Exhaust Gas Condensate as an Enabler for Self-Contained Water Injection Systems

Autoren

Ing. Guillaume Hébert, Ing. Jiří Bazala, Hanon Systems Autopal Services s.r.o., Hluk
Dipl.-Ing. Oliver Fischer, Dipl.-Ing. Jürgen Nothbaum, Hanon Systems Deutschland GmbH, Kerpen
Dr.-Ing. Matthias Thewes, FEV Europe GmbH, Aachen
Tobias Voßhall, MSc, Lehrstuhl für Verbrennungskraftmaschinen (VKA), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen
Dr.-Ing. Peter Diehl, Consultant, Köln

Zusammenfassung

Water Injection has proven its benefits to increase power or optimize fuel consumption of a passenger car. This technology enables knock mitigation to either increase the engine power output or raise the compression ratio and efficiency while enabling λ=1 operation in the complete engine map to meet future emission targets. Therefore, with stricter regulations on CO₂ emissions, this technology could be one of the key technologies towards an increased efficiency of gasoline engines. However, consumer acceptance of water injection may be unlikely if there is a need of refilling a water tank frequently especially if high amounts of water are necessary. There are different solutions to refill the tank automatically like collecting A/C condensate or surface water.
The most promising solution is using exhaust gas which contains water vapor and is independent from ambient conditions. A technology to condensate vapor from exhaust gas has been developed. This paper describes how Hanon Systems and FEV Europe
GmbH demonstrated that a sufficient amount of water can be condensed and harvested to supply the water injection system with water completely self-contained under various driving cycles. For this purpose analytical methods, development of simulation models and vehicle testing have been used. Exhaust gas condensate quality was investigated. Especially purity and chemical composition has been analyzed. Finally, a vehicle demonstrator is presented which includes all necessary components to enable a “closed loop” water condensation and injection system.

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