Combustion concept for ammonia-fuelled crackerengine- unit as propulsion system for inland waterway vessels

The CAMPFIRE partner alliance is working intensively on the use of regeneratively produced ammonia
as a maritime fuel and energy storage. In addition to topics relating to ammonia bunkering, refueling
and storage for marine applications, one project proposal is the development of a pilot propulsion
system for inland waterway vessels that operates exclusively on ammonia. The project consortium
would like to present the potential but also the challenges of using ammonia in shipping based on the
development of an innovative cracker-engine-unit with focus on the energy conversion of the internal
combustion engine (ICE).
The paper and presentation will give an overview of the systematic combustion analysis on a SCE. The
basis is a combustion concept with ammonia as the main fuel and hydrogen, cracked from Ammonia,
as a pilot fuel. As a part of the experimental tests various fuel injection concepts (DI and PFI) for both
fuels were investigated. For carrying out the tests the development of a new fuel injector concept was
driven ahead. The experimental tests on the engines were supported by optical investigation on
mixture formation with liquid ammonia as well 0D/1D and 3D simulation of the combustion chamber
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and SCE.
The various fuel injection configurations are evaluated for performance and emissions with the focus
on maritime application. Resulting from the evaluation of the experimental data a preferred combustion
concept was deduced for the planed multi-cylinder engine test at the Campfire Open Innovation Lab
(COIL) near to Rostock.