Corona ignition for natural gas engines with charge dilution

Triggered by upcoming legislation enforcing lower CO2 emissions, CNG as an alternative fuel for passenger car engines has recently gained more importance. As the CO2 emission of a natural gas engine is on average 20 % lower as compared to its gasoline counterpart, CNG engines play an important role in reaching the prescribed fleet average CO2 emission limits. Consequently the last few years saw the introduction of CNG applications in different vehicle classes from almost every larger OEM, especially in Europe. In addition, particle emissions are close to zero which is an important advantage over Diesel engines. Per today’s legislation CNG as a fuel benefits from lower taxation resulting in substantial cost savings for the customer, which at least partially compensates for the additional cost of the CNG system.