Disclosed is a valve needle for a needle valve of a slurry fuel injector valve, the valve needle comprising: a tip for abutting a needle valve seat of the needle valve; a sealing portion for location in a bore of the needle valve; and a fuel chamber portion between the tip and the sealing portion, wherein the fuel chamber portion is for location in a needle fuel chamber of the needle valve; wherein a surface of the sealing portion of the valve needle comprises at least one groove and wherein at least part of the or each groove extends in a direction that is non-perpendicular to an axial direction of the valve needle.

An apparatus and process for preparing a water/diesel oil micro-emulsion including a diesel oil feeding unit, an emulsifying composition feeding unit, a water feeding unit, and a mixing tank in fluid communication therewith. A duct extends along main direction (X-X) and presents an inlet opening, outlet nozzle, and a cone shaped septum coaxial with respect to the main direction (X-X) and tapers towards the outlet nozzle. A plurality of holes is in the conical wall of the septum and a plurality of lamellae is arranged in the duct downstream of the septum. The plurality of lamellae creates a plurality of small chambers. Holes and the small chambers delimit a labyrinth passageway for liquid flowing through the duct towards the outlet nozzle. A batch is recirculated through the mixing tank and a conduit including a mixing device and then the fuel micro-emulsion batch is discharged.

An internal combustion engine has a combustion chamber, an intake tract through which air can flow, a first tank for a liquid spark-ignition fuel, a second tank for water, a mixing region, in which the spark-ignition fuel from the first tank is to be mixed with the water from the second tank thereby creating a mixture having the spark-ignition fuel and the water, an injection valve which is allocated to the combustion chamber and by which the mixture can be injected directly into the combustion chamber, and a second injection valve which is allocated to the combustion chamber and provided in addition to the injection valve and by which in relation to the water and the spark-injection fuel, only the spark-injection fuel from the first tank can be injected at a location upstream of the combustion chamber into the intake tract and thus into the air flowing through the intake tract.

An engine/reformer system accepts a first fuel and reforms it into syngas for use as a fuel in an accompanying internal combustion engine. Prior to reforming, the first fuel is pressurized and/or heated to at or near supercritical fluid conditions, such that the resulting syngas leaves the reformer in a supercritical fluid state. Injection of the supercritical syngas into an engine cylinder avoids the autoignition problems that occur when gaseous syngas is used. The first fuel is a fully self-reforming fuel (one that needs no separate water supply for complete conversion to syngas), and can beneficially be a “wet” fuel, such as ethanol containing water, allowing the system to use intermediate products of an ethanol production process (such as hydrous ethanol and stillage wastewater) as fuel, and reducing the overall cost of fuel production and engine operation.

An internal combustion-type engine or powertrain that is capable of burning wet-alcohol fuel mixture and including a piston reciprocating within a cylinder attached to a cylinder head and connecting to a crank shaft via a connecting rod. An intake cam and valve is mounted within an intake port formed in the cylinder head and an exhaust cam and valve is mounted within an exhaust port also formed in the cylinder head. A pressurized fuel source is introduced into the cylinder by a fuel injector and the percentage of water in the alcohol/water mix operates to prolong the cylinder pressure in order to increase a mean effective pressure (IMEP), leading to a higher torque (improved Brake Mean Effective Pressure—BMEP) of the engine via a longer pressure pulse attained during the period of preferred mechanical advantage of the crank-arm of the engine.

An internal combustion engine has a combustion chamber, an intake tract through which air can flow, a first tank for a liquid spark-ignition fuel, a second tank for water, a mixing region, in which the spark-ignition fuel from the first tank is to be mixed with the water from the second tank thereby creating a mixture having the spark-ignition fuel and the water, an injection valve which is allocated to the combustion chamber and by which the mixture can be injected directly into the combustion chamber, and a second injection valve which is allocated to the combustion chamber and provided in addition to the injection valve and by which in relation to the water and the spark-injection fuel, only the spark-injection fuel from the first tank can be injected at a location upstream of the combustion chamber into the intake tract and thus into the air flowing through the intake tract.

A fuel distributor, for example that is usable as a fuel rail for mixture-compressing spark-ignition internal combustion engines, includes a main body, on which a plurality of high-pressure outlets are provided. The main body includes at least one dividing wall that at least largely separates an inflow region from a damping region within the main body. The main body is made up of at least two profiles that are joined to each other.

A mixing apparatus for producing a fuel/water mixture for an internal combustion engine includes a fuel line, where via the fuel line a combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine is supplyable with fuel, a connecting region, a water line which opens into the fuel line in the connecting region where via the water line water is introducible via the connecting region into the fuel line and is mixable with the fuel, and a valve arrangement which is disposed on the water line. The valve arrangement prevents an entry of the fuel from the fuel line into the water line when a pressure of the fuel in fuel line is higher than a pressure of the water in the water line.

What is proposed is an emulsifying system for an internal combustion engine, wherein the emulsifying system comprises an emulsifying device for producing a water-fuel emulsion and an injector for injecting the water-fuel emulsion in a combustion chamber, the emulsifying device being arranged within the injector. Also proposed is an emulsifying method for preparing a water-fuel emulsion for an internal combustion engine, wherein fuel is pressurized in a fuel pressure accumulator and water is pressurized in a water pressure accumulator and fed separately to an injector for injecting the fuel and water into an associated combustion chamber, and/or fuel and water are emulsified by means of an emulsifying device that is integrated into an injector.

A fuel injection system (4) for an internal combustion engine has a low-pressure pump for delivering fuel from a fuel tank. The fuel is fed upstream of an injector (11) of the fuel injection system (4) to a mixing device (14). The mixing device (14) has a mixer housing (18) with a fuel connection (15) for receiving fuel and with at least one coolant connection (17; 28; 33) for receiving a coolant. For the purpose of bringing about efficient mixing of the fuel and the coolant, before a collision of a fuel jet (40) of the fuel and a coolant jet (41) of the coolant, the two fluid jets (40, 41) are formed to be at least partially aligned in the same direction.