Automobile industry

Contents
Automobile industry ................................................................................................................................................... 1
Trends of Global industry ........................................................................................................................................ 1
Fine particles- significant and urgent issue of today ................................................................................................ 1
Prospect of global car sales ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Electric vehicle sales ............................................................................................................................................ 1
A lot of EV models but few buyers ....................................................................................................................... 2
Internal Combustion engine ........................................................................................................................................ 2
Combustion ............................................................................................................................................................ 2
Why still use petrol? Aren’t there better energy sources? ....................................................................................... 2
How to improve engine efficiency ............................................................................................................................... 2
Increasing the Compression ratio ............................................................................................................................ 2
Why not mix fuel after compression? ...................................................................................................................... 2
How does a petrol engine work? ......................................................................................................................... 2
How does a diesel engine work? (http://www.explainthatstuff.com/diesel-engines.html)................................... 2
Back to the question ............................................................................................................................................... 2
Why not put three-way catalytic converter on diesel engine? ..................................................................................... 3
Pollutant Emission ...................................................................................................................................................... 3
Petrol ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Diesel ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3
New kinds of internal combustion ............................................................................................................................... 3
New VS Miller Cycle TSI ........................................................................................................................................... 3
Hyundai GCI Prototype: Partially premixed charge CI .............................................................................................. 3

Trends of Global industry

- Too many cars on the road, e.g. California traffic jam and G4 Beijing-Hong Kong Macau Expressway

Fine particles- significant and urgent issue of today

- Dealing with smog, pollution

Prospect of global car sales

- The scale of the car industry is immense with 90 million units per year
- Steep increase in sales has continued since Lehman Brother Bankruptcy in 2008
- Vehicle increases from 68 to 85 million driven by economic growth in China and India
- (look at national car data, Macquarie research January 2017)
o Sales in China surpassed USA in 2009 and EU in 2010
o India being the largest market among emerging markets

Electric vehicle sales

- Has a 1% share of the global market in 2017
- 50-60% annual growth
- China (BYD) and US (TESLA) are the leading growth market
 A lot of EV models but few buyers
- 200 plug-in and pure battery EV models will be available
- Buyers willing to consider pure EV’s as next purchase vary from 2-16%

(look at consumer preference for type of next vehicle 2018)

Internal Combustion engine

- Engine: Device that produces mechanical power to move vehicle

Combustion
- Rapid reaction between fuel and oxidants releasing heat energy
Internal
- Working fluid = reactants + products
- The energy conversion occurs directly between these working fluids and mechanical components of the engine

Why still use petrol? Aren’t there better energy sources?

- Since it is mobile, vehicles need to carry source of energy
- Liquid hydrocarbons are the best energy dense form
- There are limitations to using EV and conventional combustion engines in terms of refuelling
- E.g. it takes 2 minutes to refuel as opposed to taking hours to recharge the equivalent energy.
- It’s the only option for heavy-duty truck and aeroplanes requiring high torque

How to improve engine efficiency

- Depends on compression ratio
- Combustion chamber is above piston where fuel burns
- Compression ratio is maximum combustion chamber volume divided by minimum combustion chamber volume
𝑉1
𝑅=
𝑉2

Higher compression ratios = higher efficiency

Increasing the Compression ratio
- Regular petrol engines attain maximum practical compression ratios of 9 or 10 with high octane fuel

Why not mix fuel after compression?

How does a petrol engine work?
o Sucks air with the fuel already mixed with a carburator in atomized form (piston moves down)
o Inlet is closed and piston compresses the air-fuel mixture into confined space (piston moves up)
o Combustion process: spark plugs ignite this compressed mixture known to be the power stroke (piston
moves down)
o Exhaust stroke: exhaust gases are removed through outlet (piston moves up)

How does a diesel engine work? (http://www.explainthatstuff.com/diesel-engines.html)

o Intake – air is drawn into cylinder through air inlet valve (piston moves down)
o Compression: inlet closes and piston moves up which heats up the air that was drawn in and gas is
injected causing ignition (no need for spark plugs)
o Power – air fuel mixture ignites and pushes down piston driving the crankshaft
o Exhaust – piston moves up again to rid of exhaust gases via outlet valve

Back to the question

- Fuel is injected after compression to prevent pre-ignition
- Diesel compression ratio of 16 ~ 22
- Problems (1) high temperatures (2) limited mixing time which produces greater pollutants
- Petrol engines have lower pollutants due to better fuel-air mixing and three way catalytic converter
o Reduction of nitrogen oxides to nitrogen and oxygen
o Oxidation of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide
o Oxidation of unburnt hydrocarbons to carbon dioxide and water

Why not put three-way catalytic converter on diesel engine?

- Only work when fuel and air are balanced with just enough oxygen to burn with fuel
- In diesel, extra air is always left over
- No simple three-way catalytic converter that works efficiently with left-over air (you can research this)
- Current choice is: clean petrol engine but low efficiency or efficient diesel but polluting from poor mixing and no
catalytic converter

Pollutant Emission
Petrol
- Nitrogen oxides (NOx)
- Unburnt hydrocarbons
- Carbon monoxide

Diesel
- Particular matter
- Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)

New kinds of internal combustion

New VS Miller Cycle TSI
- High compression ratio of 12.5:1
- Turbocharger with variable turbine geometry (VTG) – volume produced spark-ignition engine for the first time
- Common rail injection system with 350 bar pressure
- APS coated cylinder walls

Hyundai GCI Prototype: Partially premixed charge CI

- Similar to diesel engine except it runs on gasoline
- Additional early injection is required
- Known as partially mixed combustion as early injection results in premixed charge
- Late injection is still used to initiate ignition