Operating an internal combustion engine system includes advancing a prechamber piston in a fuel delivery igniter to push a main charge of fuel from a prechamber into a cylinder, and advancing the prechamber piston to compression-ignite a pilot charge within the prechamber. Combustion gases of the pilot charge are conveyed into the cylinder to ignite the main charge. Operation of the engine system provides sparkless gaseous fuel ignition.

A system and method for combustion in an engine includes a combustion chamber, a prechamber, and a fluid injector. The prechamber extends from a first end to a second is fluidly connected to the combustion chamber through at least one port positioned at the first end of the prechamber. The fluid injector is configured to introduce a fluid into the prechamber following combustion of an air-fuel mixture within the prechamber and positioned to introduce the fluid into the prechamber at the second end of the prechamber.

Systems and methods for stopping and starting a direct injection engine are described. In one example, the air is injected into one or more pre-chambers of engine cylinders to adjust engine pumping torque during an engine stop so that the engine may stop at a crankshaft position that facilitates direct engine starting.

An engine system employs a pre-assembled and/or removable cartridge. In another aspect, an ignitor, a fuel injector and an air inlet valve are all accessible from a top of a cartridge even after assembly of the cartridge to an engine cylinder head. A further aspect positions centerlines of an ignitor, a fuel injector and an air inlet valve angularly offset from each other and also angularly offset from a vertical centerline of a cartridge to which they are mounted.

The present invention relates to a zero emission propulsion system and generator sets using ammonia (NH.sub.3) as fuel for engines and power plants such as steam boilers (5) for steam turbines (7), piston engines (9), fuel cells (10) or Stirling engines (11). Due to the poor flammability of ammonia (NH.sub.3), a hydrogen reactor (4) can split ammonia (NH.sub.3) into hydrogen (H.sub.2) and nitrogen (N.sub.2). The hydrogen (H.sub.2) can be placed in a hydrogen tank (8) for intermediate storage and the nitrogen can be stored in a nitrogen tank (6). The hydrogen (H.sub.2) could be mixed with ammonia (NH.sub.3) to improve flammability and thus facilitate the ignition of an air/ammonia (NH.sub.3) mixture in engines or power plants (5, 9, 11). Alternatively, hydrogen (¾) may be supplied in a separate fuel system (5-1, 9-5, 11-8) as a pilot fuel for pilot ignition of an air/ammonia (NH3) mixture. The hydrogen (H.sub.2) can also be used in AIP systems along with oxygen (O2) from an oxygen tank (22). The hydrogen (H.sub.2) will then be used for fuel cells (10), for combustion in a steam turbine inlet/high pressure side (7-1), or in a Stirling engine (11). In addition to hydrogen (H.sub.2), other bio and fossil fuels from the fuel tank (12) can be used as pilot fuel for pilot ignition of an air/ammonia (NH.sub.3) mixture. The advantage of using existing bio or fossil fuels for pilot ignition is that engines or power plants (5, 9, 11) will have a pilot fuel system with sufficient capacity to maintain normal operations if ammonia (NH.sub.3) is not available. Alternatively, that engines or power plants (5, 9, 11) have an additional fuel system for existing bio or fossil fuels in order to maintain normal operations if ammonia (NH.sub.3) is not available. The nitrogen (N.sub.2) in the nitrogen tank (6) can be used as a gas in fire extinguishing systems or for submarine ballast tank blows.

A rotary engine includes an insert having a pilot subchamber defined therein and communicating with the internal cavity of the engine. A pilot fuel injector has a tip in communication with the pilot subchamber. An ignition element extends into an element cavity defined through the insert adjacent the pilot subchamber. The element cavity is in communication with the pilot subchamber through a communication opening defined in the insert between the element cavity and the pilot subchamber. The communication opening is smaller than a portion of the ignition element adjacent the communication opening such as to prevent the portion of the ignition element from completely passing through the communication opening upon breaking off of the portion of the ignition element from a remainder of the ignition element. An outer body for a rotary engine and a method of combusting fuel in a rotary engine are also provided.

Optimized alcohol and plasma enhanced prechambers for engines powered by gasoline and other fuels are used to increase the range of prechamber operation and to reduce soot. The increased prechamber capability is employed to extend the limit of lean operation of the engines. It can also be used to extend the limit of heavy EGR operation and to enable higher RPM operation. The amount of alcohol used in the prechamber is preferably less than 2% of the fuel that is used in the engine cylinder. The alcohol for the prechamber can be entirely provided by onboard separation from a gasoline-alcohol fuel mixture.

A combustion engine having at least one cylinder, wherein the at least one cylinder has a main combustion chamber for burning a fuel/air mixture or a fuel/air/exhaust gas mixture and has a flushed prechamber connected to the main combustion chamber via at least one overflow duct on the fluid side, and comprises at least one exhaust gas turbocharger which has a turbine for the expansion of the at exhaust gas leaving the at least one cylinder and a compressor for compressing fresh air or a fresh air/exhaust gas mixture to be supplied to the at least one cylinder as compressed charge-air. For the supply of the combustion chamber, a combustion chamber charge-air line is disposed in a charge-air line downstream of the compressor and for the supply of the prechamber, a prechamber flushing line branching off at an extraction point is formed.

Methods and systems are provided for operating a cylinder of an engine including a pre-chamber ignition system. In one example, a method may include determining amounts of pre-chamber gases in the cylinder prior to combustion, and adjusting an amount of fuel injected into the cylinder based on the amounts of pre-chamber gases in the cylinder. In this way, cylinder fueling may be compensated for additional air and/or fuel from the pre-chamber gases, which may increase an accuracy of the cylinder fueling and increase cylinder efficiency.

An engine system comprising an internal combustion engine and a turbocharger, where a diameter of the at least one intake valve is greater than a diameter of the at least one exhaust valve, the salient angle of the piston bowl is at least 10 degrees, the ratio between the piston bowl opening diameter and the piston bowl depth is approximately 0.5 to 2.0, the intake valve opens before top dead center on an exhaust stroke of the internal combustion engine and closes before bottom dead center of an intake stroke of the internal combustion engine, and the turbocharger has a combined efficiency of more than 50%.