Bi-fuel vehicles are vehicles with multifuel engines capable of running on two fuels. On internal combustion engines one fuel is gasoline or diesel, and the other is an alternate fuel such as natural gas, LPG, or hydrogen. The two fuels are stored in separate tanks and the engine runs on one fuel at a time in some cases, in others both fuels are used in unison. Bi-fuel vehicles have the capability to switch back and forth from gasoline or diesel to the other fuel, manually or automatically. The most common technology and alternate fuel available in the market for bi-fuel gasoline cars is Autogas, followed by natural gas, and it is used mainly in Europe. Poland, the Netherlands and the Baltic states have many cars running with LPG. Italy currently has the largest number of CNG vehicles, followed by Sweden. They are also used in South America, where these vehicles are mainly used as taxicabs in main cities of Brazil and Argentina. Normally, standard gasoline vehicles are retrofitted in specialized shops, which involve installing the gas cylinder in the trunk and the LPG or CNG injection system and electronics.
Diesel conversions
A Diesel engine is a compression ignition engine and does not have a spark plug. To operate a diesel engine with an alternate combustible fuel source such as Natural gas, a Dual-Fuel system used with Natural gas as the main fuel while diesel fuel is used for the ignition of the gas/air mixture inside the cylinder Dual fuel operation in this case means the engine uses two fuels at the same time, as opposed to Bi Fuel which would mean the engine could have the option of using either fuel separately. There usually two type of conversions - low speed and high speed.
Low and middle speed conversion
Gas is injected into the cylinder inlet manifold by individual gas electromagnetic valves installed as close to the intake valves as possible. The valves are separately timed and controlled by injection control unit. This system interrupts the gas supply to the cylinder during the long overlap of the intake and exhaust valves. This avoids substantial gas losses and prevents dangerous gas flow to the exhaust manifold.
This conversion is adjusted for low speed engines up to 1000 RPM.
System for conversion of industrial diesel engine to Bi-fuel operation by substitution of 70-90% natural gas for diesel or HFO.
Gas is injected directly before intake valve by high speed electromagnetic injector, one or two injector per each cylinder.
Gas is mixed with air by a common mixer installed before turbocharger. Gas flow is controlled by a throttle valve, which is electronically operated by the special control system according to the required engine output and speed. In order to avoid knocking of the engine, knocking detector/controller is installed, thus enabling engine operation at the most efficient gas/diesel ratio.
Suitable for all High Speed engines, 1200-1800 RPM.
System for conversion of industrial diesel engine to Bi-fuel operation by substitution of 50-80% natural gas for diesel.
Fuel flexibility: Possibility of bi-fuel or original pure diesel operations
Safe operations.
Lower emissions
Longer engine life span, longer service and maintenance intervals
Gas types used
It is common to use CNG or LNG for bi-fuel operations. Both are also mostly used for Generator sets conversions, because the engine does not lose the output power. In recent years biogas is being used. The biogas composition and calorific value must be known in order to evaluate if the particular biogas type is suitable. Calorific value may be an issue as biogas is derived from different sources and there is low calorific value in many cases. You can imagine you have to inject sufficient volume of gas into the cylinder to substitute diesel oil. If the calorific value of the biogas was very low, there is a need to inject really big volume of biogas into the cylinder, which might be technically impossible. Additionally, the composition of the biogas has to lean towards ignitable gases and be filtered as much as possible of non-combustible compounds such as carbon dioxide. Associated gas is the last type of gas which is commonly used for bi-fuel conversions of generator sets. Associated gas is a natural gas found in association with oil, either dissolved in the oil or as a cap of free gas above the oil. It means it has almost the same quality as CNG or LNG.
Diesel/gas ratio
It depends on the technical state of the engine, especially of the injection system. The typical Diesel / Gas ratio is 40/60% for the high-speed engines. If the operating output of the engine is constant and between 70-80% of nominal output, than it is possible to reach up to 30/70% ratio. If the operating output is lower or if there are variations, the rate is about 45/55%. For Low Speed conversions it is possible to reach the Diesel/gas ratio up to 10/90%. Generally, it is not possible to guarantee an exact diesel/gas ratio without a test being done after the conversion.
Vehicles
'bi-fuel' and even 'tri-fuel' conversions are also available.
