Open Access

ARTICLE

Optimization of the Working Cycle Parameters of a Syngas Piston Engine Based on Mathematical Modeling

Leonid Plotnikov^1,*, Danil Davydov^1,2, Dmitry Krasilnikov^1,2, Alexander Ryzhkov²

1 Turbines and Engines Department, Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg, 620062, Russia
2 New Energy Technologies Laboratory, Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg, 620062, Russia

* Corresponding Author: Leonid Plotnikov. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Thermal Engineering Technology Innovation and Sustainable Development)

Energy Engineering 2025, 122(11), 4621-4633. https://doi.org/10.32604/ee.2025.070713

Received 22 July 2025; Accepted 18 September 2025; Issue published 27 October 2025

Abstract

Improving the specific, technical, economic, and environmental characteristics of piston engines (ICE) operating on alternative gaseous fuels is a pressing task for the energy and mechanical engineering industries. The aim of the study was to optimize the parameters of the ICE working cycle after replacing the base fuel (propane-butane blend) with syngas from wood sawdust to improve its technical and economic performance based on mathematical modeling. The modeling results were verified through experimental studies (differences for key parameters did not exceed 4.0%). The object of the study was an electric generator based on a single-cylinder spark ignition engine with a power of 1 kW. The article describes the main approaches to creating a mathematical model of the engine working cycle, a test bench for modeling verification, physicochemical properties of the base fuel (propane-butane blend), and laboratory syngas. It was shown that replacing the fuel from a propane-butane blend to laboratory syngas caused a decrease in engine efficiency to 33% (the efficiency of the base ICE was 0.179 vs. the efficiency of 0.119 for the converted ICE for the 0.59 kW power mode). Engine efficiency was chosen as the key criterion for optimizing the working cycle. As a result of optimization, the efficiency of the converted syngas engine was 6.1% higher than that of the base engine running on the propane-butane blend, and the power drop did not exceed 8.0%. Thus, careful fine-tuning of the working cycle parameters allows increasing the technical and economic characteristics of the syngas engine to the level of ICEs running on traditional types of fuel.

---

Keywords

---