MULTI-FUEL INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, FUEL SYSTEMS AND RELATED METHODS

摘要

An internal combustion engine has fuel injectors for a first fuel and separate fuel injector- igniters for a second fuel. The first fuel may be a compression-ignition fuel such as diesel fuel while the second fuel is a lower cetane fuel that requires external energy for controlled ignition. For example, the second fuel may be natural gas. Such engines have applications in a wide range of fields, particularly those fields requiring large- displacement slow- and medium-speed engines. Such engines are particularly well adapted for use in railway locomotives. A locomotive equipped with such an engine may operate primarily on natural gas, and thereby take advantage of the significant price difference between natural gas and diesel fuel, while permitting switch over to operation on 100% diesel fuel.