Patent ID: 11959434
Assignee: CLEARFLAME ENGINES, INC.
Field: Engines, pumps, turbines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC F  Y | IPC F

Claim 28:
29. A method of operating a compression ignition engine, the compression ignition engine including an engine cylinder having an inner surface, a head surface, a piston disposed and configured to move in the engine cylinder, an intake valve, and an exhaust valve, the inner surface of the engine cylinder, the piston, the head surface, the intake valve, and the exhaust valve defining a combustion chamber, the method comprising the steps of:
opening the intake valve to draw a volume of air into the combustion chamber;
closing the intake valve; and
moving the piston from a bottom-dead-center (BDC) position to a top-dead-center (TDC) position in the combustion chamber at a compression ratio of at least about 15:1;
injecting a volume of fuel into the combustion chamber at an engine crank angle between about 330 degrees and about 365 degrees, the fuel having a cetane number less than about 40; and
igniting the volume of fuel,
wherein the engine crank angle is greater than about 330 degrees by a sufficient margin such that at least 30% of the energy generated from combusting the volume of fuel is generated while the volume of fuel is being injected into the combustion chamber, and
wherein the volume of air has a temperature sufficiently high while being drawn into the combustion chamber, such that a delay between initiation of injection of the volume of the fuel into the combustion chamber and ignition is less than about 1 ms.