Internal combustion engine system and an exhaust treatment unit for such a system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10774712-B2
Application number	US-201516060968-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2015
Priority date	Dec 14, 2015
Publication date	Sep 15, 2020
Grant date	Sep 15, 2020

Abstract

An internal combustion engine system includes a compressor arranged to compress air, at least one combustor, at least one of the at least one combustor being arranged to receive the compressed air, and an exhaust treatment device arranged to process exhaust gases produced by at least one of the at least one combustor, a heat exchanger arranged to receive the compressed air from the compressor before it reaches the at least one of the at least one combustor, and wherein the heat exchanger is arranged to transfer heat from the compressed air to the exhaust treatment device.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An internal combustion engine system comprising
a compressor arranged to compress air, and
at least one combustor, at least one of the at least one combustor being arranged to receive the compressed air,
a heat exchanger arranged to receive the compressed air from the compressor before the compressed air reaches the at least one of the at least one combustor,
an exhaust treatment device arranged to process exhaust gases produced by at least one of the at least one combustor, and
wherein the system comprises an expander arranged to receive the exhaust gases from the at least one of the at least one combustor, and to expand and extract energy from the exhaust gases, the exhaust treatment device being arranged to receive the exhaust gases from the expander, the heat exchanger is arranged to receive the exhaust gases from the expander, the heat exchanger is arranged to transfer heat from the compressed air to the exhaust treatment device, whereby the temperature of the exhaust treatment device is increased to improve the process therein.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the expander comprises a piston.

3. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the system comprises a crankshaft, and that the expander is arranged to drive the crankshaft.

4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the system comprises an oil separator arranged to receive exhaust gases from the expander, and to separate oil from the exhaust gases before the exhaust gases reach the exhaust treatment device.

5. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger is arranged to transfer the heat to the exhaust treatment device via the exhaust gases.

6. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger and the exhaust treatment device are integrated.

7. The system according to claim 6 , wherein the heat exchanger comprises a wall separating the air and the exhaust gases, and that the exhaust treatment device comprises an exhaust treatment layer on an exhaust gas side of the wall.

8. The system according to claim 7 , wherein the wall of the heat exchanger presents a plurality of protruding flanges on an air side of the wall.

9. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the exhaust treatment device comprises a first portion which is integrated with the heat exchanger and a second portion which is arranged to receive heat from the compressed air via exhaust gases received from the heat exchanger.

10. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the exhaust treatment device comprises an oxidation catalyst.

11. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the exhaust treatment device comprises a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst.

12. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the system comprises an injector arranged to inject reductant for the SCR catalyst, upstream of the heat exchanger.

13. The system according to claim 11 , wherein the system comprises the expander arranged to receive the exhaust gases from the at least one of the at least one combustor, and to expand and extract energy from the exhaust gases, the exhaust treatment device being arranged to receive the exhaust gases from the expander, and that the system comprises an injector arranged to inject the reductant for the SCR catalyst, upstream of the expander or into the expander.

14. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger is a first heat exchanger, the system further comprising a second heat exchanger arranged to receive the air from the first heat exchanger before the air reaches the at least one of the at least one combustor, and to receive the processed exhaust gases from the exhaust treatment device, the second heat exchanger being arranged to allow heat to be exchanged between the air and the exhaust gases.

15. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger forms a buffer volume for the air.

16. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the system comprises the expander arranged to receive the exhaust gases from the at least one of the at least one combustor, and to expand and extract energy from the exhaust gases, and that the system comprises in addition to the exhaust treatment device a pre-expander exhaust treatment device arranged to receive exhaust gases from the at least one of the at least one combustor, to provide an exhaust treatment process to the exhaust gases, and to deliver processed exhaust gases to the expander.

17. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the pre-expander exhaust treatment device comprises an oxidation catalyst.

18. The system according to claim 16 , wherein the pre-expander exhaust treatment device comprises a particulate filter.

19. The system according to claims 17 , wherein the pre-expander exhaust treatment device comprises a particulate filter and the particulate filter is located downstream of the oxidation catalyst.

20. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the system comprises a crankshaft, and that the combustor comprises a piston arranged to reciprocate in a cylinder, and to drive the crankshaft.

21. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the compressor comprises a piston.

22. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the system comprises a crankshaft, and that the compressor is arranged to be driven by the crankshaft.

23. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the combustor comprises a fuel injector and is arranged to combust fuel and at least a portion of the compressed air in a Diesel cycle.

24. The vehicle provided with an internal combustion engine system according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Volvo Truck Corp

Inventors

• Andersson Lennart
• Andersson Arne
• Johansson Bengt
• Lam Nhut
• Lundgren Staffan

Classifications

• F01N2240/02

  a heat exchanger · CPC title

• F02B33/20

  with pumping-cylinder axis arranged at an angle to working-cylinder axis, e.g. at an angle of 90 degrees · CPC title

• F02G3/02

  with reciprocating-piston engines · CPC title

• F01N3/2006 Primary

  Periodically heating or cooling catalytic reactors, e.g. at cold starting or overheating (by electrically controlling the supply of combustible mixture or its constituents only F02D41/0235) · CPC title

• F02B33/443

  Heating of charging air, e.g. for facilitating the starting · CPC title