonia as a marine fuel. 2019
AIChE Annual Meeting AIChE, 2019.
[13] Nadimi Ebrahim, et al. Effects of ammonia on combustion, emissions, and
performance of the ammonia/diesel dual-fuel compression ignition engine. J
Energy Institute 107.(2023). doi:10.1016/J.JOEI.2022.101158.
[14] Gray JT, et al. Ammonia fuel - engine compatibility and combustion. Automotive
Engineering Congress Exposition 1966.
[15] Garabedian, Charles G, Johnson JH. The theory of operation of an ammonia
burning internal combustion engine. U.S.C.F.S.T.I. AD Rep.; (United States) (1966).
[16] Starkman ES, James GE, Newhall HK. Ammonia as a Diesel Engine Fuel: Theory
and Application. Powerplants, Transportation Meetings: National Fuels &
Lubricants; 1967.
[17] Pearsall TJ. Ammonia application to reciprocating engines. I United States 1970;N.
p. Web.
15
Energy Conversion and Management 299 (2024) 117857
[18] Reiter Aaron J, Kong Song-Charng. Demonstration of compression-ignition engine
combustion using ammonia in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Energy Fuels
22.5(2008). doi:10.1021/EF800140F.
[19] Gross Christopher W, Kong Song-Charng. Performance characteristics of a
compression-ignition engine using direct-injection ammonia–DME mixtures. Fuel
103.C(2013). doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2012.08.026.
[20] Reiter Aaron J, Kong Song-Charng. Combustion and emissions characteristics of
compression-ignition engine using dual ammonia-diesel fuel. Fuel 90.1(2010). doi:
10.1016/j.fuel.2010.07.055.
[21] Gross Christopher W, Kong Song-Charng. Performance characteristics of a
compression-ignition engine using direct-injection ammonia–DME mixtures. Fuel
103.C(2013). doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2012.08.026.
[22] Boretti A. Novel dual fuel diesel-ammonia combustion system in advanced TDI
engines. Int J Hyd Energy 42.10(2016). doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.11.208.
[23] Zhu Jizhen, et al. Investigation on the potential of using carbon-free ammonia in
large two-stroke marine engines by dual-fuel combustion strategy. Energy 263.PB
(2023). doi:10.1016/J.ENERGY.2022.125748.
[24] Zhang Hanyuyang et al. Numerical study on combustion and emission
characteristics of a spark-ignition ammonia engine added with hydrogen-rich gas
from exhaust-fuel reforming. Fuel 332.P1(2023). doi:10.1016/J.
FUEL.2022.125939.
[25] Wei Wenwen, et al. Effects of ammonia addition on the performance and emissions
for a spark-ignition marine natural gas engine. Energy 272.(2023). doi:10.1016/J.
ENERGY.2023.127092.
[26] Meng Xiangyu, et al. Study of combustion and NO chemical reaction mechanism in
ammonia blended with DME. Fuel 2022:319. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.
FUEL.2022.123832.
[27] Huang Fujun, et al. Experimental and numerical study on the performances of a
free-piston engine generator using ammonia and methane fuel mixtures. Fuel 341.
(2023). doi:10.1016/J.FUEL.2023.127654.
[28] Scharl Valentin, Sattelmayer Thomas. Ignition and combustion characteristics of
diesel piloted ammonia injections. Fuel Commun 11.(2022). doi:10.1016/J.
JFUECO.2022.100068.
[29] Scharl Valentin, Lackovic Tomislav, Sattelmayer Thomas. Characterization of
ammonia spray combustion and mixture formation under high-pressure, direct
injection conditions. Fuel 333.P2(2023). doi:10.1016/J.FUEL.2022.126454.
[30] Zhou Xinyi, et al. Pilot diesel-ignited ammonia dual fuel low-speed marine engines:
A comparative analysis of ammonia premixed and high-pressure spray combustion
modes with CFD simulation. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 173.(2023). doi:10.1016/
J.RSER.2022.113108.
[31] Liu Long, et al. Exploration of environmentally friendly marine power technology
-ammonia/diesel stratified injection. J Clean Prod 380.P1(2022). doi:10.1016/J.
JCLEPRO.2022.135014.
[32] Liu Long, et al. Study on marine engine combustion and emissions characteristics
under multi-parameter coupling of ammonia-diesel stratified injection mode. Int J
Hydr Energy 48.26(2023). doi:10.1016/J.IJHYDENE.2022.12.065.
[33] Zhang Zhenxian, et al. Performance characteristics of a two-stroke low speed
engine applying ammonia/diesel dual direct injection strategy. Fuel 332.P2(2023).
doi:10.1016/J.FUEL.2022.126086.
[34] Pelé Ronan, et al. First Study on Ammonia Spray Characteristics with a Current GDI
Engine Injector. Fuels 2.3(2021). doi:10.3390/FUELS2030015.
[35] Zhang Zhifei, et al. Injection characteristics and fuel-air mixing process of
ammonia jets in a constant volume vessel. Fuel 304.(2021). doi:10.1016/J.
FUEL.2021.121408.
[36] Cheng Qiang, et al. Dynamics of the ammonia spray using high-speed schlieren
imaging. SAE International Journal of Advances and Current Practices in Mobility
4.4(2022). doi:10.4271/2022-01-0053.