Assessment of combustion development and pollutant emissions of a spark ignition engine fueled by ammonia and ammonia-hydrogen blends

Ammonia is a promising carbon-free fuel for internal combustion engines, but its combustion properties are very poor if compared with conventional fuels. Thus, hydrogen enrichment can be the proper solution in order to overtake the issues related to neat ammonia fueling. In this paper, the authors use a 3D numerical model coupled with a chemical kinetic approach to assess the operation of a light-duty spark-ignition engine fueled by neat ammonia and ammonia-hydrogen blends (up to 15% of hydrogen by volume). The proposed model reproduces the analyzed experimental operating points with a good accuracy. As example, considering the in-cylinder pressure peak, the difference between the calculated maximum pressure and the mean measured one ranges between 1.6% to 6.8% for the examined cases. The 3D approach enables an in-depth analysis of flame development that also allows to detect the effect of hydrogen enrichment on both combustion development and emissions. Unburned ammonia trends are captured, reproducing the measured decrease of ammonia emissions for increasing hydrogen enrichment. The emissions of NOx are also well reproduced. Simulations also highlighted that dissociation of ammonia produces H2, which is detected in the combustion chamber also if neat ammonia is burned and, at least according to the chemical mechanism used, not all the produced hydrogen oxidizes. Only very small quantities of intermediates related to ammonia combustion are calculated at exhaust valve opening, decreasing for an increasing hydrogen content in the fuel mixture.